The rose that grew from concrete

  DANIEL WONG Senior Jason Flowers, who
sparked the Bruins this season, displays a tattoo that honors his
Watts background.

By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff

Most people would have thrown in the towel.

Most people would have given up the dream.

Jason Flowers isn’t most people.

Growing up from meager beginnings in Watts with a single mother,
Flowers had a dream to play basketball at UCLA.

It has been a rigorous journey, one that took him from UCLA to
UC Irvine and then back to UCLA, but Flowers has finally
accomplished his life-long goal in his senior season. The former
walk-on is not only starting for the Bruins (9-4), but his
hard-nose defense and unselfish play has propelled UCLA to five
straight wins.

The journey began with Flowers enrolling in UCLA his freshman
year, hoping he would walk onto the team. But after not making the
cut, he decided to transfer to UC Irvine. He went on to play two
years with the Anteaters, posting 21 starts and seven points per
game.

After seeing an opportunity to once again chase his dream of
being a Bruin, the 6-foot point guard decided to transfer back to
UCLA. After redshirting last season, Flowers finally got a chance
to play midway through this year and he’s making the most of
his opportunity.

“It’s a great story,” Bruin head coach Steve
Lavin said. “(Jason) took kind of an unusual road but
he’s eventually realized his goal. And for him to be part of
this five-game winning streak, it makes it even that more
remarkable.

“It’s one thing just to make the team, but then to
make the team and actually be starting and contributing, it’s
pretty impressive,” Lavin added.

Even though he said the journey has been hard, Flowers said he
wouldn’t change anything about it.

“The road that I took helps me appreciate it all,”
Flowers said. “So many times you accomplish things and it
comes easy. Then in the end you don’t appreciate it.

“But when you really have to work at it, when you go home
and you cry sometimes, when you think that there’s no way up
and then you keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing and you
finally get a breakthrough, that’s the best feeling in the
world.”

Flowers said it was his faith in God, his friends, his family
and especially his strong mother, Vivian Hawes, that helped him
persevere through these four years. He wants to share his “15
minutes of fame” with those people.

The closest he came to giving up his dream was the summer after
his freshman year at UCLA.

“Probably the toughest thing was going back to Watts when
I wasn’t on the team after my freshman year,” he said.
“But it’s funny because the same people that doubted
then, doubted when I came back last year, and those are the same
people that are now acting like they were on my side the whole
time.

“When you go through rough times, you really find out who
the people are that really care about you.”

After deciding to transfer to Irvine, Flowers averaged 8.2
points and 2.5 rebounds his first year with the Anteaters. He
posted similar numbers his sophomore campaign, including a
career-high 25 points against Long Beach State.

With the departure of current Charlotte Hornet Baron Davis to
the NBA the Bruins were looking for some guards last season.
Because of his development in Irvine, Flowers easily made the
team.

Making the team was one thing, but getting some playing time
with the amount of quality guards on the roster seemed
impossible.

When Flowers became eligible this season, guards Earl Watson,
Ray Young, Ryan Bailey and Billy Knight were all ahead of him on
the depth chart.

“I came here with the mindset that even if I never had a
prominent role or played a lot it was the dream coming true,”
Flowers said. “It was being at UCLA, it was being on the
team, it was getting a UCLA degree.

“So it was bigger than just basketball and the basketball
part is just icing on the cake,” Flowers added.

After redshirting last season, in the beginning it looked that
he would be destined to ride the pine once again this season. In
UCLA’s first eight games, Flowers only got off the bench late
in the game for mop up duty.

Then came the breakthrough on Dec. 30 in West Lafayette, Ind.
against the highly regarded Purdue Boilermakers.

The team was 4-4 at the time and searching for some spark. In
hopes of shaking up his team, Lavin decided to put the former
walk-on in the starting lineup.

Flowers only scored three points that game, but he’s not
on the floor to score ““ he’s on the court to provide
leadership, to be a tireless defender, and to distribute the
ball.

Getting some unselfish play from their senior point guard, UCLA
went on to win 87-82. Flowers has been in the starting lineup ever
since, and the Bruins have yet to lose with the guard from Watts as
a starter.

“Jason has brought a lot of spark to the team,” UCLA
guard Ray Young said. “He’s playing very good defense.
His energy is just contagious.”

Teammate Jason Kapono marvels at Flowers’ story.

“It just shows his heart,” Kapono said. “It
shows what type of person he is. He’s one of those guys who
is not going to get down on himself. Certain people can’t
take not playing and they transfer, but Jason kept working and now
he’s starting.”

Flowers stresses that he didn’t accomplish his dream by
himself.

First and foremost, he said, all of his current success would
not be possible without his mother. With Flowers’ father
gone, Hawes had to scrape by to put food on the table and provide
for the two.

Looking back, Flowers doesn’t know how she did it.

“My mom is just unbelievable,” said Flowers, who has
a 3-year-old daughter. “I sit back now and I’m dealing
with my daughter and to think what my mom went through and for how
long she went through it, it’s amazing.

“She’s a very strong woman. She instilled stuff in
me that hopefully I’ll be able to pass on to my daughter.
Things that will help everyday that I’m on this
earth.”

Flowers strongly believes that God laid out this plan for him.
He said that when he returned to UCLA last season, something he
never expected he would do when he first left, he put his future in
God’s hands.

“Now I see the road that I took and all the hard work and
the hard times, I know that God had a plan,” Flowers said.
“He had a reason for everything that went on. Who knows what
will happen tomorrow. But whatever happens tomorrow, I know
there’s a reason why that happened.”