I still remember the first time I saw Brandon
Jennings. He was being interviewed before the McDonald's All-American contest. His charisma and energy was oozing through the television screen. To top it all off (literally),
was his high top fade that keep giving me flashbacks of "House Party". What I
appreciated most about the kid was that he was a team player. Jennings wasn't going after the MVP award, nor the most points ever scored, or even the most defensive gambles either (steals). So then what did he want?
"I wanted to set the assist
record," Jennings said.
Although he didn't get the record of
14 ("only" managed 9) he played very admirably scoring 12 points and setting up a beautiful off-the-backboard pass to Jrue Holiday.
As Coach Moreau would say, "Jennings
wasn't just pass-first; he was pass-first, -second and -third."
Yet don't mistake the 12 points
as evidence that Jennings only tries to pass because he can't score. Counter evidence to that can be cited from his record 63 points while attending Oak Hill Academy. It is just that Jennings WANTS to pass that ball, he wants to assist, and he wants to help out whenever he can.
Born in Los Angeles and going
to school in Compton, Jennings had it tough to say the least. That's why whenever he has a chance to help others, he capitalizes on the opportunity because he appreciates good deeds and does them whenever he can. Take last year when he was in Europe and L'Aquila had an earthquake. He donated $50,000 out of the goodness of his heart because coming from LA he knew earthquakes were devastating.
Now the 10th pick of the 2009 draft is taking that
mentality of helping and assisting to the Milwaukee Bucks.
"I'm going to give you the ball,
that's what I do, I like to pass. So as long as they are running and getting out I am going to feed them. Just play basketball."
Yet Jennings knows he isn't going
to be Chris Paul overnight, he isn't perfect and understands that.
"[The Bucks] know I am going
to make mistakes. They just want to see how I run a team and just play with confidence."
Confidence is never lacking with
Jennings, and although that may be a bad thing to some, I would feel much more comfortable knowing my point guard has a bit more poise than have a scared lead guard. Especially when the opposing guard is known to be good, as the case was during the draft when Jennings said a few comments about Ricky Rubio.
"Yeah, I think I'm a better
player than he is," Jennings told reporters. "The only thing I've seen him do sometimes is when he has a home run pass or something like that. I think the dude is just all hype.
I can't even front."
That's what you can always
expect from Brandon Jennings. The truth from a true baller, he knows he is good so his goal is to make others around him better. And that's what his team expects from him to.
"I think he's going to come
in and impact us," Bucks assistant coach Kelvin Sampson said.
That's Brandon Jennings for the
folks who didn't know him. Yes sometimes he may bring the ugly as seen in his conversation with Rapper Joe
Budden, but he isn't going to sugarcoat anything for anyone.
"I'm just going to be real
with you guys."
Whether it's being real generous
to tragedy stricken cities, whether its being real honest about his competition, or whether it's being real real back in the day with his eraser head doo, don't expect anything else from the 20 year old Brandon Jennings.