Ex-NBA star shares his faith at Edmond breakfast

BY JOHN A. WILLIAMS Comments 2
Published: October 29, 2009

EDMOND — Former NBA player Grant Long remembers the hard times in his life as stepping stones to a better future.

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Long addressed more than 400 people at the annual Edmond Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on Wednesday at University of Central Oklahoma’s Nigh Center.

Grant recalled days as a child when there would be no food for his mother and four brothers. He said not look past the importance of life’s burdens.

"When you climb up the rough side of the mountain, it sort of chaffs. It gets away all the things that shouldn’t be there,” he said. "It prepares you for that one great moment you are going to have.”

Long had a 15-year career in the NBA before retiring in 2003. He now is an analyst on Oklahoma City Thunder television broadcasts.

He said life’s burdens gave him a chance of showing who he really was. "I knew God was going to do something, and that faith has carried me and it still carries me today,” he said.

Long was the 33rd player taken in the 1988 NBA draft. He said it looked for a while like he was not going to get drafted at all.

"I’ve always said I wasn’t the best basketball player, not even on my high school team. I wasn’t the best player on my college team. I was never the best basketball player on my pro team,” he said.

His encouragement from his then girlfriend, now wife, during the draft was to sit still and let God do what He wants to do.

Mayor Patrice Douglas shared with the audience a message her mother would tell her every day. "The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. So pray fervently,” she said.

Attorney Luke Munson was among those who participated in the event. He said he appreciated men like Grant Long who stand up and profess their faith. "A lot of young people, boys and girls, look up to him,” he said.