As Knicks rookie shooting guard Damyean Dotson prepares for his first NBA training camp, the Houston native will have a lot on his mind.
Dotson, who has lived in Houston his entire life and spent the last two years of his college career at the University of Houston, arrived in New York during Labor Day Weekend. Clearly his thoughts are elsewhere.
In a blog on the team website, he asked for “acts of good will’’ as his city attempts to recover from Hurricane Harvey, which devastated the region, writing, “our hearts are torn.’’
Dotson started the blog: “It seemed like the rain would never end.”
Dotson reported he was “one of the lucky ones’’ as his house, south of downtown Houston, didn’t take on water or lose power, and his street did not flood. However, Dotson wrote he and his family were unable to leave their house for four days after the hurricane slammed into Texas.
“Houston, my city, my hometown, is suffering. For more than four days we went nowhere, my mother, my girlfriend and me,’’ Dotson penned before flying to New York. “We were holed up in my mother’s house, cut off from loved ones by flooded streets and impassable highways. The sun peeked out yesterday, but we’re still unable to travel far. We worry still about what the next day will bring and wonder how long the misery can go on.”
Dotson, a second-round pick last June who excelled at the Knicks summer league with his perimeter shooting, still hadn’t heard from some of his friends.
“I think my friends are safe, too, but I’m not totally sure,’’ Dotson said. “I haven’t seen a lot from them on social media, which probably means they’re having trouble with their phones. Maybe they’ve lost service. So we’re all feeling kind of isolated from one another.
“The hardest part is knowing that so many people are hurting and to see what is happening to the city. On TV we see that the freeways are overflowing with water. I was supposed to leave for New York yesterday for practice at the Knicks’ training facility, but that was the last thing on my mind.”
Dotson has been working out in Tarrytown and also with Carmelo Anthony in pickup games at his Manhattan gym.
“I’m just praying for Houston and sorry for the families who are going through this tragedy,’’ Dotson wrote. “They warned us, but they didn’t tell us it would be this bad. It hit us quick.”
“Going forward, Houston needs prayers, and acts of good will. I know that if we all lean on each other, we will make it through.”