Parker, Wiggins entertain Cedar Rapids crowd

CEDAR RAPIDS - The top two picks in June's NBA draft were on hand last night when the Milwaukee Bucks met the Minnesota Timberwolves in an exhibition game at the U.S. Cellular Center.

According to one of them, it won't be long before Cedar Rapids has one of its own heading to the big-time.

Jabari Parker is a 19-year-old phenom from Chicago who spent one year at Duke before declaring himself eligible for the NBA draft. He was taken by Milwaukee with the second pick, one spot behind another 19-year-old, Andrew Wiggins from Kansas. Wiggins was selected by Cleveland, but traded to Minnesota in an August deal that sent Kevin Love to the Cavaliers.

The focus for most of the 6,801 in attendance was the matchup between Parker and Wiggins. Although they rarely matched up against each other, they did not disappoint.

Parker scored 21 points, including a sensational drive and pivot move for a dunk in the closing seconds that lifted the Bucks past the Timberwolves, 105-98.

O.J. Mayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo added 19 points apiece for the Bucks (2-3).

Wiggins scored 10 points for the Timberwolves (1-2). Gorgui Dieng led Minnesota with 16 points.

It was the first basketball game at the U.S. Cellular Center since it reopened in June 2013 after flooding in June 2008. It was the first NBA exhibition game at the arena since 2002.

Parker said following Friday morning's shootaround at the arena that he believed North Carolina rival Marcus Paige will be one of the top picks in the NBA draft, whether it is next June or the following year. Paige, a former Linn-Mar all-stater, is a consensus All-American and Naismith Player of the Year candidate heading into his junior year at North Carolina.

'(Paige) was the best point guard in our conference last year,” said Parker, whose Blue Devils split a pair of games against Paige's Carolina club last season. 'So, yeah, most definitely (he can play in the NBA).

'He just wanted to go back to school. But he's going to be a lottery pick.”

Parker was no stranger to Paige's game. The two played against each other as youths in AAU ball.

'I was in seventh grade when I played him for the first time. He was in eighth,” Parker said. 'He played with the Iowa AAU team, the Barnstormers.”

Parker said he and Paige also got to know each other as youngsters through family connections.

Parker's uncle, Michael Parker, played college basketball in Cedar Rapids at Mount Mercy and graduated in 1987. One of Michael Parker's best friends was another Mount Mercy product, Ellis Paige.

Michael Parker was the best man when Paige married yet another Mustang, Sherryl Gaffney. They are Marcus Paige's parents.

'It brings ties to our relationship, since it was that something from way before we were born,” Jabari Parker said. 'It was something we appreciated, especially me knowing him. I respected him and it's nice just to have that connection with somebody.”

Parker also counts Tony Moeaki among his relatives. Moeaki, a standout tight end at Iowa in the mid-2000s, is a second cousin whom Parker refers to as his uncle because of their eight years age difference. Moeaki, on injured reserve with the NFL's Buffalo Bills, is a nephew of Parker's mother.

Parker also played for Iowa City High boys basketball coach Don Showalter on a USA youth national team.

Parker was not the only NBA representative present with a connection to Cedar Rapids. Timberwolves Coach Flip Saunders guided Rapid City and La Crosse teams that visited the arena when Cedar Rapids had a CBA entry from 1988-91.

'This was always a great basketball city and they followed -- at that time -- the CBA and the Silver Bullets very well,” said Saunders, who has a 411-326 coaching record in 16 NBA seasons. He coached seven seasons in the CBA. 'It's good memories. It's always fun to come back to these areas now that you're in the NBA.”

Timberwolves assistant coach Sidney Lowe was on Saunders' Rapid City team that knocked the Silver Bullets out of the playoffs in March of 1989. He played his final game in the CBA at the then-Five Seasons Center before receiving a recall to the NBA's Charlotte Hornets.

'We all went out to get a bite to eat (after the game),” Lowe said. 'I got back to my room and my light was blinking and it was the Charlotte Hornets. This is where it happened.

'This was a very good place to come to play. The CBA back then was very competitive. We had players back then who weren't necessarily playing to move up. We were playing to win. That's what made it so great.”

The CBA has been replaced by the NBA Developmental League (NBDL), which numbers 18 teams. Seventeen have single affiliates. The Iowa Energy in Des Moines are aligned with the Memphis Grizzlies.

The 18th NBDL team -- Fort Wayne -- has 13 affiliates, including both Minnesota and Milwaukee.

Saunders, who also is Minnesota's President of Basketball Operations, said the Timberwolves are 'exploring” the possibility of establishing their own D-League affiliate.

'If we did something, we'd want to do it in the Midwest, where it would be advantageous for us to be able to get somewhere,” he said.

Saunders also said the relationship between the NBA and its minor league partners have changed with the advent of the NBDL.

'We didn't have a lot of support from the NBA,” he said of his time in the CBA.

Besides coaching, Saunders also served as president with the La Crosse team, which left him with an appreciation for the business side of the operation.

'Everything we did was basically by ourselves,” he said. 'Now you have some hybrid situations where the staff and the coaches are being paid by the NBA and subsidized.

'It gives (the NBDL team) a better opportunity to make money and be able to survive. And the more money they have the more they can spend to try to draw people into the arena.

'I believe now it's a much more advantageous situation for markets like Cedar Rapids and these smaller markets. A team doesn't end up leaving or folding because they can't make it financially.”

The U.S. Cellular Center has one main tenant -- the Cedar Rapids Titans Indoor Football League team. The Titans' season runs from mid-February to mid-June.