MSU's Malik Hall living his dream as he tries to catch the eye of an NBA team
Graham Couch
As Xavier Tillman won an NBA title Monday night, the recruit he once hosted on a visit at Michigan State watched from the other side of the country, just beginning his own pro basketball grind.
Tuesday, Malik Hall worked out for the Golden State Warriors, his eighth NBA team workout, with two more to go before next week’s NBA draft.
“I almost sent Xavier a text, quite honestly, a couple of days ago,” Hall said after his Warriors workout. “I consider myself to be really close to him, (I) kind of look up to him a little bit. So I was really excited for him, to watch (Monday) night, just seeing all the pictures of him and his family and his kids ... I'm really happy for him. He deserves it.”
Hall’s NBA path is more unlikely than Tillman’s was four years ago. Hall is hoping to catch an NBA team’s eye in workouts and, if he’s not drafted, receive a NBA summer league invite. He sounds realistic, but also grateful for this experience, whatever it brings.
“I like seeing a lot of different cities. And I like being able to see what the different programs are like,” Hall said. “I mean, shoot, as a kid, this is what we all dreamed of. We all dreamed to be in this position. So to be here and be able to kind of go through the experience, whether it goes well for me or it doesn't, it's a really great time and it's fun.”
Hall said he’s headed to Phoenix next for a workout with the Suns — owned by MSU mega-donor and basketball alum Mat Ishbia — before finishing his workout circuit in Oklahoma City with the Thunder.
Hall, a 6-foot-8 forward who’s undersized for his position in the pro game, will have to beat the odds to find a spot on an NBA roster. More realistically, he’s destined for a good career in overseas. But he also knows there are guys of similar size and skillsets who have stuck in the NBA.
“I mean, the three that I kind of kind of think that are a little bit like me in different ways: Aaron Gordon (Nuggets), P.J. Washington (Mavericks), a little bit of (the Warriors’) Draymond (Green),” said Hall, who averaged 12.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and made 32.8% of his 3-point tries as a fifth-year senior at MSU, “guys who are really versatile and maybe a little undersized at their position. But (are) just able to do a bunch of different things.”
So far, the positive feedback he's received has been about being a jack of all trades. The area he needs to work on: His shooting.
“I mean, that's something that I knew even before I started the process, something I'm going to continue work on throughout my career in general,” Hall said of his outside shot. “But good (feedback), just my versatility, being able to do a lot of different things, guard a lot of different people. Being able to handle the ball, being able to pass, things like that is usually the good things that I hear.”
The NBA draft is next Wednesday and Thursday nights. The NBA Summer League begins July 12 in Las Vegas.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.