Well Traveled Hughes has Grown Up Chicago Tribune Article

Well-traveled Larry Hughes has grown up
Tattoos are often 1st thing fans notice about new Bull Hughes—but there's far more to his story

In many ways, new Bulls guard Larry Hughes is the embodiment of the modern-day professional athlete.

In his 10-year career, which began when he entered the draft after only one college season, he has been cast off in trade, has tested his value on the free-agent market and, playing for his fifth NBA team, does not pretend to be looking for any emotional attachments or entanglements.

His mother, Vanessa, says he's just like any other businessman, albeit one whose salary this season is $12.8 million.

"When he left school, he knew he was taking on a job and that's what it is," she said. "It's a job that allows him take care of his family and his extended family. If it tells him 'Tomorrow you have to pack up,' you go.

"I tell him, 'You're not going to be the poster child for the NBA. You may not be No. 1 in shooting. But your ability to take care of your family, that's a gift from God.' "

It is a gift Hughes takes seriously and comes by naturally, his relationship with his mother and younger brother Justin, a heart-transplant recipient who passed away two years ago at 20, rivaled only by his devotion to wife Carrie and children Lauryn, 9, Landys, 7, and Larry II, 4.

It is those relationships and the work he and his mother do on behalf of the Larry Hughes Foundation—dedicated to assisting families in need of organ transplants with travel and other living expenses as well as the families of donors, whom he has helped with funeral costs—that truly matter.

And so when strangers in new cities read his tattoos and want to know more, when they see the two permanent tear drops etched below one eye—in honor of Justin—and assume they're gang-related or, at the very least, mistake him for just another tough guy, the 29-year-old Hughes shrugs and smiles.

If it's the price he must pay for being quiet and detached, so be it.

"But I think once people get to know me, they can see that I'm a straightforward guy," Hughes said. "I always fess up to anything I've done or said. I try to stand up for whatever I say and how I feel and give the reasons why I feel that way and be respectful."

As for the tattoos, about 20 in all, they each tell a story—his right arm, the basketball side of him, he explains; his left arm "all the tragic things going on." There's the Grim Reaper tattoo on his left shoulder to remind him what his younger brother constantly was facing after being born with a severe heart defect when Larry was 7.

On his neck reads "I Am My Brother's Keeper" and across his stomach read the words "Quiet Storm," complete with clouds and lightning bolts, which is how Hughes describes his inner passion and his outer calm.

Tattoos do talking
"It's me," he said of the markings. "It's how I express myself. I don't do a lot of talking. This is my life and all the things I have on me are something I really want to remember. I can always look at an arm or a hand and know where I was or what I was thinking at that time."

Those who have known him longest, like Western Illinois coach Derek Thomas, who coached Hughes both in high school and college (under now-retired Charlie Spoonhour at St. Louis), say Hughes could do more to express himself.

"It's one thing he doesn't do great," Thomas said. "If people don't understand him, he doesn't go out of his way to make them."

That said, Hughes did win the "Austin Carr Good Guy Award" in 2006, which recognizes the Cavaliers player who is cooperative and understanding of the media, the community and the public.

"I wish I understood what people want him to do, because I think he is a really good person and a really good player," Spoonhour said.

Hughes has been subject of an equal number of interpretations of his on-court persona, from coaches such as Larry Brown questioning his work ethic early in his career to Wizards and Cavs fans hounding him for his shot selection to others wondering about his durability.

He does not duck any of them.

"I've changed," Hughes said. "Coming in, I was 18, so a lot of stuff was given to me, and being hard-headed, I just had to learn. Now in the summer, I work, I work, I work, I work and people now don't question my work ethic. It's just something you learn to do."

Well-traveled Larry Hughes has grown up.

As for the injuries, which have kept him from playing 70 or more games in all but two seasons and fewer than 62 in six others, Hughes called it "frustrating, because I've had bad timing, a lot of it coming on the verge of making the All-Star team, playing in the Finals, coming in from a great summer workout and being out three, four weeks.

"But I've learned from them. I have no regrets about how I've played."

There is also the question of where, at 6 feet 5 inches, he is suited best to play.

Hughes calls himself "a guard, period. Just let me play. I've learned to take fewer bad shots, to recognize situations, so just put me out there and I'll try to make the good play. If it's from the two-guard, what's the difference?"



Some have described him as a throwback.

"I like that," he said. "I never wanted to be a specialist. I never wanted to just be a shooter, just a passer. I want to do everything that helps the team win. I don't do one thing great, I do a lot of things good and that helps a lot of teams."

Johnny Bach, a longtime Bulls assistant most recently under Scott Skiles as well as a member of Doug Collins' staff in Washington when Hughes played there, sees the maturation.

"He's exactly someone this team needs at this point," Bach said. "[Interim coach] Jim Boylan likes the up-tempo game and Hughes will do that, he will make steals in the passing lanes and come out with the ball quickly as lead or second guard."

Boylan is trying to create a guard rotation built around Hughes, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon. Hughes, who's averaging 19 points as a Bull going into Tuesday night's game against Memphis, meshed with both in a 29-point outing against Indiana last week.

"People are going to see the real Larry again," close friend and former teammate Gilbert Arenas told the Washington Post upon Hughes' trade to Chicago.

Clearly, playing alongside LeBron James was not the best situation for Hughes. Collins agreed the Bulls could be a better fit.

Collins a Hughes fan
"I like Larry at this stage of his career," Collins said. "I can see three or four more very productive years for him. It sure can be the Bulls, who are starving for a big guard. Larry Hughes gives [general manager John Paxson] options."

For the first time in his career, Hughes says he can see himself settling down with one team, even if the young Bulls need him to be a leader.

Collins recalled a meeting he had with Hughes when he was coaching him when he told him that he needed him to be "more engaged" in the team.

"The message I got from him," Collins said, "was that 'I am, coach. Maybe I just don't show it.'

"As he has gotten older, I have seen [energy and passion] more and more from him. He's incredibly professional and Larry is a good guy. I would coach him any day."

Hughes already knows how he wants to be remembered when his career is over.

"When I'm gone, I want good things said in the locker room," he said. "Not so much in the media and different organizations, but I played with a lot of guys and I want the respect from them, from guys I'll see throughout my lifetime, in summer vacations in Miami or in Vegas. After I'm done, I want them to say 'He was a good teammate.' "



For his mother, it is even simpler.

"When he was growing up, he never said 'I'm going to the NBA' or 'I'm going to buy you a house,' " said Vanessa Hughes, who largely raised her children on her own. "It was never 'Watch me.' It was 'See what I do.'

"All he said was, 'When I become a man, I'm going to take care of what a man does and that's take care of my family.' "