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.
But he managed to keep his absences from his father for almost three years, even after an automated system at one school called home to report him. The sly youth put in a change of address and phone number to keep Dad in the dark.
The gym time in downtown Salt Lake City may have been a necessary evil to raise his game.
"It's pretty crazy from an outside perspective, but it's the only life I knew," said Vroman, whose parents divorced when he was in first grade.
Vroman expressed himself with hair that was alternately yellow, blue, maroon and black. His sister is a parallel free spirit in the music world.
She plays bass for the punk-rock group Lithium.
Only one junior college, Snow, made Vroman an offer. He did not have the grades or basketball resume to play at a four-year school. But Snow vaulted him to Iowa State, where he became one of the Big 12's top rebounders.
But in 2003, Vroman was arrested twice in five months for marijuana possession and drunken driving.
"I was just dumbfounded about it and real disappointed," said his father, a counselor for juveniles in Salt Lake City. "He's not that same kid anymore."
The latter incident woke up Vroman, who apologized publicly.
"They were really hard things to go through at the time, but I'm fortunate to go through them in college," Vroman said.
He cut and toned down his hair at the request of Cyclones coach Wayne Morgan, who replaced Larry Eustachy that summer. He then won the Big 12 rebounding title as a senior.
He was called a poor man's Nick Collison, expending relentless energy on the court and a dynamic personality off it. Morgan has said he could be a more offensively talented version of Dennis Rodman.
It was not until the NBA's draft camps that Vroman vroomed up draft boards.
Phoenix had him pegged at No.16 overall and got him at No. 31, a second-round choice with no roster guarantee.
He will arrive in Phoenix early next month in preparation for summer leagues in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.
"His heart's big," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "If you have that, and you play hard and come every day to work, then he has a good shot at making the team. At the second round, you're not going to get a great, talented kid. So you hope that his heart, determination and brains can pull him through. There have been a lot of second-rounders with that quality that have made a big splash in the league."