Lakerholics

A Lakers Fan Community

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. By the winter of 2015, the buzz had made it to Loveland, Ohio, where 13-year-old Jaxson Hayes knew he needed to see it for himself. Word of a high-school junior hanging 51 points on Edgewood, 45 on Valley View and 53 on Bellbrook had people talking, and Hayes and his friends wanted in.

    “This was a really big deal,” Hayes told The Athletic.

    A group of Hayes’ friends, AAU teammates, middle school friends and some basketball-crazy dads piled into cars and made the 40-minute drive to Franklin, squeezing shoulder-to-shoulder into sold-out gyms. Like so many others in the area, Hayes packed in to watch the smooth lefty from tiny Franklin High School chase down LeBron James’ high school scoring marks.

    Luke Kennard was the main event. The star of “LukeMania.” The reason the Franklin Wildcats moved games to college arenas and traveled with police escorts to small-town gyms in southwest Ohio.

    “Luke’s games?” Hayes remembered. “Oh my gosh, you couldn’t stand.”

    The NBA is filled with origin stories like this. So is the G League. So are leagues across European leagues and South America. Some players, like James, ride that momentum all the way to the top of the sport. Most, like Kennard, have to be OK with leaving all of that behind as they figure out how to survive.

    “The reality of 99 percent of NBA players is that they were the best player on their high school and AAU team and a star in college, or, you know, a star overseas, or whatever it may be,” Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said, “And you get to the NBA, and you got to be able to start anew.”

    But circumstances have placed Kennard in a moment where the Lakers have needed him to be a little nostalgic. Injuries to Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves created a void for a star ballhandler, a perimeter scorer, a playmaker. And the guy who filled it up in Franklin knew exactly what to do.

    “ It’s a big jump in intensity and the way I play, obviously, the minutes and being more involved in actions and all that,” Kennard said. “It was a quick change, obviously. But just knowing, like I had an idea of what it was gonna be like.”

    The Lakers lead the Houston Rockets 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs, having survived the potentially season-altering injuries to Dončić and Reaves, thanks in part to Kennard turning back the clock.

    “When I’m out there, I mean, I’m playing within the flow of the game and stuff, but I’m obviously doing things that I haven’t done in the last few years, just turnaround shots, crazy shots sometimes,” Kennard said. “Stuff I did back in high school. And I don’t feel any pressure right now to do this. I’m having a lot of fun, and I’m enjoying it, and it’s exciting.”

Leave a Reply