He has only played limited minutes this season, but DeAndre Bembry has proven that he isn’t afraid of anything.
DeAndre Bembry hasn’t seen the floor much during his rookie campaign. The Atlanta Hawks have a full wing rotation and finding minutes for the rookie has been difficult. However, he is proving that he won’t back down from anything, be it on or off the floor.
Taking Bembry with the 21st pick was something no one saw coming. DraftExpress predicted he would be drafted 29th. NBADraft.Net predicted he would go the Sixers with the 24th pick. NBA.com mocked him as low as the 33rd pick. Many people thought the Hawks were reaching on him by taking him that soon.
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Bembry has had two signature games during his rookie campaign. The first came on February 2nd in the Hawks 20 point comeback victory over the Houston Rockets. The second came on April 7th in an unexpected win over the Cleveland Cavaliers without all 5 starters. Both games shared a common theme: Defense.
Against the Rockets, Bembry took on the daunting task of defending possible MVP James Harden. Harden had scored 35 points in the first three-quarters, and the Rockets built a double-digit lead. Coach Bud decided to stick DeAndre Bembry on Harden. He held him to 6 points on 2-for-5 shooting in the game’s final quarter. The Hawks came back from 19 points down with 9:30 left to win the game.
Against the Cavaliers, Bembry faced an even more daunting task. Coach Bud put Bembry in the game with one task: stop LeBron James. Defending the 6’8″, 250-pound monster that is LeBron James is difficult for anyone, but asking 6’6″, 210-pound Bembry to do it seemed crazy. However, Bembry not only didn’t back down, but he performed valiantly.
Correction:
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) April 8, 2017
DeAndre' Bembry 8 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists and a +/- of ***plus-29***. By my count, he only guarded one player.
Let’s be honest, no one in the world is stopping LeBron James, you can only hope to contain him. Bembry did just that. While LeBron did score 27 points in the game, only 9 of them came with Bembry defending him. In his 23 minutes, the Hawks outscored the Cavaliers by 29 points, the highest on the team. The Cavaliers were outscored by 15 points with LeBron James on the court, 2nd worst on the team.
To take the words out of Bembry’s own mouth, he isn’t afraid of anybody.
It’s not surprising that Bembry isn’t afraid of anything basketball related. He has dealt with much worse than anything anyone can do to him on a basketball court. Two weeks before he was drafted, DeAndre’s younger brother Adrian was tragically shot and killed trying to break up a fight in their hometown Charlotte, North Carolina.
Obviously Bembry will never forget what happened to his brother, but he is trying to make sure no one else does either. He chose to wear jersey number 95, the year Adrian was born, to honor his memory. He also plans to host many different charity events for gun violence prevention, an issue that was very important to his brother.
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DeAndre Bembry is proving that there is nothing the world can throw at him, be it basketball or otherwise, that he won’t face head on.