Once clinging to an NBA job, Hawks' Kent Bazemore is about to get paid
How Kent Bazemore went from the very bottom of the NBA to a Hawks starter who is expected to be one of the most coveted wings on the free-agent market.
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12 min read
Kent Bazemore remembers the number 499. The Atlanta Hawks guard once had it stitched into his shoes as a reminder of his spot on ESPN’s NBA rankings before his rookie season. Bazemore is now starting for a playoff team and possibly headed toward a huge payday, but three and a half years ago, the only player deemed worse than Bazemore was Eddy Curry.
“It’s a very special number,” he said. “It takes me back to the days where I’d just graduated from Old Dominion, played in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, didn’t do too well, didn’t have any workouts coming out. I went to one workout and that turned into nine eventually. Just playing with Golden State, the summer league, that grind, and just starting from literally the bottom. Out of 500 players, I was ranked the 499th one.”
This year, Bazemore is shooting 42 percent from 3-point range while often guarding the opposing team’s best player. When he came into prominence, though, it was for jumping around, flexing and posing. As a benchwarming rookie with the Golden State Warriors, a YouTube video brought him all sorts of attention. It captured Bazemore leaping off the bench to celebrate his teammates’ big plays.
He even did motion capture work for 2K Sports, ensuring that authentic “Bazemoring” would be in NBA 2K games. Being on the sideline wasn’t necessarily as fun as it looked, however.
“It’s hard, man,” Bazemore said. “I travel all the way across the country, all I had was my college best friend living with me at the time. You put in all this work, I used to get to the gym at like 2:30, work out from 3:30 to 4:30 on the floor, and a lot of it was just frustration.”
The Warriors were stacked in the backcourt, with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Jarrett Jack getting essentially all of the minutes. Bazemore saw players who found minutes on other teams and thought to himself, “I’m better than him, I’m better than him.” Veteran teammate Richard Jefferson told him, “You can’t compete with words.” The energy in that YouTube video paled in comparison to what he was putting into his workouts with assistant coaches Brian Scalabrine and Joe Boylan.
Bazemore played five games for the D-League’s Santa Cruz Warriors as a rookie, and they won all of them. Bazemore took the assignment seriously. He dominated.
“It helped me so much ‘cause I was able to go down there and play 30, 35 minutes and just play those small games,” he said. “I wasn’t in the best game shape, but I wanted to win, so this was like those days when I used to watch Kobe Bryant close games. Like, I haven’t played much, I’m tired, I don’t have the first step, let me see if I can win this game. Those are the type of games I was playing with myself down there. And it all paid off.”
Bazemore remembers arguing with friends that Bryant, his favorite player, was better than Tracy McGrady. He remembers thinking it was perfect when Bryant switched to No. 24 in 2007. Bazemore had been wearing that number since he was a seventh grader in 2002, and suddenly they shared more than initials.
“What drew me to Kobe is not the points he scored, it’s just like the passion, the fire he plays with. There’s only a few people, I think, in his world, that can like truly understand where he comes from when he plays the game. Like, how he wills himself to take over an entire game. It’s so hard to do that in this league."
At the 2014 trade deadline, Golden State sent Bazemore to the Los Angeles Lakers for Steve Blake. He never got to share the court with Bryant, who was injured, but he got to call himself his teammate. When he talks about Bryant, he still sounds like a fan.
“With me playing, like playing these past few years and playing down the stretch and understanding time and score and doing all this stuff, for him to do the things he did at this level with teams knowing he’s the guy, it’s amazing. It’s not only physically taxing, it’s mental. His mental approach to the game, the way he prepares, it’s unreal.”
Bazemore added, “I’ve told people he’s going to have a 50-point game this year. People think I’m crazy, but he’s going to have a 50-point game this year. Mark my words.”
As a young Bryant fan, Bazemore was initially better at football than basketball. Growing up poor in the tiny town of Kelford, NC, he played baseball and ran track, too.
“I had this crazy aggression,” he said. “I used to love tackling people, hitting people, running, doing all that stuff. And it just molded me into being just a blue-collar, hard-hat guy.
“You live through certain stuff and your situation isn’t as good as you think it should be. Instead of speaking out on it, you kind of bottle it up and anytime you found an outlet, whether it was like going to dunk on somebody or trying to run somebody over on the football field, that was your chance to release it.”
Bazemore described himself as “nice and polite as can be” as a kid, but he had to teach himself how to handle his rage when competing.
“I used to get technical fouls all the time just for, like, spazzing,” Bazemore said. “I wasn’t really a great teammate, which is kind of ironic looking at my stay in Golden State. My intentions were great but my execution was bad. I didn’t know how to, you know, really channel it. I didn’t do it out in public. I wasn’t out in the streets like robbing or stealing, but on the court I was just like a different guy.”
Until college, Bazemore said he worked hard but not necessarily smart. Sometimes he’d be in the gym “for hours and hours, not really working on anything,” he said. He was faster and could jump higher than anybody else, but coaches called him “raw” as they praised his heart and athleticism. His mother, Glynis, set up a court at their home, and kids came from other parts of Bertie County to play.
“There was a slab of cement there and we put up two basketball goals, the ones you had fill up the back with water and sand,” Bazemore said. “We just played all day. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve actually hit the concrete so hard. You’re trying to dunk on somebody and knocked out the air. Today, I look back and I’m so surprised that I can even still like walk and play at this level ‘cause we took some brutal falls, man.”
Bazemore remembers going undrafted. In hindsight, he sees it as a blessing, but he was upset at first. His agent, Austin Walton, had to assure him it wasn’t the end of the world.
“Everything was happening so fast,” Bazemore said. “I didn’t get drafted and I was pissed about it, you know. Who isn’t? You see guys go in front of you that you watched play or you’re just being a competitor, like, ‘He’s not even that good.’ Just childish stuff you say when people are getting drafted in front of you.”
Summer League was Bazemore’s way in, but he got hurt before it even started. He was in Oklahoma City, and the team hadn’t left for Orlando.
“I was guarding James Harden,” Bazemore said. “We were playing a little scrimmage and the clock was dwindling down, so I was guarding him and he goes and he does his little patented, same stepback he does today. And I kind of hyperextended my knee and got a bone bruise. So I missed the entire Orlando Summer League. So that’s like strike one.”
Bazemore flew to Las Vegas with a bum knee. He got there a few days before the Warriors’ first game, and every night he ran the bridge behind their hotel, trying to get his knee right.
“It was hurting so bad,” Bazemore said. “But I was like, I gotta get a job, man. I had a contract signed over in the Ukraine for like 90 grand, like way in the Ukraine. I was like, man, I know nothing about that stuff. Like, I do not want to leave.”
He didn’t get a chance to play in Golden State’s first two games, but made enough of an impression in the last three to earn a contract. A year later, he was back in Vegas with Draymond Green and they noticed an article wondering where the team’s scoring was going to come from. They pushed each other to lead the team.
“We talked so much trash to each other, but that’s just who we are,” Bazemore said. “He’s probably one of the greatest teammates to ever play. I mean, everyone’s seeing it now because they’re doing so well, but every team needs a Draymond. ‘Cause he’s gonna kick you in your tail when you ain’t doing nothing, and then when you are, he’s going to make you feel like you’re the biggest thing in the world.
“You can see him even getting at Steph,” he continued. “And people are like, ‘Well, Steph’s the best player in the world,’ but, like, Draymond doesn’t care. You’re on the floor with him, he’s going to get on you. And that team is a direct reflection of that. They get on each other. And that’s something I try to bring, something I’m trying to get better at: being more of a vocal leader. I’ll say stuff and people give me that ‘I’m a great teammate,’ but I have so much work to do as far as being that guy, being that guy that can get in your face and pat you on the back.”
Bazemore watched his former teammates win a championship and roots for the Warriors as long as he’s not playing against them. Like Green, he’s now guarding much bigger players and holding his own.
“I love it, man,” Bazemore said. “I love the challenge. I look at it like this: I have nothing to lose. I’m giving up three inches, four inches, 40-50 pounds. What have you got to lose, man? Just go out there and make it tough on ‘em. I’m a lot stronger than people give me credit for.”
Bazemore remembers completely rebuilding his jumper, which was primarily responsible for keeping him off the floor. He thought he’d watch some film and get his reps in. He did not know how mentally taxing it would be.
To get rid of his “crazy hitch,” Bazemore shot with just two fingers for about a month. He knew that, in games, his old habits were going to kick in from time to time.
“It’s all mental,” he continued. “I didn’t even know what I was getting into. I knew I was going to change my jump shot, but I didn’t know it would take that much work.”
This year, defenders aren’t just letting him hoist jumpers up anymore. When they close out, he has to look at their feet and make a play. He’s working on his decision-making.
“That’s why I love the game of basketball,” Bazemore said. “There’s always something. You can be great at it, but you’re never going to conquer the game. And that’s another hurdle I’m going through now to try to be that complete player.”
Bazemore learned lessons in golf. You have to play against the course, the wind and the lie. You have to slow down and evaluate the situation in front of you. It helped him with his mental game.
“I think for me that was my biggest thing,” he said. “I was one of the most athletic players for a very long time. I still am, I can probably sprint with anybody in the league. I can run as fast as anybody in the league. But for me, I can’t play that way. I gotta be able to change speeds.
“I gotta be able to know if I’m running an angle pick and roll on the left side of the floor with the corner filled, the basket may be exposed,” he continued. “If that guy steps up, I gotta throw the ball to the corner, the guy in the corner’s open. So just thinking like that instead of saying, ‘I’m on the left side, let me see if I can get to the rim.’ You minimize your options so much when you think with such a small frame of mind.”
When Bazemore started in the season opener, his parents were in the arena and he called it an emotional night. The man once ranked No. 499 is averaging 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists with a 58.7 percent true shooting percentage. He will be one of the top wings in free agency this summer.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe asked a dozen executives how much Bazemore will command, and their answers ranged “from the mid-level exception, to $12 million, to ‘who the hell even knows?’” Bazemore thinks he’s still scratching the surface of what he can be, but hasn’t lost sight of how far he’s come. He remembers when few people knew what he could do, and when he didn’t know if he’d get to show it.
“It’s fun, man,” Bazemore said. “For me, the fact that I get to wake up every day knowing I’m going to play against the best players in the world just brings a smile to my face.”
