Jennings played 27 of 30 league games, averaging 2.3 assists, 5.1 points. More significantly, as all else faded and the spring swept in, he had begun to feel the elation of having seen something through.
By the final game, the setting told the unusualness of his path. He played in a round, nondescript arena with fairly barren premises, a trailer concession stand across the street, a small bust of the great Italian motorcycle and car racer Tazio Nuvolari just outside the gates.
He warmed up his left-handed, high-arc shots to Estelle's "American Boy" at one point ("Take me to New York/I'd like to see L.A. . . ."). His teammates included five Italians, two Slovenians, one Spaniard, one Bulgarian and two other Americans -- Michigan State product Andre Hutson and Ruben Douglas, who played at Burbank Bell-Jeff High and in college for Arizona and New Mexico.
Jennings wore a jersey festooned with ads. The banners overhead included the 1982-83 "Scudetto," the 1984 "Coppa Champion," the 2000 "Supercoppa."
From a crowd just shy of half full, audible comments came in an indiscernible -- if gorgeous -- language. Alice cheered from the top of the lower deck, midcourt, wearing a white blouse and headband as her son played 26 minutes with eight points and seven assists and a few plays that shimmered with talent and dazzled the audience.
Online, Jennings had a blog post brimming with pride at having shown some visitors around Rome the previous week. He had contributed $50,000 to the earthquake victims of L'Aquila, Italy.
When the game ended, he joined his teammates applauding the fans, and when he bounded down the steps afterward, he sounded older than 19.
"How is this helping me down the road?" he said. "What happens if I don't play next year in the NBA? I'm used to it. I know you've just got to keep grinding." He had played "against men every day."
He was almost home, and many of those mock drafts had him going eighth to the New York Knicks or seventh to the Golden State Warriors or fourth to the Sacramento Kings.
As NBA Commissioner David Stern put it, "I don't want to speak against the colleges, but I will say if you're going to go professional in anything, you practice, practice, practice. They spend a lot of time practicing in Europe. As I've said about Brandon Jennings, it helps us to see him against better players."
And then, as a telling byproduct to this bit of trailblazing, the L.A. woman who made it work returned as well -- just after an e-mail with a smiley face in which Alice Knox wrote, "I will be the queen of the 405."
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chuck.culpepper@yahoo.com
