How DeAndre Jordan is expanding his game beyond the court
DeAndre Jordan logged less than six minutes in Denver’s 109-80 Game 1 victory over Minnesota on Sunday night. He played only 39 games for the Nuggets during the regular season, Jordan’s lowest total over his 15-year career. He is still a towering presence on Denver’s bench, in spirit as much as stature. Jordan became a fixture at group meals whenever players gathered for dinner on the road. He is never short on counsel in practice or during timeouts, an unmistakable hint of mellow always hugging his words.
“To have a guy who’s not really playing, but still be engaged every day, and putting the team above himself. … Everybody says, ‘We gotta be selfless.’ But to live and walk it every day is a lot harder,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said in late March, during a stretch where Jordan didn’t appear for 12 straight contests. “His leadership and his voice and positivity have been really impactful for this group. He can help us at a high level without playing a minute.”
“Just a great, great person,” said Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets’ All-NBA centerpiece. “We can go talk to him if you feel bad. Just a great, great person to be around. A great vet. Leader. Saying the right things in the right time.”
A former All-Star in his own right, Jordan, 34, has primed his mind to handle such a role. He can still soar above the rim, flushing a pair of lobs from Jamal Murray in the second half against Minnesota. His defensive prowess, however, has certainly waned, and Jordan has spent the past three seasons sharpening the muscle between his ears as much as maintaining his aging legs. Jordan enrolled into Brown University’s Contemplative Studies program during the COVID-19 pandemic and has since continued taking online classes throughout stops in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Denver, exploring the greater depths of philosophy and religion, consciousness and mindfulness, as well as the cognitive science of meditation.
Jordan spent one year at Texas A&M before leaving the Aggies and entering the 2008 NBA Draft. He was far more focused on the league than his education. “When I was 18, I didn’t know what I was interested in,” Jordan told Yahoo Sports. “As I got older, I was learning about mindfulness, consciousness, meditation on my own individually, why not learn from some of the best people in the world and an amazing institution?”
A 2012 preseason trip to China, playing games in Beijing and Shanghai, first exposed Jordan to Buddhism. In 2015, the Clippers and the Hornets played two preseason games that marked the NBA’s first visit to Shenzhen. In between exhibitions, Jordan got to visit several Buddhist temples, feeling the history beneath his size 18 shoes as he walked their hallowed grounds. “I was able to go out there and understand Buddhism,” Jordan said. A string of small moments provided great clarity on his future. “This is how I want to view and go through my journey,” he explained. “And it’s been a great one.”
By the time Jordan joined Dallas in 2018, he’d become well-practiced with meditation. During the preseason, a group of 10 Tibetan monks visited the Mavericks’ facility as part of an annual trip to Texas to create a sand mandala, a vibrant spiritual form of art. The visitors led Dallas’ business operations in a guided meditation. And there, among a sea of staffers sitting cross-legged along the practice court in business casual clothes, their corporate lanyards dangling from their necks, Jordan took his own place in a gray, Mavericks sleeveless shirt. His tall, upright posture, eyes closed, braided hair brushed back, it all stood out like a birthday candle atop a cake.
Jordan’s practice has taught him most about patience and being present. That became tested, for everyone, during the pandemic and the early months of quarantine, when the world was on pause and the indefinite nothingness could swallow you whole. Jordan found his meditation experience incredibly beneficial as his regimented NBA life ground to a halt, and that’s when he decided to further his exploration with Brown’s program.
Throughout this season, Jordan had class every Tuesday and Thursday. “Obviously not a full course load because of my work schedule,” he said. A few days before speaking with Yahoo Sports, Jordan had to reach the Nuggets’ team bus by 4 p.m., but his latest Zoom session didn’t end until 3:50. The moment the class concluded, he snapped his laptop shut. “I had to hurry up and pack up my computer and run downstairs,” Jordan said. He can use Denver’s group transit as an opportunity to catch up on readings and papers. There are several classmates with whom Jordan has had multiple courses, and a few of those friends were Jordan’s guests when the Nuggets visited the Celtics in Boston on New Year’s Day. “It’s just a range of different people,” Jordan said. “And I like to have the conversations that we have in class, just from different knowledge points, from different ages, backgrounds and things like that.”
Jordan plans to complete his undergraduate degree. He scheduled a call with a school dean for the end of the season to plot out the remaining credits he has left to achieve. Malone has said he would like Jordan to join the Nuggets’ coaching staff at Summer League this July. For now, Jordan appears to be serving as part of Denver’s reserve platoon to spell Jokic. Center Thomas Bryant notably did not play in the Nuggets’ Game 1 win, after Denver acquired Bryant from the Lakers at the trade deadline. The Nuggets host Minnesota for Game 2 Wednesday night.
But each game in these series can bring its own chessboard, featuring different pieces than any previous matchup. The swing of momentum can be vicious. Jordan knows the importance of maintaining balance amid those tides. He was, after all, yanked from the fourth quarter against the Timberwolves after being whistled for consecutive moving screens.
“Don’t worry about a play four plays ago. Focus on the next quarter, focus on this moment, try and stay in it as much as possible,” Jordan said. “I think that’s huge for sports and even bigger for life.”
