It's always been easy for Rodney Rogers to work hard.
Rogers is the rare individual who always has managed to make money doing something he loves, whether it was carrying a basketball team on his back or carrying a load of rocks in the back of his dump truck.
"You've got to love what you're doing," said rogers, the former Hillside High School, Wake Forest and NBA standout honored as an ACC Legend on Saturday, a group that also included Christian Laettner of Duke, Tommy Kearns of North Carolina and Tom Gugliotta of N.C. State.
"I loved basketball, even though it was my job," Rogers said. "Now I'm enjoying driving a little bit and trying to be the boss at the same time. But it is a job, and I want to do it to the best of my ability."
rogers, now living in his native Durham, has been concentrating on his trucking company -- named RRR for Rodney Ray Rogers -- since the Philadelphia 76ers didn't pick up his contract after the 2004-05 season.
Now, after 12 seasons in the NBA, Rogers has time to deal with his trucks and time to pursue a different brand of truck -- he's looking into forming a team for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series -- and he also has more time for his family and for his alma mater.
"This is the first time I've really been to the ACC Tournament where I wasn't playing," Rogers said Friday night while watching his Demon Deacons fall to Virginia Tech 71-52. "It's a lot different sitting on the sidelines watching it than being on the sidelines and playing in it. Next year, I'll try to get to more games and hopefully be able to get up there and chat with the players and maybe even give them a few pointers."
Wake Forest players who don't remember Rogers can get a quick refresher by grabbing a media guide, which still contains plenty of references to Rogers' standout career that helped him become one of 10 Demon Deacons to have their jerseys retired.
Rogers ranks 15th in school history in scoring with 1,720 points despite playing just three seasons (he ranks third among players who played three seasons at Wake). After being honored as ACC player of the year and a second-team All-America in 1993, Rogers entered the NBA draft a year early and was selected ninth overall by the Denver Nuggets.
Over the course of 12 seasons with seven different teams, the burly and versatile Rogers averaged 10.9 points and 4.5 rebounds. His high-water mark came in the 1999-2000 season with the Phoenix Suns, when he won the prestigious NBA Sixth Man Award after averaging 13.8 points and ranking fourth in the league with a 43.9-percent success rate from 3-point range.
"I wanted to maybe do a couple of more years and retire on my own terms, but that's how it happens sometimes," rogers said. "But I enjoyed it, and I've been blessed to play as long as I did get to play.
"It seems like it went too fast. I went to college, which was the greatest moment of my life, going to college and being able to do something I love to do. And then going to pros, I couldn't believe that. And then the next thing you know, it was over that quick."
Rogers said it may not be over just yet, claiming that he still could decide to try to make a comeback. But Rogers admitted that he hadn't played basketball in a while, and he looked quite content Friday night sitting and watching his alma mater play as a few of the friends he's made over the years stopped by to say hello.
"Sometimes I miss it," Rogers said, "but sometimes I don't,
because I can get up when I want to and do my own thing."