Michael Redd Likes to Bowl

Bucks.com has a feature on Michael Redd's love of bowling. As much as this is a non-story, it's kind of an interesting insight into what NBA players do when they're not playing. Or doing unsavory things (OK, less relevant for someone like Redd). Turns out Redd and Desmond Mason used to bowl all the time during Mason's first stint in Milwaukee. Redd's pretty good too.

“My highest score ever, I think, was 254," he said. "I love playing. I average between 170 and 180.”

"There are a lot of NBA players who love to bowl," Redd said. "Whenever Rasheed (Wallace) is in town, he usually calls me up and we go bowling. He’s pretty good, too.”

New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul, one of Redd's colleagues in Team USA camp this summer, is another bowling buff. He even became a spokesman for the United States Bowling Congress this year.

“Chris and I are teammates on the national team," Redd noted, "so we’ll have to go out and get it crackin.’”

Paul's passion for bowling has roots with his family. He has been bowling since he was a youngster, and during the offseason, he joins family and friends to bowl as often as twice a day at AMF Major League Lanes in Winston-Salem, N.C.

During the basketball season, the former Wake Forest University All-American tries to bowl once a week. He even toured USBC Headquarters in Greendale during the Hornets' visit to Milwaukee last season.

In an interview with USA Today, Paul was asked, "What would you rather do - score 50 points or bowl a 300 game?"

Paul's reply was, "I said a 300 game because once I got to 11 strikes in a row, I'd be way more nervous than trying to hit a free throw in front of 18,000 people."

Like Paul, Redd takes his bowling seriously. But he readily admits that he has watched the movie "Kingpin," which does not quite portray the sport in the same vein.

"I saw it a long time ago," Redd said with a chuckle. "It's one of the funniest movies. Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray ... and Randy Quaid.

"It was hilarious.”