An Inside Look at Emanuel Sharp’s NBA Draft Push — 13 Team Workouts, Why the Houston Rockets Are In Play at No. 39 and the Power of a Fierce Mom

It is a quiet summer morning on the University of Houston campus, with only a few cars parked on Holman Street and only a lone maintenance worker motoring by on a utility cart breaking the still. But Emanuel Sharp shows up to work. The four season difference maker for the University of Houston is getting ready for the NBA Draft, which is mere days away.

Sharp’s already worked out for 13 teams, including the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. Now he’s showing PaperCity how he gets himself ready for these NBA examinations, taking us through a sample workout session. UH assistant coach Anthony Goldwire comes down from the basketball offices that overlook this practice court to lead Sharp and his best friend Ramon Walker Jr, who’s sporting a new orange hairdo, through the workout.

Sharp’s used to working out in front of people at this point. “All of (the NBA teams) mainly have the whole coaching staff there,” Sharp says. “GMs. Coaches, assistant coaches. They’re usually all kind of sitting on the sideline watching the whole workout.”

Goldwire came into the NBA as a second round pick himself back in 1994 and forged a seven season career in the league out of that. He knows what Sharp, who is projected to go in the first half of the second round of the NBA’s two-day draft on Wednesday, is facing. The opportunity and challenge that is there.

“I reached out to (Celtics assistant coach) Sam Cassell on Emanuel,” Goldwire tells PaperCity. “Said he played hard. Which we all knew he would. He could make a shot and he got a chance play his position as a two guard. Guys like that come in who’ve been in the program over four years, we know one thing they’re going to do.

“They’re going to go in and uphold our culture at the University of Houston.”

When NBA teams bring a prospect like Emanuel Sharp in for a workout part of the goal is to see how a player performs when he’s tired. These draft workouts can vary from team to team — “some are more intense than others,” Sharp says — but they’re all geared to test a player’s will as the workout goes on. Having been through Kelvin Sampson’s grueling Houston program — with those summer conditioning sessions that start before dawn — Sharp figures he has an edge there.

To further hone it, he spent three weeks in Fort Worth before the NBA Draft Combine, working out with basketball trainer Irv Roland, a former staffer for the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz who James Harden leaned on. Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg, Ole Miss forward Malik Dia and Portland guard Jaylin Henderson were also among the group training together set up by Sharp’s agent Alex Saratsis of Octagon Sports. Getting used to the NBA ball turned into an underrated aspect of the sessions.

From his time in the league, Roland knows how NBA teams usually craft these draft workouts. So Sharp found himself going through the shuttle drills, shooting sessions and three-on-three games that are staples of the experience again and again. Goldwire knows a little something about NBA workouts too.

And on this summer morning, he has Sharp and Walker start with fast-paced layups before moving out to alternate shots all around the 3-point line. Sharp drains three after three as you’d expect from UH’s all-time leader in 3-pointers, a player who routinely shot from NBA range plus in college. But it’s the later parts of the workouts, when Goldwire has him go one-on-one against UH student managers to create his own shots that you see the real growth in Sharp’s game. Many of the moves were already there but playing off the ball in UH’s offense, he could not show them every game.

Pull-ups in the lane. Turnarounds on the wing. Even a mini sky hook to finish off one drive to the hoop.

“You see me with Goldie doing a lot of stuff off the dribble,” Sharp says. “Making one-on-one moves. I think that just furthers my game.” And the hook shot? “That’s just a little freestyle,” Sharp grins.

After Sharp buries a fadeaway three with a defender in his face, Toronto Raptors point guard Jamal Shead comes bounding off, slapping his former teammates’ hand and adding a chest bump. “Putting in the work!” Shead shouts. Shead, the greatest UH point guard ever, and Final Four breakthrough point guard DeJon Jarreau have been working out together on the other side of the gym, taking advantage of Kelvin Sampson’s always open Houston basketball laboratory.

“I reached out to (Celtics assistant coach) Sam Cassell on Emanuel. Said he played hard. Which we all knew he would.” — UH assistant Anthony Goldwire

The Individual NBA Workout Reality

For certain Top 10 (see Kingston Flemings) and first round draft picks like Chris Cenac Jr., going in to work out for a team at its facility are not as important. Most of the sure top picks do very few of them. But for guys like Emanuel Sharp and fellow Houston guard Milos Uzan (another projected second round pick), they can be the difference between getting a guaranteed contract or not.

The Sacramento Kings (picks No. 34 and No. 45 in the second round), San Antonio Spurs (picks 35, 42 and 44), Oklahoma City Thunder (pick 37), Houston Rockets (pick No. 39), Boston Celtics (pick No. 40) and Miami Heat (pick 41) all currently hold draft picks in the range where Emanuel Sharp could be selected.

“Emanuel’s going to be an NBA player for a long time,” Kelvin Sampson says. “And I want to congratulate the team that drafts him right now. Because you’ve got a winner.”

Sharp plans to watch the draft in his hometown Tampa, having rented a house for his family, friends and former coaches to enjoy it in. Kelvin Sampson will fly in from New York to be there for the second round after spending Tuesday night in Brooklyn with Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac.

Before this workout, Sharp answers a call about the menu for Wednesday night. He puts in a request for chicken fingers, “just normal food.” When you’re about to be drafted, there are a lot of decisions to be made. It helps to simplify some. Besides Sharp’s never needed anything fancy. He’s a Kelvin Sampson guy, a worker first.

Emanuel Sharp and The Long Road to Draft Night

This 22-year-old has certainly taken a truly unique path to this moment. A shattered leg ended his senior season of high school before it ever started. He enrolled early at Houston to rehab, played a vital sixth man role as a true freshman with a metal rod still in his leg (since taken out) on a 33-4 team. Then he started every season then, scored nine points in the final 2:05 as UH shocked Duke and Cooper Flagg in that Final Four semifinal, drew the ire of soulless sports gambling degenerates online when he couldn’t get a shot off in the closing seconds in the national championship game. That heartbreaking loss came to the University of Florida, the first school that offered Sharp a scholarship in high school.

Yes, Emanuel Sharp’s basketball life’s already had more twists, turns and drama than The Odyssey.

“I’ve overcame a lot of adversity to get to this point,” Sharp tells PaperCity. “And I’m proud of that. But it’s been a blessing. . . It means a lot to myself that I was still able to overcome a lot and still be in this position. Through all the hate, the backlash. You kind of just have to look past that, keep your head down and keep working.”

There is a reason Emanuel Sharp has Man In The Arena tattooed across the top of his chest. If you have not been in the game, on one of basketball’s biggest stages putting yourself on the line, you cannot understand what it’s really like. Sharp’s parents Derrick Sharp and Justine Ellison, who both played pro basketball in Israel, can. Derrick Sharp will tell you his son is a better player, better shooter, better defender than he ever was. Emanuel isn’t so sure his mom — who he notes proudly kept her maiden name after marrying his dad and he attributes with providing his edge — would concede that same point. His mom used to routinely swat away his shots when he was still in elementary school, conceding nothing.

“She was Athlete of the Year at University of Toronto,” Emanuel Sharp says. “She could hoop. . . She’s got game. I think I get my gritty and my nasty, my toughness side, a lot of the stuff that we have here (at Houston) from my mom. Before every game she tells me to go elbow somebody in the nuts. So she’s kind of crazy. But I love her. She’s the No. 1 Emanuel Sharp fan.”

This NBA Draft process is building more Sharp fans.

“I’ve overcame a lot of adversity to get to this point. And I’m proud of that. But it’s been a blessing. . . It means a lot to myself that I was still able to overcome a lot and still be in this position. Through all the hate, the backlash.” — Emanuel Sharp

When Sharp is done with this workout, his black NBA tank top and gray sweats soaked with sweat, he knows to keep his phone ready. Another NBA team, another quick flight, another last minute workout could be calling.

Emanuel Sharp and Ramon Walker walk out of the gym together. He’s not going through this NBA Draft journey alone. “My Houston guys will always have my back,” Sharp says, walking into the sunlight and his future.