Damien Linson is a rookie trying to crack the Ravens roster as a wide receiver. But Linson achieved similar success in basketball, where he was named the Player of the Year in North Carolina in 2003. A larger Q&A with Linson will be published in tomorrow’s paper, but here’s a morsel of that interview.

Linson talked at length about his playing days on the hardwood. At one point, coaches from Wake Forest, East Carolina, Appalachian State and North Carolina A&T visited Plymouth High School to recruit the point guard. His best game was in the quarterfinal of the state championships in his senior year. "I scored 36 points. I know I had double-digit steals and double-digit assists. The defense that we ran, we full court-pressed the entire game. I averaged almost double-digit steals every game because I was in the middle of the press and I would just jump the pass."

While he watched and studied other point guards in the NBA, Linson said he never singled out one particular player as his role model. "I just tried to look at all of the best players and take a little from everybody. You could say that they were teaching me without even knowing. Just watching them, I was using some of the steps and some of the tactics that they used."

And there are times when Linson reflects back on those days and wonders how his life would have unfolded if he had pursued basketball instead of football. "I do all of the time, man. But who’s to say? It was a transition to make, but at the end of the day, I’m happy with it."