Kent Bazemore picks up his 5-month-old son, Jett, and lugs him over to the yellow and red Fisher-Price basketball hoop that stands in the corner of the living room in his Lake Oswego home. Jett chews on a rubber basketball as he relaxes in his dad’s arms. When they reach the hoop, Bazemore holds his son over the net. Jett drops the ball into the basket. Bazemore cheers.

This is how the new Portland Trail Blazer spends his time away from the court nowadays. When he’s not playing “basketball” with his son, he’s watching Jett bounce in his baby jumper, holding his son close and telling him about his day or enjoying quality time with his wife, Samantha, and two French Bulldogs, Spike and Spade.

He couldn’t be happier.

“It’s easier to come to work every day when you wake up in the morning and your wife and your son are in the kitchen eating breakfast and he turns around, looks at you and you see that big smile,” Bazemore said. “It’s those little small things that really put you in a great mood, regardless of how your body is feeling. There were times last year when my body was tired or sore, I was just like a Scrooge. Now, I can look past that.”

Bazemore grew up in Kelford, North Carolina, a remote town with fewer than 300 people, and was only lightly recruited out of high school. A hard working and dedicated teammate, he went undrafted out of Old Dominion University, began his NBA career in the Development League and made headlines early on with his exuberant celebrations at the end of the Golden State Warriors’ bench.

In 2013, ESPN ranked NBA players 1-through-500. Bazemore landed at 499 on the list. He got the number stitched into his shoes as motivation. When he joined the Atlanta Hawks ahead of the 2014-15 season, he was ready to prove the naysayers wrong. He became a rotation player on a team that won 60 games before making a run to the Eastern Conference finals. He then signed a 4-year, $70 million deal in 2016 and became a central piece of Atlanta’s rebuild.

But after a strong 2017-18 campaign where he set a career-high by shooting 39.4 percent from behind the arc, Bazemore’s performance dipped. In the 2018-19 season, he shot just 32 percent from three-point range, saw his field goal percentage fall from 42 to 40.2 percent and watched his free throw percentage dip from 79.6 to 72.6 percent. Bazemore responded by putting extra pressure on himself, spending hours after practice taking shot after shot and overanalyzing everything, instead of taking time to clear his mind.

“I was just trying to attack what was going wrong," Bazemore said. "If I wasn’t making shots, I would try to go shoot a lot. Sometimes, it’s not really the right approach.”

Things changed in the spring of 2019. Not only was his son born in May, but, a few weeks later, his wife’s mother, Cyndy, passed away after a battle with breast cancer. Suddenly, Bazemore couldn’t allow himself to be absorbed by basketball 24/7. He had to focus on his family.

“I knew my family always needed me to kind of be there for them and be a backbone, but after seeing that and seeing the things my wife went through and is going through, I really realized how much more they needed me, how much more I had to give,” Bazemore said. “I would stop at nothing to take care of my family.”

Bazemore hasn’t lost his competitive edge and he still continues to feed off the same underdog mentality that motivated him as a young player, but he is now approaching basketball with a new perspective.

“Sometimes, you just put too much pressure on yourself and that’s a double-edged sword,” Bazemore said. “If you love competing, you’re going to be hard on yourself. Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes you need to just sit back and laugh and relax because with so many games, and playing long careers, you’re going to have the ups and downs."

Bazemore, who joined the Blazers in the offseason in a trade that sent Evan Turner to Atlanta, said he feels as happy as ever on the court right now.

In the locker room, he’s felt an immediate kinship with Blazers stars Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, who, like Bazemore, attended small colleges before making a name for themselves in the NBA. And on the court, he’s impressed his teammates so far with his defense and leadership.

“He feels like it’s a fresh start and he’s excited to be here," Lillard said. "The last few weeks, his playmaking, his defense, he’s been matching up against me every opportunity he can get, his ability to shoot the ball, his understanding, he’s a vet out there... You can tell he’s going to be very present for the team.”

While returning wing Rodney Hood is likely to start at small forward for the Blazers this year, Bazemore could play a big role for Portland in the rotation with his ability to knock down threes, guard multiple positions and provide leadership on the court.

“He’s a consummate pro,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “He knows how to play the game. He’s a smart player, he’s a dynamic athlete... He’s fit in really well here. He’s got a great personality. He meshes well with the veterans and the young guys.”

The adjustment to Portland has been relatively seamless for Bazemore. He enjoys passing under a canopy of trees every day on his drive from the Blazers practice facility in Tualatin to his house in Lake Oswego and he loves the tranquility of looking out at the lake from his new home. He said that he and his wife really enjoy the restaurants and healthy lifestyle in Portland as well.

And in fatherhood, Bazemore feels as if he’s finally found the right balance between life and basketball.

“It feels good here,” Bazemore said. “The scenery is just amazing on the mind, when you leave practice, all the canopy trees. I live in Lake Oswego, so I got a nice view of the lake. It’s so serene... Everyone is happy, man. It’s all smiles. We’re thriving here.”

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg

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