Vroman has Suns smiling

TAYLORSVILLE — The kid already has signed his first NBA contract, the first season's pay is guaranteed, and his old man is still a wreck.

"He teases me that I'm more nervous than he is," Brett Vroman said of son Jackson, the Viewmont High product who after stops at Snow College and Iowa State University was selected in the second round of last June's NBA Draft.

Vroman is back home this week with his new team, Phoenix, playing for the Suns in the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league that runs through Saturday at Salt Lake Community College.

With his dad, who had an 11-game NBA stint with the Jazz during the 1980-81 season, and several friends and other family members watching from the stands Sunday at SLCC's Lifetime Activities Center, the 6-foot-10 Vroman scored 11 points, pulled down four rebounds and made a couple of steals in Phoenix's 94-89 loss to Chicago.

Beyond the numbers, though, it's the little things Vroman has done in his first two Revue games that has the bosses from Phoenix smiling.

"I like him because he's a hustler," said Marc Iavaroni, the former Jazz forward and current Suns assistant who is coaching Phoenix's summer club. "He's gonna play tough defense. He helps his teammates when they have a breakdown. He runs the floor really well. I think he's shown us the things we saw from him when he was at the collegiate level."

Vroman was the Big 12's leading rebounder with an average of 9.6 boards per game as an Iowa State senior, including a 19-rebound game against Kansas and a 20-rebound game in an NIT semifinal matchup with Rutgers.

He then lifted his stock even more by averaging 19.3 points and 8.3 rebounds at the Portsmouth Invitational, a postseason tournament camp for draft prospects on the bubble.

Vroman wound up being taken much earlier than most expected, second overall in the second round. And now the Suns consider him a keeper.

"There's always room for people who work hard," Iavaroni said. "There's always room for people who play team ball, and there's always room for somebody who's willing to play defense and provide some toughness."

Those are all parts of the reason the Suns have already signed Vroman for the 2004-05 season, even though second-rounders do not usually get guaranteed money until after proving themselves in their first summer league and fall camp.

Another is pure economics: