Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel (blog) reports:
Kentucky coach John Calipari once called DeAndre Liggins a Tony Allen clone.
While Liggins tries to blossom into a player of Tony Allen’s caliber, he has a pretty good teacher: Tony Allen.
Liggins, the No. 56 overall draft pick for the Orlando Magic, considers Allen a mentor. They met in Chicago – the city where they both grew up – after Liggins freshman year at Kentucky while hanging out in some of the same basketball circles.
These days they exchange text messages often, and they hung out earlier this week in Chicago before Liggins flew to Orlando to meet with his new team.
“He tells me the NBA is not easy,” Liggins said of Allen. “Defending the best player every night is not easy, especially in the NBA. You just have to continue to be tough.”
