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Free: Man of Many Talents
by Frank Burlison, Long Beach Press-Telegram
February 23, 2007
LONG BEACH - Travon Free will miss some, if not all, of Long Beach State
men's basketball coach Larry Reynolds' halftime instructions Saturday
afternoon.
And if he does manage to get into the 49ers' locker room prior to the
second half of the team's nonconference game with UC Davis, he hopes he
brings something with him:
A crown.
That's because Free, a 6-foot-7, 250-pound senior graduate of Dominguez
High, is a candidate for homecoming king as part of the school's homecoming
festivities this weekend.
The winners of the campus-wide balloting for homecoming king and queen
will be announced at halftime. Free's candidacy didn't involve a lot of
long-term planning or extensive campaigning.
"A friend of mine who is on the student council came by the (meeting)
office (in the Pyramid offices) last week, flipped me an application and
said, `You're running for homecoming king,"' said a smiling Free
earlier this week before a practice.
"I told her, `No, I'm not!' and she said, `Yes you are! So fill this
out and print out your transcript!"'
He smiled again.
"I was homecoming king my senior year at Dominguez," he said.
"So maybe I can go out as `king' in both high school and college."
Free is scheduled to pick up a degree in Criminal Justice in May.
And, if all goes to plan, he'll be picking up a lot of laughs in front
of a lot of audiences by the time the 2008 LBSU homecoming king picks
up his crown.
A couple of Film Studies classes (in screenwriting and comedy writing)
helped nudge him onto the road that he hopes will eventually lead him
to his goal of earning a living as a standup comedian, and onto the side
roads into television and movies that are often the byproduct for the
best of the best in that line of entertainment.
As part of the comedy writing class, he and other class members had to
perform a standup routine at the Ice House in Pasadena.
He was one of four students from the class who were invited back for another
competition at the club and eventually reached the last night of competition.
He didn't `win' but got more than enough positive feedback from industry
sources to think it's a long-term career worth pursuing in earnest after
he's finding a wall on which to hang his Long Beach diploma.
"To have people (at the club) tell me they think I have the raw talent
(to succeed in the industry) was exciting," he said.
"I grew up listening to my mother's Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby (comedy)
albums. And for as long as I can remember I've always written a lot of
sketches and monologues. My goal was to end up writing for television.
But I never gave much serious thought to actually performing the stuff
myself."
A little more than two years ago Free, then a sophomore in Reynolds' program,
figured that the spring of 2007 would have him plotting where he would
be heading to earn money while playing basketball.
But, not long after grabbing 19 rebounds during a Big West Conference
game at UC Santa Barbara in late December of 2004, his left knee began
to swell.
The swelling didn't subside and the pain increased. A Magnetic Imaging
Resonance examination exposed a torn meniscus cartilage. Surgery was performed
and he missed the final 11 games of the season.
"When they went in, they found out the cartilage was shaped the wrong
way," he said. "And there wasn't a lot of cartilage left after
the surgery."
His rehabilitation process hit a roadblock in the summer of 2005 when
he stumbled on the stairs in his apartment building.
He practiced last season as a redshirt, when the knee permitted him. But
he already knew that his basketball future was rapidly coming to a close.
"(Trainer) Dan (Bailey) told me once that, at the rate my knee was
going, I'd need a new one in 20 years," Free said. "That wasn't
something I wanted to hear."
Even faced with swelling and pain, he wanted to play this season with
the idea that it would be his basketball swansong.
"I'd already understood that I was going to be in some pain whenever
I played or practiced but I thought I could play through it one last season,"
he said.
"But when it swells, there isn't a lot I can do because I can't bend
the knee so I can't play or practice," he said.
With the return of Dominique Ricks and Mark Dawson, who split the bulk
of the minutes in the post position last season, Free didn't figure to
get much in the way of on-court minutes.
But, when called upon, he has delivered.
In 21 minutes of play against Cal State Northridge and Pacific a couple
of weeks ago while Dawson was suspended, he hit all five shots he attempted
and grabbed five rebounds in Games 1 and 2 of what proved to be a five-game
winning streak.
Then, last week at Cal State Fullerton, Free was inserted into the game
by Reynolds after Ricks and Dawson picked up two fouls in the first half
and he responded with a couple of key buckets and a rebound in four minutes
of the 49ers' 94-84 win.
"That was huge," Reynolds said. "He's come through for
us in some tight situations. He's been around the league for a long time.
He isn't as athletic as he used to be (before the knee problems) but he's
strong, knows how to get position and has good post moves."
Free concedes he felt a little "lost in the shuffle" while mostly
confined to the bench this season.
"But I'm glad to be able to do anything I can do to help this team
do well, win the conference and get into the (NCAA) tournament,"
he said. "My knee actually has been doing pretty well for the last
month. So if the coach calls my number, I'm ready to go."
Of course, without the knee problems, he might not have enrolled in Brian
Lane's film classes.
And he might not have ever found out that he enjoys talking on a stage
and in front of audience every bit as much as he ever did grabbing rebounds
or dunking in front of a crowded gymnasium.
"For the longest time in my life, basketball (as a future) was my
only goal ... there were no other options," he said. "But I
was fortunate enough to find something I want to do with my life that
I enjoy just as much."
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