In his three-plus months as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans, rookie Buddy Hield has frequently demonstrated his immense pride for being a native of the Bahamas. On Tuesday, as he prepared for his second NBA preseason game, the shooting guard was closely monitoring news reports and praying for the safety of his home country, which is imperiled by Hurricane Matthew. The hurricane made landfall in Haiti this afternoon and was headed toward Cuba.
“It's a scary time, when you have a hurricane coming to the Bahamas,” the 22-year-old said, hours before facing the Pacers in the Smoothie King Center. “People work hard down there. I've been through a lot of bad storms that tore up the whole island, and you have to rebuild from scratch. I just pray to God and pray for the Bahamas that Matthew doesn't do too much damage down there.”
Hield recalled hearing about imminent hurricanes when he was a child, but he was too young to grasp the potential severity of damage if one were to strike where he lived.
“I used to talk to my mom, and back then you liked when there was a storm, because there was no school, being a kid,” the University of Oklahoma product said. “But now as you get older and you experience hurricanes, it's not a good time, because it hurts people financially, causes deaths, flooding, the winds tear houses apart. There are poles crashing on houses. There are so many things that can go wrong during a hurricane. You always hope that it doesn't affect people badly.”
Hield has family members in the United States, including his mother, but he said that one of his brothers, his father and stepfather are in the Bahamas.
“You hope that the Category reduces to a 2 or 1, where it's a tropical storm,” Hield said of his wish that the strength of Matthew will diminish. “I pray God keeps blessing the Bahamas and protects the Bahamas.”
Other notes from pregame in New Orleans:
Alvin Gentry, after being asked about Hurricane Matthew and concerns from Hield: “We're concerned, obviously. You're talking about (a storm) as big as it gets. He's concerned. It's out there, a storm of that magnitude can do unbelievable damage.” …
The starting five will remain the same as Saturday, with one exception. Tim Frazier will start, moving Langston Galloway to the reserve unit. The other first-stringers are E'Twaun Moore, Solomon Hill, Anthony Davis and Alexis Ajinca. …
Gentry said Davis' minutes will “probably be similar” to Saturday, when the three-time All-Star logged 12 minutes. “Probably in the next couple games in China, we'll extend him a little more,” the coach said. “When we get back here, the last couple games (of preseason), we'll try to play it almost like a (regular season) game.”
