Former UCLA Basketball Star Benefited Greatly From Summer Rico Hines Pickup Games

That exposure goes a long way!

Whenever summer time hits and there is not a whole lot of basketball going on, fans usually tune in to any offseason pickup games that are going on. New York City 'Black Ops' runs have become really popular with some of the best NBA superstars participating along with 'The Guard Whisperer' games. This allows players to show off some of their individual skills that they can't during the year while also making one another better.

However, Rico Hines, former UCLA Bruins basketball player and current assistant coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, has been putting together offseason runs for some time now. NBA superstars such as Paul George, James Harden and more have regularly attended them and Hines has made sure to invite UCLA players as well whenever he's able to.

Last summer, we saw the likes of Amari Bailey and Jaime Jaquez get the invite and they looked very comfortable against the competition. Jaquez gave us a nice sneak peak as to what to expect in his final season with the Bruins and now that he is getting ready to kick off his NBA career with the Miami Heat, he revealed that playing in the Rico Hines runs helped him a lot.

“I mean, a lot of guys. There’s so many great players that go through them runs. I think Rico [Mick Cronin]–the way he does it is just tremendous and the way he allowed me to be there at such a young age. I remember going there–going into my senior year of high school, he let me come and watch and even sometimes play,” Jaquez

recalled

.

(Via On3.com)

Jaquez had been attending them for some quite some time and it's clear that this exposure helped him develop into the promising guard that he is today.