NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 07: Darius Bazley #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder in action against … [+]
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Darius Bazley’s journey to the NBA was very different from anybody else in league history. As a senior at Princeton High School in Ohio, ESPN ranked him as the 13th best high school player in the Class of 2018. Rather than playing in college, or even overseas, he decided to take a year off from organized basketball to work on his game individually and work as an intern for New Balance.
This internship was reported to have been set up to pay Bazley at minimum $1 million and could reach $14 million if he hit performance incentives. After signing with Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, Bazley would end up living and training with former NBA sharpshooter Mike Miller. Later on, he was selected with the No. 23 overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft and became one of the future cornerstones of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Bazley’s unique journey will be featured in an UNINTERRUPTED documentary called Gap Year. This documentary will go more in depth on this path less traveled to the NBA and how it affects players going forward making similar decisions.
Ahead of the release of the film, Bazley joined The Jump on ESPN to talk more about his decision to skip a year of organized basketball and dive into his rookie season with the Thunder.
When asked about taking a gap year, Bazley says that even now, it feels like the right decision.
“That was just the path that was right for me. A lot went into making the decision. A lot of weighing the pros and cons, a lot of conversations with Rich [Paul]. We kinda figured that was the best thing for me – and it was. I grew up a lot and I learned a lot through that whole process.”
Furthermore, he felt that the internship and the year off really helped him grow as a person and helped him in his first NBA season. He was asked whether or not this path better prepared him for the NBA than the traditional routes.
“Oh, most definitely…I was in an environment where I was forced to grow up. I really got to see what professionalism was, what it looked like, how to attack every day. I grew up as a man…It was the little things throughout the process that helped to shape and mold me.”
As a rookie, Darius Bazley was impressive. Although he did have a stretch that was missed due to injury, he grew as a player steadily throughout the regular season and into the playoffs. He averaged 5.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game on 34.8 percent from deep in the regular season. At just 20 years old, he also went on to score 46 points and pull down 47 rebounds while shooting 50.0 percent from beyond the arc and 90.0 percent from the free throw line in the Thunder’s lone playoff series against the Houston Rockets.
Source: Forbes – Business
