Gray tested NBA waters, will remain at Pitt another year

There’s always next year.

Disgruntled sports fans most often mutter the popular philosophy… There’s always next year.

Disgruntled sports fans most often mutter the popular philosophy after their team turns in a disappointing game or season.

For Aaron Gray, the words took on a slightly different meaning.

“One of the things my mom told me was that the NBA will be there next year,” Gray said. “I’m truly happy at the University of Pittsburgh.”

Earlier this summer, when Gray had less than an hour left to the Early Entry withdrawal deadline, the 7-foot center made his decision to return to Pitt for his senior year and remove his name from the NBA Draft that took place on June 28. Although scruffy and obviously worn from deliberation, Gray made sure everyone at the press conference knew he felt at ease.

“It was incredibly tough, you know, choosing which path your life’s going to take,” Gray said. “A lot of thought and effort went into it, but I feel like I made the right decision and I’m happy with it today.”

After Pitt’s second round exit from the NCAA Tournament in March, Gray began entertaining thoughts about heading to the pros, but didn’t hire an agent so he could retain his college eligibility per NCAA rules. However, Gray feels that he had a superior source of council to guide him through the pre-draft process.

“Where other guys use misleading information from agents and scouts, Coach [Jamie] Dixon was great, getting the top information right from general managers, player personnel and that sort of thing,” Gray said. “He’s a well-connected man.”

Throughout April, May and the beginning half of June, Gray traveled on his own budget to work out with such NBA teams like the Washington Wizards and New York Knicks as well as participating in the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando to test the waters and gauge the position at which he would be selected. Gray was projected by ESPN to be a late first-round to early-second round pick, but nothing was certain.

“There’s not as many guarantees as you think,” Gray said about advance draft assurance. “The information that they gave me was real promising. I had two good workouts after maybe not such a good workout at Orlando. It was a great learning experience.”

A handful of NBA teams got to learn about Gray as well, giving him a leg up on exposure when he most likely enters the draft next year.

“There was a lot of things they liked about me,” Gray said about different teams’ opinions on him. “I wanted to make sure if I had stayed in the draft I would have had a backstop there at [draft picks] 18 and 20 which are the picks that the Knicks and the Wizards have, but teams as high as New Orleans at 12, Utah at 14, Chicago at 16 and Sacramento at 19 all wanted me to come in and work out against some of the premier players.”

Gray now has the chance to be a premier player at the collegiate level. Last season, the Emmaus, Pa., native was a first-team All-Big East selection as well as the conference’s Most Improved Player. Gray was the only player in the Big East to average a double-double per game.

“To come back and be a big fish in a small pond for another year, it just seemed like a great opportunity,” Gray said.

But what mattered to Gray even more than individual stardom was the opportunity to play for a Pitt team that has the chance to contend for a national title. With the center’s return, Pitt brings back eight of 10 players from last year’s team. As a matter of fact, Gray’s teammates at Pitt were a big factor in his decision.

“One of the things I did was I called every single of them and sat down and said ‘Look, if I’m passing up this opportunity to come back and be with you guys, I want to make sure you guys are as committed to the things I want to achieve here as far as the team standpoint,'” Gray said. “Every guy looked me straight in the eye and told me that we have common goals, and I wholeheartedly believed them and that was one of the biggest factors actually that made me want to come back to school.”

Still, the pre-draft process was tough on the 21-year-old Gray, who went back and forth between both sides of his impending decision for more than a month before making up his mind.

“There were days I had a great workout and I’d be like, ‘Man I’m ready [for the NBA].’ Then there were other days where I’d be playing in the back gym with my teammates just having a lot of fun and thinking, ‘Wow this team really could be special,'” Gray said. “My only safe haven was playing basketball and when I wasn’t playing basketball I was thinking about my decision. Now it’s over and maybe I can manage to get a haircut and get a decent shave.”

Either way, Gray wanted to help Pitt and vice versa. Although Dixon made it clear to Gray that he wished he would stay, he and the Panthers would have benefited should Gray have left.

“He made it very clear that he wanted me back but said, ‘Hey if this is the right time for you it can only help our program,'” Gray said of his coach. “When he’s out recruiting other kids he wants to be able to say, ‘Look, here’s a guy that came in not so highly recruited and this is what we did for him, now he’s in the NBA.'”

Dixon will have the chance to do that — next year.