Hard work paying off for Miami Heat’s Josh Richardson

Josh Richardson has a pretty good idea where he would be right now if he wasn’t knocking down three-point shots or dunking on people for the Miami Heat.

“I’d probably still be in college — probably until I was like 30,” the 22-year-old Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for March said. “I was a kinesiology major at Tennessee. That’s the scientific study of human movement. I wanted to be a surgeon. I was working on cadavers, doing labs studying hearts and brains. I loved that stuff.”

Then Richardson paused and smiled and said, “but this is a lot better.”

Second-round picks who go down to the NBA’s Development League rarely make their way back up and into the rotation of an NBA playoff team. Richardson might be among the even smaller group who kind of shrugs his shoulders like it’s no big deal.

He does the same when you tell him he posted the second-best three-point shooting month (.589) in NBA history last month or that Hall of Fame-bound center Shaquille O’Neal nicknamed him BRA (Baby Ray Allen) on TV last week.

All of that for Richardson “is cool,” but he says he “can’t really think about it too much.” To accept the adulation is almost to admit that he’s satisfied. His bar is always set higher, and it’s everybody else’s prerogative to be surprised with what he has accomplished thus far.

“You’ve got to understand we’ve watched him for years,” his mother, Alice, a retired lieutenant with the U.S. Air Force, former high school basketball referee and an active ordained Baptist minister said by phone.

“We’ve traveled with him all over this country watching him play. So, I guess since we have seen the progression, it’s not a complete surprise. I’m just very proud of him, of all the hard work he has put in, in order to be where he is.”

Said Josh’s father, Michael: “From the beginning we didn’t pray for him to get drafted in the first round or No. 1 or anything like that. We just prayed for the right fit, right place and the right home and we felt like he got that.”

The hard work started early for Richardson. Before he dribbled a basketball or his grandmother taught him how to play the piano, Michael, a retired firefighter who still refurbishes homes, put a hammer in his son’s young hands and put him to work.

“It was important for me to teach him that tools weren’t toys,” Michael said. “So, he helped build a storage unit when he was like 4 or 5.”

Josh said he graduated to power tools when he was about 9 or 10. Whenever his father would take on a project to refurbish a home, Josh said he would come along and help. All throughout elementary, middle and high school, Josh spent time with his father tearing out cabinets, installing floors, showers, bathrooms and new kitchens.

Now, somewhere back home in Edmond, Oklahoma, where Josh was born and raised, Alice said Josh’s 3-year-old nephew owns the same “itty-bitty” orange Home Depot apron Michael gave Josh nearly two decades ago.

“We just wanted to instill a strong work ethic in him,” Michael said of Josh. “We wanted to make sure that he had a broad understanding of many different things and was not afraid of any kind of challenge.”

That’s something that spilled over onto the basketball court for Richardson.

After moving from the wing to point guard his senior season at Tennessee, the Heat drafted Richardson with the idea he would become a combo guard. But after injuries to starting point guard Goran Dragic in January and then a season-ending injury to backup Beno Udrih in February, Richardson was thrust into point-guard duty.

At first it was a struggle. But Dragic, who has been helping Richardson adapt to playing the point, said Richardson has done a much better job since the All-Star break of setting up the Heat’s offense as his new backup. All the while, Richardson also has gained the confidence from his teammates to take the three-point shot when it’s there. Sometimes, Dwyane Wade said, the Heat trusts Richardson to make them even when he isn’t open.

“He’s not scared and that’s an important thing,” Dragic said. “Sometimes as a rookie you don’t find the game right away, but he figured that out pretty quickly. He’s just going to get much better.”

Although he’s still backing up at point guard, Richardson (6-6, 200) could end up playing the point, shooting guard or small forward down the road. Asked what position he fits best, Richardson said he sees himself simply as “a basketball player.”