With the 3rd pick in the Basketball Feelings Feelings Draft, Vivek Jacob selects... FULFILLMENT
I met Vivek for the first time ten minutes before we were set to take the stage together for an Athletic pre-season Raptors panel Blake Murphy had invited us to join him on. The Raptors panel preceded a Leafs panel, and the dude heavy crowd of 250ish were predominantly in blue and white hockey jerseys. I had on these obnoxious white gator loafers I really love and somewhere in the middle of our handshake, without breaking eye contact, Vivek stressed, “Really nice shoes.” I swear I hadn’t seem him so much as glance down. That, plus the way he moved through deep, deep gameplay knowledge and tactical stats while keeping the perfect amount of room for a quick joke carried on the back of keen observation during the panel, and the only word that made sense to settle on this guy was ‘classy’. We’ve gotten more familiar since and now I know that his kindness is as deep as his knowledge, his impeccable manners as sincere as this wild laugh when he really gets going that can completely break his composure for a full on minute. Vivek is just a really rare kind of smart. It translates to basketball as seeing everything unfolding as it happens without the need to break things out individually, I think it translates to life the same.
There’s a certain irony in selecting fulfillment in a draft, no?
After all, the entire process of a sports draft is built on the foundation of that very feeling. Think about it. Those young athletes determined to prove their worth, touch the sky that is their dreams. Franchises hoping their endless research – and monetary investment – will be repaid by a manifestation of the player they envision. Parents, as well as all the near and dear ones who helped along the way, of course, looking on proudly and feeling some sense of the magical feeling that all their sacrifices have reaped a just reward.
Drafts are funny in that they postulate this theory that a player is predestined to fit within the box of imagination their number befits. The LeBron James’s and Zion Williamsons of the world have the league as their oyster, the rare talents that can bend the forces of the game to their will. Fall outside the lottery and you should aim to be a contributor, fall outside the first round and you should hope to stick around. But some of the league’s best stories are those who paid no attention to that and instead chased what they always believed would be a fulfillment of their hopes and dreams: The Manu Ginobilis and Nikola Jokic’s of the world. Some, like Draymond Green, derive their sense of fulfillment from proving that number wrong.
When Kyle Lowry was selected 24th overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2006 NBA Draft, he dreamed big. Alongside veterans Chucky Atkins and Damon Stoudamire, Lowry was going to have the opportunity to learn the tricks of the trade while showcasing his raw but burgeoning talent. Six games in, though, he broke his hand and was ruled out for the season. Adding insult to injury, the Grizzlies put more doubt in Lowry’s head by selecting Mike Conley, another point guard, fourth overall in the very next draft. Did Lowry already blow his shot? What of his dreams and goals?
Two years later, Lowry was traded to Houston where he was labelled hard-headed, perhaps even narcissistic because of the extent to which he frowned upon coach’s plans for him and his team. He’s written in The Player’s Tribune of his trust issues, and with no one to share the fulfillment of his dreams with but himself, he raged against the machine. I recently watched a TV series called Patriot, and though not particularly enamoured by it, these lines delivered by Terry O’Quinn playing Tom Tavner stuck with me,
“You are what you won’t stop doing. If you discover what you are passionate about, that person and that thing will intersect. Passion involves compulsion. All people have compulsions that draw them away from safety and their best interests. People and what they love don’t always intersect, people and their compulsions do.”
Lowry loves the game of basketball, but his compulsion has always been to showcase how much smarter he can be than everyone else. When he was too immature, that compulsion drew him away from true fulfillment on the court – becoming the best basketball player he could be. There is give-and-take with any organization, and it wasn’t until he was challenged by Masai Ujiri in Toronto to prove he wasn’t meant to be a journeyman that he began to understand that.
Through his Toronto years, Lowry has steadily ascended toward peace between the ears as the marriage of his basketball IQ with excellent leadership and skill has brought about all-star appearances and perennial regular season and playoff success. He has found the level of compulsion that makes him great at the game he is most passionate about. There is less admonishing of officials, coaches, and teammates alike for not being on the same page as him and more anticipating charges before they are taken or testing the bounds of what constitutes a 2-for-1 opportunity.
Winning the championship has taken Lowry to a different place, a different head space it feels like. Yes, on the one hand we can make the case that Lowry has always been this player: the one with the effervescent hustle and tactical know-how, but he also hasn't been this player. There is a "What can you say?" swag about him that just feels different. We saw it that night in Indiana when he came up with big shot after big shot and showcased the imaginary rock on his ring finger to a fan, we saw it at home against Dallas when the Raptors trailed by 30. It's not the naïve, irrational confidence of a Nick Young, but the serenity that sees a Tim Duncan make the most unlikely of 3-pointers to force overtime in a playoff game, not because he has a penchant for them, but because he’s delivered on the expectations of others and, most importantly, himself before.
That gold ball Lowry has so coveted is his now, and NBA Champion is forever. Far removed from No. 24 overall, No. 7 is now immortalized in Toronto. Fulfillment, what a wonderful feeling.
