NBA lottery pick Jaren Jackson Jr. explains his approach to handling hazing during rookie season with Memphis Grizzlies.
David Cobb, The Commercial Appeal
Jaren Jackson Jr. answered the last question from a semi-circle of reporters gathered around him and looked across the Grizzlies' practice facility inside FedExForum.
He saw teammate Ivan Rabb, one of the last remaining Grizzlies in the gym after Friday's practice, and yelled.
“Come on, V!" the 19-year-old Jackson said. "We’ve got a meeting. Nah, I’m playing.”
Joking with the 21-year-old Rabb is one thing.
But Jackson even elicited smiles from veteran teammate Garrett Temple in the locker room after a recent game by suggesting that Usher, whose biggest hits debuted in the early 2000s, might be the 32-year-old Temple's favorite recording artist.
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Such is the infectious nature of an NBA rookie with a massive wingspan and similarly wide grin.
And when it comes to the coaches? Well, how could they be anything but smiles with the back-to-back performance Jackson turned in against the Western Conference's top teams this week?
Entering Saturday's game against the 76ers, Jackson ranked ninth among rookies in minutes per game but sixth in rebounds per game, fifth in points per game and third in total blocks.
He averaged 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and four blocks per while playing 32 minutes in back-to-back games against Golden State and Denver this week.
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"The best part about him is he doesn’t even know how good he is yet," coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. "I think he’s just scratching the surface."
Staying out of foul trouble has helped. In the first full game Memphis played without forwards JaMychal Green and Chandler Parsons, Jackson fouled out.
The next game, he committed five fouls.
But Jackson committed fewer than four fouls in each of the Grizzlies' last three games entering this weekend's action.
"When you’re picking up fouls, it messes with you mentally, too, because now you’re overthinking everything," Bickerstaff said. "But now that he’s been able to stay on the floor, you can see the confidence growing."
Jackson has boiled that down to a simple calculus equation.
“Whenever you don’t foul, coach is like ‘Oh yeah, he can play,’" Jackson said. "So there you go. More fouls equals more minutes.”
Injuries to Parsons and Green accelerated Jackson's path to the starting lineup.
As for how he is developing cohesion with veteran center Marc Gasol, Jackson said, "chemistry is built doing anything."
"Either I’m watching him in his position and I step in for him," Jackson said. "Or if we’re starting together, I’m playing off of him. All that comes with watching film, even on defense if I know he’s going to go help a certain way, I can go help him.”
Jackson said he tries not to dwell on the grind of an NBA season, an 82-game slate that will dwarf the 35-game schedule he played at Michigan State a year ago.
But there is something familiar about his time at Michigan State and his time so far in Memphis.
He was a freshman there and a rookie here.
If you're the young guy on the team dishing out jokes and friendly jabs toward teammates, you better be ready to take some, too.
"Don’t turn off your phone," Jackson said. "Just make sure you’re on call. I make sure to always be punctual to everything. Do everything they ask, because then the hazing comes if you don’t do that.
"I just make sure my phone is on high ringer all the time. I’m ready.”
Reach Grizzlies beat writer David Cobb at david.cobb@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @DavidWCobb.
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