Future Hall Of Famers Advise Ex-UCLA Star Before Rookie Season
The UCLA Bruins community has proudly sat and watched over these past couple of days as the university's former star Jaime Jaquez has kicked off his NBA career with the Miami Heat in summer league and is already making presence felt. Many basketball fans have taken to Twitter to share their shock after seeing the 6'7 guard make great play after great play in his first slew of games but Bruins fans know he has been waiting for this opportunity.
One's role in college is far different than the NBA, especially in a situation like the summer league. Jaquez played with a number of elite scorers during his four years at UCLA and he usually was not asked to take on a big scoring load. However, once his senior year rolled around, he started to showcase more of skillset of putting the ball in the basket and averaged a career-high 17 points per game.
And now he has the freedom within Miami's offense to show why he should be a part of their rotation once the season kicks off. Between him and Nikola Jokic, they give the Heat plenty of height and versatility and the NBA world is loving what they've seen so far.
But the respect for Jaquez has been present when it comes to other NBA stars. Paul George invited the former UCLA star onto his own show 'Podcast P' along with the multi-time NBA Champion Draymond Green and the two face him some tips ahead of his rookie campaign.
George focused on making sure that he doesn't allow social media to break his mind.
"When it comes to the social media s**t," said George. "Don't buy into that s**t. What gave me comfort, and I had a moment where it did get to me, but then I started to realize that everybody's who's talking this s**t can't do what I do. Don't put too much attention there. Use it to for what it's good at with marketing, promoting yourself and growing your brand."
(Via Podcast P)
Green, on the other hand, made sure that Jaquez knows how important it is to have a strong group of friends.
"It's important to have a great friend group," said Green. "Don't let nobody tell you all your friends gotta be basketball players... I have plenty of friends that's not in the NBA."
(Via Podcast P)
It's great to see two of the game's biggest names investing time and knowledge into Jaquez.
