Ramon Sessions has been one of the D-League's hottest players this season since being sent down to the 66ers in early November. (Getty)

Print RSS Feeds FastBreak Tix

January 22, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee Bucks fans can no longer cast online votes for 2008 NBA All-Star Game nominees Michael Redd, Mo Williams, Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva nor popular write-in candidate Yi Jianlian.

But they can still log onto their computers and stuff the ballot box for Ramon Sessions.

The Bucks’ 2008 second-round draft pick out of the University of Nevada, who was assigned to the Tulsa 66ers of the National Basketball Development League last Nov. 8, is in contention to compete in the second D-League All-Star Game.

Online fan voting will run through Friday, Feb. 1 at this site right here. Sessions should be among the leading contenders to participate in the game, which will be played Saturday, Feb. 16, during NBA All-Star Weekend in New Orleans. The game will be broadcast live on NBA TV following NBA All-Star practices as part of NBA Jam Session presented by adidas.

Sessions, 21, emerged as an overnight sensation in the NBDL. The first NBA player to be assigned to the league in 2007-08, he led the 66ers to a 2-0 start over the opening weekend of the season.

The 6-foot-3-inch, 190-pound point guard collected team highs of 27 points, nine rebounds and four assists in Tulsa's 94-86 victory over the Fort Wayne Mad Ants on Nov. 23. The following night, he rang up 34 points, six rebounds and six assists in a 117-109 win over the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He was honored the following Monday as the NBDL's first Performer of the Week for the 2007-08 season.

Through 19 games, Sessions was averaging 19.8 points, 6.9 assists and 6.7 rebounds and leading the 66ers in minutes at 35.3 per outing. So life has been good to him in Tulsa.

“Things are going pretty well,” Sessions said in a Jan. 18 interview, one day after performing in the four-day NBDL Showcase in Boise, Idaho.

The Bucks draftee credits his success to the experience he gained playing for the Bucks’ summer-league team in Las Vegas and in the team’s preseason camp and exhibition games.

“Oh, I had great preparation back in training camp with the Bucks,” Sessions said. “It doesn’t get any better than that, going against Mo Williams and Charlie Bell and Royal Ivey every day.

“Those three guys right there are tough competition, and they prepared me very well. I’ve got to tip my hat to those guys for showing me the ropes and for getting me ready.”

Sessions’ play has shown that he was indeed prepared, yet he was still impressed at the competition that he encountered in the D-League.

“It’s a lot different than what I anticipated,” Sessions said. “Coming down here, I didn’t really know what caliber of players I’d be playing against.

“Starting with my first game, I learned that the competition is real good down here. It’s very good night-in and night-out, so you really have to bring your game.”

Sessions’ team has a typical NBDL blend: former NBA players (Adam Harrington and Keith Closs), others who have several years of D-League experience (Mike Hall and ex-Wauwatosa East and Marquette University player Scott Merritt) and rookies (Sessions and his former Nevada teammate, Nick Fazekas).

“We’ve got a lot of veterans who’ve been around and know the ropes,” Sessions aid. “And all of the guys are hungry. It’s a great group.”

Sessions, who has always been a go-getter who needed no outside motivation, discovered in a hurry that D-Leaguers need the be hungry to succeed.

“Oh yeah, especially with me having that Bucks logo on the back of my jersey,” he said. “Our opponents really bring it at me night-in and night-out, but I really enjoy the competition.”

The small-world coincidence of Fazekas’ landing in Tulsa, out of all the other places in the world the two could have wound up coming out of Nevada together, has had a positive impact on Sessions and probably Fazekas, too. Fazekas is averaging 17.8 points and 9 rebounds for the 66ers.

The two were roommates for three years at Nevada, and now they’re next-door neighbors in Tulsa.

“Crazy things happen in this game,” Sessions said. “I’m sure neither one of us ever expected anything like this to happen when we left Nevada, but here we are playing on the same team at the professional level.

“Nick was sent down here by the Dallas Mavericks. Having a guy I played with in college as one of my teammates here is a big plus, especially with him being a big man and me being a point guard. It’s been a great plus. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Sessions is not the first Bucks draft pick who has prospered from the experience of the D-League. Forward Ersan Ilyasova learned not only the pro game, but a better understanding of the English language, during his stint in Tulsa playing for coach Joey Meyer.

Ilyasova, whose NBA rights the Bucks retain, spent the 2006-07 season with Milwaukee and is now playing professionally in Spain.

“Coach Meyer has been a great asset,” Sessions said. “He’s a guy who’s been around a long time and knows the game inside-out.

“You can learn a lot from Coach Meyer, and that’s one of the things I’ve tried to take advantage of since I’ve been down here.”

The greatest educational experience of Sessions’ D-League stint has come during the minutes he’s getting as a pro point guard.

“It’s been just running a team,” he said. “If I need to score, I’ll score. If I need to set people up, I’ll set people up.

“I’ve learned how to control the game better toward the end of the game, in the fourth quarter when sometimes things get out of hand. I’ve learned how to step back and control the game.”

He considers himself fortunate to have played against some proven pro floor generals.

“First off, one of the better guys I’ve played against would Randy Livingston, who played with the Bucks team in the summer league,” Sessions said. “He’s a veteran point guard who knows the game really well and played in the NBA for awhile. He’s one of the great guys I’ve gone up against.

“Another guy is Eddie Gill, who I believe got called up to the NBA from Colorado. You can learn a lot playing against guys like that because they know the game so well.”

Sessions has heard some tales of D-League hardships from some of his veteran teammates and rivals. But his experiences have been pretty positive in comparison.

“I knew we wouldn’t have the private jets that they travel on in the NBA,” he said. “But it’s improved a lot. Some of the older guys here have told me about the bus trips they used to take in the D-League. Those are out the window now. We take commercial flights. We’ll have a layover here or there, but it’s a lot better today than what they say it used to be.”

D-League meals don’t compare with NBA ones, but Sessions isn’t complaining about them, either. He hasn’t made daily breakfast, lunch and dinner trips to convenience stores, like many of his minor-league predecessors once did.

“The meals you have to take care of on your own,” he said. “We’ll go to restaurants on the road. But we get per diem, so that helps out a lot.”

The recent D-League Showcase, which brought all 12 of the league’s teams together for four days of competition in Idaho, was an eye-opener for Sessions.

“There were a lot of scouts there,” he said. “It’s a great thing for guys who aren’t assigned here by NBA teams. They try to make the best of that.”

Many of Sessions’ D-League contemporaries have no ties to NBA teams, and are trying to catch on. He realizes how fortunate he is that the Bucks thought so highly of him to sign him to a two-year deal.

And they have been regularly monitoring his progress. There have been 101 call-ups and 68 players called up to the NBA in the history of the D-League since its inception in 2001, including 11 call-ups involving 10 players this season.

“Larry Harris came to one of my games, and (Bucks Director of Player Personnel) Dave Babcock has come to a couple of games,” Sessions said. “It’s great to know that I have that kind of support. It means a lot.”

Sessions’ Bucks teammates have stayed in his corner, too.

“I stay in touch with them all the time,” Sessions said. “They keep telling me they knew I was going to be able to do what I’m doing.”

And Sessions intends to keep doing that, and he is grateful for the opportunity.

“It’s been a learning experience, on the court and off the court,” he said. “I’m going to do whatever I can to take advantage of it.”