Before long, Drew Gooden will know what it’s like to be rich.

That’s only fair, because the Kansas University junior forward/future NBA lottery pick, who on Tuesday was named Associated Press Big 12 basketball player of the year in a unanimous vote, darn well knows what it’s like to be poor.

Kansas junior drew gooden was a unanimous choice as The Associated Press' Big 12 player of the year.

Another word for poor is “broke,” which is the way the 6-foot-10, 230-pounder describes his monetary status growing up.

“I was dead broke,” said Gooden, who hails from Richmond, Calif., in the Bay Area.

How “broke” is “dead broke?”

“Like finding a place to live, other than the car or something like that,” Gooden explained. “I wouldn’t say I came home from school and the lights were out and it was just nasty and it was the slums. I know it’s a lot worse for some other people. (But) we would eat maybe once a day. You strive for that day the checks come on the 1st and 15th (of the month). Basically we lived from check to check. We were broke, no way around it.”

By “we” Gooden meant himself, his dad Andrew II, who worked as a construction worker and security officer during Drew’s growing years, his stepmom Adrienne, brother Antonio and sister Ariel.

“My dad and stepmom stayed in the living room on a daybed with the baby (Ariel) and we (he and brother) were in the bedroom. It was tough,” Gooden said.

Drew’s mom, Ulla she and Drew’s dad divorced when Drew was in elementary school lived 45 minutes away from Drew’s home in American Canyon, Calif., with husband Jim Lear.

Ulla worked at a bank, while Lear was a police officer turned detective. The two spent top-quality time with Drew on weekends. Drew even lived with the two while attending junior high.

“When I stayed with my mom, she was more squared away financially (than dad),” said Drew, who returned to live with his father in high school so Drew could play basketball at well-respected El Cerrito High. “I got to see what that lifestyle was like as a child. I was fortunate to get to see both sides. How it was liked to be squared off, taken care of with my mom and basically scrapping for anything (with dad).”

Happy childhood

Not that he minded living with little money.

Drew respected his papa a 6-foot-3 former Central Washington basketball player who met 5-foot-10 Ulla in her native country of Finland when he was playing pro ball overseas for the money he did bring in.

“When I was in high school, my dad worked two jobs, night and day,” Gooden said. “He was working graveyard as far as security, then he’d sleep four hours and he’d go to the rec center (East Shore Community Center) and work with kids.

Drew gooden applauds his teammates at the end of a recent game.

“I was like, ‘Damn, how’s he doing this?’ He hardly ever got any rest. He’s 50 years old now. He’s not doing the security work now. He’s just working with kids. Just now he’s doing better financially. They are all right now. It just took getting the big guy out of the house for them to eat right, I guess,” Gooden joked.

“I think people are actually happier when they are broke than when they have money to tell you the truth. We were a happy family.”

His family included proud grandparents Andy and Ruth. Andy served in the Air Force 20 years, receiving full retirement benefits at age 38, later working for the educational testing service and as a general contractor.

All parties got along, famously.

“We were separated, but all like an extended family,” said Ulla, now a stockbroker and investment firm employee living with husband Jim in the retirement community of Bella Vista, Ark. “We have always been like best friends.”

Drew will pay loved ones back

Grateful for his many immediate family members, Drew is looking forward to the day he can take care of all of them.

“The first thing I’m going to do when they get me a check (in NBA) is take care of my family. I want to give my family the world because they gave me the world as much as they could as far as loving me, caring for me, raising me. They gave me the world, so why not help them out?” Gooden said. “It’s a little materialistic, but something I want to do for my family. They gave me peace of mind. You can never take that away.”

Drew’s conscientious mother Ulla knitted socks for all members of KU’s team this past winter is touched her son wants to shower gifts on all his closest relatives when he joins the NBA after this college season or next.

“I know. It’s so sweet (of him),” she said. “Whenever it happens. As a mother and parent I I’d love him to stay another year (at Kansas). But it is his decision. If he wants to go, that is fine too. We’ll all sit down and talk about it after this season.”

Yes, everybody will have some input Ulla, Andrew I, Andrew II, Andy … everybody.

For now, Ulla and Andrew II both continue to be amazed about how their big baby (Drew was 9 pounds, 21 ounces, 21 inches at birth) boy has turned into an imposing, grown man.

“The doctor told me the day Drew was born, ‘Your son will be a big boy, 6-10, 6-11,” Drew’s dad said. “I said, ‘Doc, how can you tell? He’s just a baby’ He said, ‘We have our ways.’ I found that out and stuck a nerf ball in his crib.”

Drew watched with interest early on as his dad played basketball.

“I remember at 3, 4, 5 his dad would take him to the playground and keep him there all day,” Drew’s grandfather Andy said. “When he started playing and I started noticing, he was around 10. He went to the Big Shot Shootout a PAL (Police Athletic League) program. Other kids had practiced for the event for weeks. Drew picked up a ball and shot lights out. He won the whole thing. It’s when I knew he had some shooting skills.”

So granddad enrolled Drew in organized PAL basketball.

“The played him at guard,” Andy said. “He sort of outgrew the position, but could dribble at a young age. He was on a team that scored 32 points (one game). Drew had 30 of the 32. It was at that point I thought we might have something here. It was a matter of seeing if basketball kept his attention, his interest. I’ve seen kids lose interest, have it drift off.”

He could play baseball, too

Drew’s mind did wander … to the baseball diamond in junior high.

“He kind of got tired of basketball a little bit and said, ‘I want to play some baseball.’ I said, ‘Cool,”’ Ulla Lear related. “He did play baseball for a little while, and was good at it, but he grew a lot and it was easier to play basketball.”

Drew didn’t play his freshman year of high school, but had a standout sophomore season, then grew from 6-foot-4 to 6-8 for his junior year at El Cerrito HS, when he emerged as one of the top players in California. As a senior, he averaged 18.5 points and 13 boards a game.

“His sophomore year is when he really started playing and I mean playing,” said Andy, who in his day was a a standout baseball outfielder in the Air Force and even had some overtures to play minor league ball. “It got to the point people started noticing him.”

Sure, Gooden was good in high school, but always kept an even keel, thanks to his hard-driving dad.

“Always, always,” Drew said, asked if dad pushed him hard. “He never credited me on anything I did. If I got 30 some points there was always something I could have done better. He and coach (Roy) Williams remind me of the same people, same coaching style.

“It kept me hungry because I knew I could never have a perfect game. I would never be satisfied with one game.”

Gooden received some preliminary recruiting interest from colleges, including Kansas, his junior year.

By coincidence, the fact his mother moved from California to Arkansas during his high school days, played a factor in Drew ultimately coming to KU.

“The summer before my senior year, I was driving with my mom from Arkansas to Chicago for a Cubs game. I saw I-70 was right there. I called coach (Williams) and told him we were driving up so he said, ‘Well do you mind stopping by for an unofficial visit?’

“So we stopped (in Lawrence) on the way back. I came here and played pickup with the guys Scot Pollard and Paul Pierce were here. I thought, ‘Wow all these dudes, all these pro guys from California, are here.’ Then I went to Fayetteville and played pickup with the Razorbacks so I had kind of a wish trip as far as playing basketball in the summer.”

He made an official visit to KU in September of his senior year and committed to KU shortly after.

“It seems like all the guys here were from California so it was no big deal,” Drew said.

It’s been paradise ever since.

“This is part of you once you finish school Lawrence, Kansas is part of you,” Gooden said. “A lot of people say, ‘I’m not coming back (to visit), but those are the same guys you always see popping up around you.’ This is like my second home. Of course I’ll always come back.”

KU has been good for Gooden, that is for sure.

“Coach Williams has done a fantastic job bringing out what talent he had,” Andy Gooden said. “He was not near than when he got there. He had the jump shot in high school. He was pretty fast. He could dribble around the average guy and dunk. His jump hook, all that, he developed at Kansas. Coach has done so much to develop to what he is. It’s amazing.”

Gooden has developed his game and his personality. He’s a polished person right now.

“I think he has matured. He is more if you want to call it, ‘Sophisticated,” gramps Andy said. “He makes more a business approach to his decisions in conversation. You know how it is when talk to a kid you sort of say, ‘yeah, yeah, OK.’ You talk to a young adult if there is substance and I see substance.”

Honored at player honor

You better bellieve Gooden is proud he’s player of the year after a season in which he averaged a league-leading 20.6 points and 11.1 rebounds.

“I’m really excited about being named player of the year,” Gooden said. “As far as individual goals, that was my main one in conference play. The great thing is that even to be considered, I knew we would have to win a lot of games and win the conference, and we did that. I give credit to coach Williams, my teammates and my family for their support because if it wasn’t for all of them, I wouldn’t be player of the year.”

“Drew I think is very deserving,” Williams said. “I think he had a phenomenal year. During a couple stretches he played as well, if not better, than any player I’ve ever had. When you say leading the league in scoring and rebounding but doing that in addition to leading your team to an undefeated conference season, he just had a great year and is very deserving of all the honors he’s beginning to get and all the honors that will come to him in the future.

“The biggest thing as I sit back and remember the frustrations he felt at some point during his freshman year, how it has all come back and now he is truly a total and complete basketball player.”

And person.

“He’s grown. I’m so proud of him,” Ulla stated.