A quick glance around the empty locker room before the game and you might not recognize the skinny kid with seemingly endless body ink as a member of the team. He’s a little shorter than the 6’2 and a few pounds below the 165 pounds the team’s media material lists him as. His name is trivial at best to several beat writers and college coaches (who should have been recruiting him) and he’s only scored a total of ten points in the four previous games before meeting the Knicks. But while much of the gathering (SLAM included) was wondering where Baron Davis and Marcus Camby was before the game, as early as the second quarter they were wondering where Taylor had come from.
n March of 2007, Taylor was busted for vandalizing an on-campus apartment building. The next month he was arrested for stealing a bottle of cold medicine from a convenience store and pleaded guilty to fifth-degree theft. After being suspended following the March incident, he received a vehicle registration violation and was ordered to pay a penalty of $69.80. After the series of legal setbacks, the Cyclones were forced to dismiss their leading scorer.
“I played against D.J. Augustine, I played against Mike Conley and Kevin Durant at Iowa state,” Taylor says before the game in New York. “To me, I always put up a tough fight. I was on the same level if not better than those guys, so, that was the thing that I kept in the back of my head.” At first, Taylor thought he would transfer and drop down a level in competition so that he could play right away. However, he wasn’t allowed back to Iowa State and had to make some kind of decision. He began considering turning pro.
He finished with 35 points off the bench in a game that essentially killed the Knicks playoff dreams. He had the single best scoring game by a rookie in the Garden since Allen Iverson dropped 35 in ‘96, who he mentioned once before the game and once after the game. The Clippers earned a five point OT win over the Knicks and it’s because of Mike Taylor.
“I thought he carried the team,” Davis says, walking out of the locker room. “He didn’t want to let us lose this basketball game. He got into a good groove and hit some jumpers and I thought that really got his confidence going. He’s tough getting to the basketball because he dribbles the ball so well.”
“To me, I want to be a franchise player one day,” Taylor said before the game. “I want a GM or a Head Coach to build a team around me. I know I have a long way to go, but every chance I get I’m going to get better.”
Matt Caputo, SlamOnline
