BOSTON -- Keyon Dooling has played for six teams over his 12-year NBA career, including the Boston Celtics this season. This week he will face two of them in three days, as the Milwaukee Bucks came to Boston on Wednesday and the New Jersey Nets will visit on Friday.
It happens pretty often when you play long enough, he told CSNNE.com. You switch teams like you switch clothes. But its a good thing to be able to live all across our beautiful country, meet people in all different organizations who I have great relationships with, so its awesome. Its almost like a reunion every time you play a former team.
Dooling has taken learning experiences with him from every team he has played for, which also includes the Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, and Orlando Magic.
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Last season he played 80 games for the Bucks and learned from the coaching staff during the time.
I learned different basketball ideologies, he said. Scott Skiles has a very good system so I learned a lot of tricks and a lot of trades from him.
Even though Dooling battled injuries and a losing record on the Nets during the 2009 and 2010 seasons, he also found silver linings to those years.
I was hurt a lot but I also statistically had my best career year with the Nets, he said. I got a chance to play over there. I battled some injuries but I learned a lot. I was a part of one of the worst teams in the history of the game and that was a great learning experience as well. You can learn from that. You can appreciate when you have an opportunity to win that much more.
Whether he plays for six teams or 16 over his career, Dooling is happy to have the opportunity to suit up for each organization.
When you were younger, you put more emphasis on it because you wanted to prove the teams wrong, he said. But as you grow and as you evolve, you understand its a revolving door in this league and you change teams and it happens. Its a cycle of basketball players. You just want to make sure you continue to be in that cycle.