Brandon Roy: JV Ball Made Me a Star
Words. Austin Burton
Brandon Roy’s road to NBA stardom has been full of potholes. In college, he was plagued by injuries and wasn’t a starter until his senior year. Before that, when his NCAA academic eligibility was in question and he waited to see if he could even attend the University of Washington, B-Roy spent a few months working as a shipping-container cleaner at the Port of Seattle for $11 an hour. And before that, before he became a star at Garfield H.S. in Seattle, B-Roy was just another junior varsity kid looking up to the guys on varsity.
“I remember I asked everybody on the [Blazers] once, ‘Who played JV in here?’ and nobody did but me!” B-Roy said in his Dime #48 cover feature. “Like, I’m the only guy that played JV in here. I never got treated like a star until I made it to the NBA.”
Last weekend, Roy was in Newport Beach, Calif., for the release of the Nike Trainer 1. In between talking about his cross-training regimen, his NBA postseason debut, and his battles with Ron Artest and Shane Battier, B-Roy also talked about how his experience playing JV ball helped mold him into the player he is today:
“For me, it keeps me grounded,” Roy said. “I’ve been on both side of the spectrum; I’ve been the JV guy warming the crowd up for the big game. And at the same time, we were working just as hard as the varsity guys were.
“I take that same approach now. Whether it’s one of the best players in the NBA or a guy that’s just holding on to be there, I treat everybody with that same respect. We all have the same grind, the same motivation. It keeps me humble with my approach, and knowing that you’ve gotta keep perspective. I caught a lot of guys on the way to where I wanna go, and if you don’t want to get caught yourself, you’ve got to continue working. I’d see those stars in front of me and it was like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna catch him ’cause he’s not working that hard.’
“I’ve been the underdog. I’ve been the hunted. I’ve been the hunter. Having seen both sides, I really know what it takes, because I’ve been that guy hunting.”