Kent Bazemore is a second-year player for the Golden State Warriors who’s known more for his end-of-the-bench celebrations than for anything he’s done on the court. But Bazemore is a professional basketball player in the greatest basketball league in the world, and that is something not a ton of people can say.

Recently, Bazemore revealed that he had stitched the number “499” into the tongue of his shoes, a number that corresponds with Bazemore’s 2012 pre-season ranking in an ESPN online feature published before the 2012 season. ESPN asked 104 experts to rank 500 NBA players on a score of 1-10, and Bazemore was the 499th-ranked player, just ahead of Eddy Curry, who came in last.

There are only 450 roster spots in the NBA, so the list, unscientific as it was, basically said that Bazemore didn’t belong in the league.

But Bazemore did make a roster, and was a valuable team guy for Golden State last season. To keep himself motivated, he stitched the number onto his shoes to remind him what all those experts thought of him.

It seems to be working, too. Bazemore was a major factor on the Warriors’ summer league team, averaging over 18 points a game and getting voted to the All-Summer League First Team.

Bazemore has proven he can win, too: The Warriors won the 2013 Summer League tournament.

(Thanks to Ball Don’t Lie for sharing.)