Bradshaw not sitting still anytime soon
By Gabriel Garcia | (gabeg@thedailytimes.com)
KNOXVILLE — Dane Bradshaw never has been one to sit still, so the Tennessee basketball fan favorite is just fine with the whirlwind his last few months of life have been.
Between becoming a father in January, becoming a leader within a prominent real estate development firm and running a summer youth basketball camp, the former Vol won’t get much of an opportunity to rest.
“It’s been fun. I’m a guy that never really likes to sit still anyway,” said Bradshaw, who is playing again in the Rocky Top League as a member of the Game Time Lights team. “Fortunately my wife is OK with that.”
Bradshaw’s duties as president and chief operating officer of Thunder Enterprises, the development firm of UT booster John Thornton, also keep him on the road. He is in Chattanooga for five days a week, helping oversee the development and sales of the project at Jasper Mountain. The first phase of that project, Jasper Highlands, just launched and has already sold more than half of the 99 available lots.
“It’s been a lot of work getting it to this point,” Bradshaw said. “We’re thrilled. We got a great response. A lot of sales and happy customers. We’re moving on and getting ready for our next phase already.”
Another thing Bradshaw does in Chattanooga is, naturally, practice the game that made him an East Tennessee celebrity. He heads to the UT-Chattanooga practice gym at 6 a.m. every morning he’s on the road and works out with the Mocs to keep in shape for the two weeks out of the year he plays at Bearden High School against East Tennessee’s best hoops talent.
“I work out with those guys, and they get me back in playing shape,” said Bradshaw. “This is my season, this two-week Rocky Top League, and I try not to embarrass myself.
“I haven’t been doing a good job, by the way,” he added out of self-deprecation, despite scoring 16 points Monday against the Knoxville News Sentinel team in a 123-94 loss. “They weren’t pretty. But anyway, it was fun to get out here and get upset when we lose, but not as much as I would at UT.”
After the summer league play and the last session of the Bradshaw Dowdle Basketball Camp are over in July, the former player under coach Bruce Pearl will become focused on the next phase at Jasper Mountain, applying many of the skills he learned with the Vols.
“We’ve got people on the waiting list for the next phase,” Bradshaw said. “It’s been fun to market and price them right and listen to the customers and put it all together, and we have one heck of a team.
“It’s a lot like basketball. You put together a great team and manage it and coach it and try to get wins, like lot sales.”
And speaking of putting together a team in basketball, the former Vol spoke of current UT basketball coach Cuonzo Martin with approval, noting the Vols’ No. 2 regular-season finish in the SEC and advancement to the second round of the NIT.
“He’s exceeded expectations,” Bradshaw said of Martin. “You don’t hear a single bad thing about him. The players respect him and — I know it’s a cliché statement — but they’re buying in. It’s the truth, because I’ve been on teams where the players didn’t buy in and it was a disaster, and when they do buy in, you can do something special, and that’s what they were able to do last year.”
