Andrew Goudelock, the Mini-Mamba from East Atlanta – like MarShon Brooks – had decided to spend 30 minutes on a search engine hunting for pictures of himself to be used for a special gift to his mom. Suddenly he discovered the existence of a man with the very same name, years earlier, in the same area of the United States. He was a school-level football player. His face was familiar. Goudelock had just to look in a mirror to see that face. That man was his uncle.
His heart paused for a moment because that was the most incredible story Goudelock had ever read. Uncle Drew was an emerging football school player in Georgia, perhaps destined to the NFL. But one very bad day he was diagnosed with bone cancer. After a few days, they amputated one of his legs. When his team resumed training, Drew Goudelock appeared in the locker room anyway. He would continue to play football without prostheses, running on one leg. Courage, perseverance, heart. Drew Goudelock was summoned for Georgia’s football All-Star Game. He received a standing ovation of five minutes. That story was a shock to his nephew Andrew Goudelock. He never knew the story. Nobody told him. Uncle Drew died after four years of courage and suffering. The tumor extended to the lungs and caused a tragic, early, end. It happened on January 5, 1986. He was 19 years old. One of his brothers, Greg, decided that his first son would be named after him to extend the legacy.
Andrew Goudelock was not a star when he left Stone Mountain high school, even though in the summer he played for the AAU’s Atlanta Celtics, an organization in which several future pros like Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, KJ McDaniels, passed through. Only two One Division colleges offered him a scholarship: Kennesaw State and Charleston. Charleston coach was Bobby Cremins, a tough New Yorker and previously a great coach at Georgia Tech. Cremins knew Goudelock’s stepfather, Marvin Austin, and convinced him to push his son towards Charleston. “I was uncoachable, we argued all the time,” Goudelock said to ESPN, “I was on a bad path, but he did not give up on me. I do not know how but he stayed with me.” Goudelock became a starter at Charleston in his first year, he was the leading scorer for the last three years and the best in assists in the last two. Charleston even defeated North Carolina in overtime, a historic feat for a small college: Goudelock scored the three to extend the game. A “one-man show” that led Charleston to the Southern Conference’s title in 2011. Goudelock is still the school All-Time leading scorer, and the third All-Time scorer in the Southern conference. He had 39 points in a single game, a career-best.
Goudelock was chosen in the 2011 draft by the Los Angeles Lakers as the 46th selection. The Lakers had won their last NBA title in 2010, were eliminated from the eventual champions, the Dallas Mavericks, in 2011 and changed coach, with Mike Brown replacing Phil Jackson. “When I came to the Lakers I was third-string guard. The regulars had the purple jerseys, the reserves had the yellow jerseys, and I was wearing the pink jersey. It meant that there were days when I did not play five on five even during practice”. His contract was not guaranteed. He tried to save himself by winning all the sprints in training or talking more than anybody at the defensive end of the floor. Then Coach Brown used him against the Clippers in pre-season. He was tentative and took some bad shots. Then he relaxed and made three threes. The next day Kobe Bryant told him to go see Mitch Kupchak, the general manager, in his office. In the NBA it means that you’ve been cut. Instead it was a joke … That’s how a special relationship with Kobe began. “It was a huge opportunity for me to compete all year against the greatest competitor in the world. I think he respected me because I was the only one who was not scared by him,” he told to nba.com. It was after a game in Charlotte that Bryant invented for him the nickname “Mini-Mamba”, “because we are the only one to never be afraid to take a shot.”
He played 43 games with the Lakers that year, including the playoffs, with 4.4 points on average. The next season he spent most of his time in the D-League. He played in Rio Grande and Sioux Falls, and was named the league’s MVP, after averaging 21.1 points per game. At the end of the season, he was signed back by the Lakers where there was a new coach: Mike D’Antoni. They qualified for the playoffs but were devastated by too many injuries. Kobe Bryant was out, Steve Blake too, so did Jodie Meeks. D’Antoni did not have a choice: he forced him in the starting line-up. Goudelock responded by averaging 12.0 points per game in 26 minutes, with a high of 20, even though the Lakers were swept away 4-0 by San Antonio.
The following summer was the one in which Olimpia tried to sign him for the first time. He dominated the Las Vegas summer league with the Chicago Bulls (19.0 points per game, making 52.2% of his threes and a season-high of 31 points). He was playing the point as he had done in the D-League the previous winter, distributing 5.8 assists per game. Goudelock had this offer from Olimpia to play as a scoring point-guard, the role that would eventually be taken by Curtis Jerrells, because he – in fact – turned the offer down at the last minute. Kazan made a huge proposal and he signed. With Unics he was the Eurocup MVP, with his team making the final against Valencia. He was also the Russian Cup MVP, a competition that Unics won. “Many players have told me that Kazan is the toughest place to start a European career,” he said to Ian Thomsen of nba.com. “In the winter you cannot really drive because the car slips all over the road; it’s so cold that you cannot even put on twenty scarves and boots. Besides, very few people can speak any English.”
With a sky-high reputation, he went to Fenerbahce Istanbul, twice was named EuroLeague’s MVP of the week, scored 10 threes in a game against Bayern Munich, setting a EuroLeague All-Time record, averaged 17.0 points per game and made 46.1% of his threes. Fenerbahce came to the Final Four (he scored the winning basket in Tel Aviv to clinch the series) and scored 26 points in the semi-final game against Real Madrid, the eventual winner. He scored 50 points in two games combined. It was named to the All-EuroLeague teams. “With Coach Obradovic you have to defend and that’s what I did: if you do not defend you don’t play, I did not have a choice,” he said. During his season in Fenerbahce he also scored 30 points in a exhibition game in Istanbul against the Spurs.
In 2015 he made a choice that it’s becoming more and more popular now, moving to China for a year, in Xinjiang. In March 2016 he returned to the NBA, at Houston. “The decision to go to China was a family decision. I could play in the EuroLeague that last for 10 months, or I could try to make it to the NBA, but in China the season is short, my fiancee Ashli was expecting our second child (Adrian-ndr) and for me it was a matter of spending more time with my family,” he told to the Houston Chronicle, after returning to the US to play for the Rockets. Last year he went to Maccabi. He won the Israeli Cup and led the Israeli League in threes (51%) and free throws (91%). He played 20 EuroLeague games, all in double digits, with a season-high of 27 points scored against Olimpia, and he made 45.8% of the threes.
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