Rookie Keyonte George will stop at nothing to prove that he’s right where he belongs
You might think that every NBA rookie is anxiously awaiting opening night, that they’ve circled the date on their figurative calendar.
That’s mostly true. Making an NBA debut, hearing your name called for the first time in a game that has stakes is unbelievably special and a moment these young players will never forget.
But for Utah Jazz rookie Keyonte George, it is the second game of the 2023-24 NBA season, against the Los Angeles Clippers, that he’s had circled.
Belonging
I asked Keyonte George to close his eyes and imagine a scene.
It’s a sold out NBA crowd, the game is close, the fans are screaming. He has the ball in his hands, crosses over, steps back and hits a deep 3-pointer, locking eyes with the opposing player who’s outstretched arms did nothing to deter the shot.
Who is George looking at?
“Russell Westbrook,” the rookie said without hesitation, a sly grin growing as he opened his eyes but continued to imagine the scene. “Anything though. Score on him, dunk on him, get any kind of bucket on him or just have a conversation with him.”
George doesn’t want to score on Westbrook because of any kind of animus. It’s actually quite the opposite. George has been a fan of Westbrook for as long as he can remember.
George was just four years old when Westbrook was drafted, and when George was in 7th grade, Westbrook was the NBA’s Most Valuable Player.
“Just the way he imposed his will on the game and was able to impact the game in every way possible,” George said. “He never stops, he leaves it all on the court and you can tell that he puts everything he has into every single play, every possession.”
Westbrook was a guard whom George saw finish a game with a triple-double, create matchup problems for the other team and all the while play in a way that made the game fun to watch.
There’s no denying the countless highlight reels that Westbrook has been a part of throughout his 16-year career that is still ongoing.
But even as George thinks about the prospect of playing on the same court with Westbrook, a player he idolized growing up, he looks at what surrounds him.
“But look at what we have here,” George said, pointing toward a practice court where his Jazz teammates were shooting. “Lauri Markkanen is an All-Star, JC (Jordan Clarkson) was the Sixth Man of the Year, John Collins played in the Eastern Conference Finals, Talen (Horton-Tucker), Collin Sexton, everyone…I walk into the gym and I see these guys and, sheesh. You can get star struck every day.”
But the feeling that sits just behind those star struck emotions for George is that of belonging. As he scans the room filled with NBA talent, he can’t help but feel calm.
“These are my teammates,” he said. “I looked up to them, but now they’re the guys who are going to be supporting me or playing against me. This is where I am now.”
That was what George felt after his NBA debut. It wasn’t nerves or being overwhelmed as a rookie, or wondering if he’d be able to make it. He felt at home.
“I’m coming into all of this confident in myself,” George said. “I’m going at all these guys, not in an arrogant way, but knowing that I trust myself and if I put everything I have into it, it’ll give me the best chance to learn a lot, and I want to learn as much as I can from everyone. I can’t do that if I don’t believe in myself or don’t think that I belong here.”
A student of the game
Trusting in prior work though, is not enough for George. Not by his standards and certainly not by the standards of the NBA. He has to continue to grow and learn and he started to do that as soon as he was drafted by the Jazz.
He knows that he could have ended up on a team where his immediate opportunities could have been significantly lower. If George had been drafted by a team with an established veteran back court it could have meant years before he’d been able to play any meaningful NBA basketball.
Of course, that wouldn’t have stopped him from trying to make the decisions difficult for the coaching staff, but with the Jazz, there was a door open for him to be able to contribute right away, and he walked through that door.
Over the summer, George watched film not only of himself and the Jazz team that he would be joining, but iterations of the Jazz prior to the end of the 2022-23 season. Specifically, he watched film of Mike Conley.
“He’s established himself as one of the best point guards, and he was great for the guys that I’m playing with now,” George said.
“You can tell that everyone on the floor was happy when he had the ball in his hands. I want them to feel that with me too, and Will (Hardy) had a lot of trust in him when the ball was in his hands and I want to get to the point where Will trusts me to get the guys organized, run the right stuff and make the right decisions.”
Related
George has been trying to ask as many questions as possible, to Hardy, to Clarkson, Horton-Tucker, Sexton and Kris Dunn, in an attempt to become the best version of himself.
The rookie watches film of himself that he’s assigned but then continues to watch more when he’s at home.
He watches the Jazz, he watches the other teams, he rewatched the film from Summer League and the preseason and he plans on rewatching a lot of film as the season progresses.
“I want to find the balance that the best point guards do, like Mike did,” George said. “It’s about knowing when to score, recognizing mismatches, when to speed up and slow down.”
In attempting to be a sponge and learn from every person he can, George is hoping that his opportunities with the Jazz can grow.
Building trust
In the end, everything that George is doing is in an attempt to build trust. He wants the Jazz front office to trust him and feel validated in their choice to draft him.
He wants Hardy to trust him with responsibility and leadership. But most importantly, George needs to build trust with his teammates.
A point guard has the ball in their hands a lot, and it’s imperative for the other players on the roster to believe that the point guard has everyone’s best interests at heart. They have to believe that he will make good decisions that benefit not just the point guard and his own stats, but the team as a whole.
In order for a team of veterans and experienced NBA players to trust a rookie point guard, it takes a lot of work and proving over and over again that he is up to the task.
“It’s going to take time and continuing to work every day,” George said. “I don’t expect everyone in here to trust me on day one.
I know I have to earn that and prove to them that I’m trustworthy, but I think my work ethic, me being coachable and my ability to listen and take criticism will get me there.”
The Jazz saw something in George that made them believe that he could be the point guard of the team’s future. They were overjoyed when they were able to draft him with the No. 16 pick and they’re excited about the early returns.
They too aren’t expecting everything to be perfect, but they’re hopeful that they have a player that could end up with a long and storied career, and they too know that it requires George gaining the trust of his teammates.
“I want to do great things and I know that it’s going to take time,” George said. “But I think it’s important to also say that I’m going to have a lot of fun, because when you’re having fun and doing the right things, a lot of it will take care of itself.”
