Vroman vrooms up Suns' draft chart

PHOENIX — Some kids take the morning bus to get to school. Jackson Vroman took one to get away from school.

If not for a chronic case of high school hooky, the Phoenix Suns' newest player may never have made an improbable journey from European soccer to the 31st pick in Thursday's NBA draft.

Vroman is 6-foot-10 and the son of a former European pro basketball journeyman, but that does not tell the story of his basketball beginnings.

Academic woes delayed Vroman's organized basketball debut. He attended five high schools before gaining eligibility for the first time as a senior.

He was a 6-foot high-school freshman who had grown up on soccer in Italy, Greece and Spain, and for his first three years of high school in Salt Lake City, Utah, Vroman and a friend put Ferris Bueller to shame. They ditched school regularly, taking a bus to a downtown gym to play hoops.

Vroman was at Deseret Gym with lunch-hour executives more than he was in his classes.

"I didn't go anywhere without gym shorts underneath my pants," Vroman said.

"Everyone always asked why I wasn't in school. I'd just tell them I was being home-schooled."

Brett Vroman replaced Bill Walton at center for UCLA and played for John Wooden's 1975 national champs. He finished at UNLV and got a taste of the NBA — 11 games with Utah — as he put together a 12-year career in Europe.

Back in the United States and with his basketball career over, Vroman was already overwhelmed when his ex-wife sent Jackson, then in eighth grade, and his sister, Lauren, to him from Anchorage. He had not seen his children in 3 1/2 years and was working two jobs.

"When Jax was a freshman, I went down to Deseret Gym on a weekend to watch, and he was playing with men," Brett Vroman said. "At the end, he took over the game and hit a fade-away 20-footer to win. I thought, 'Wow, what am I looking at here?'

"Then I said, 'OK, Dad, you're getting your hopes and reality intertwined.' "

He didn't learn of Jackson's weekday escapades until Jackson was a junior.

Jackson switched schools for a variety of reasons from a problem with a coach to academic eligibility. He even tried an alternative school for a time.