Growing Up ... Jordan Clarkson



Wine & Gold's Dynamic Combo-Guard Recalls His Road to the NBA



Jordan Clarkson is a man of few words. He primarily lets his play do the talking – and that communication has been loud and clear since joining the Wine & Gold back on April 8. Clarkson’s family relocated to San Antonio when he was nine years old. His father was a military man and his mother worked at the Westin Hotel, where several NBA teams stayed when he was a youngster. Like many of the kids who now wait patiently outside hotels to meet him, a young Clarkson stood in line, waiting his turn for photos and autographs. He also met some high-profile Spurs players – like Sean Elliott and David Robinson – back in the day. And in many ways, he was shaped by the Spurs culture. Clarkson ran track as a boy, but soon discovered that basketball was his calling. He went on to high school success and starred in two seasons at the University of Tulsa, earning All-Conference USA first team honors as a sophomore. He would eventually transfer to Missouri and was forced to sit out the 2012-13 season because of NCAA transfer rules. But in his junior season, Clarkson earned All-SEC honors after averaging 17.5 points, 3.8 boards and 3.4 assists in 35 games with the Tigers. He bypassed his senior season at Mizzou and entered the 2014 NBA Draft where he was selected by the Wizards with the 46th overall pick and almost immediately traded to the Lakers. After three-and-a-half productive seasons in L.A., the soft-spoken combo-guard was dealt the Wine & Gold – where he’s flourished, notching double-figures in 16 of his first 21 games as a Cavalier. In today’s installment of Growing Up …, the 25-year-old sat down with Cavs.com to reflect on his road to the Association …

Jordan Clarkson has been one of the Cavs' steadiest performers since his arrival in Cleveland.

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

My parents were … athletic, but they didn’t go to school for it or anything.

I played everything … as a kid – soccer, hoops, ran a lot of track.

I’d probably say my second-best sport … growing up was track and field. I ran the 400-, the 200- and the 100-meter.

I wouldn’t say I had one influential coach … along the way in AAU or at the YMCA; it was more a group of guys that were pivotal – and my dad was in that group as well.

It was about four of those guys … that worked together to help develop us all into young men; it was all my group of friends.

In my first year with the Lakers … we stayed at the Westin in San Antonio where my mom worked. That was pretty cool for me.

I used to hang out at the hotel … asking for autographs and things like that. And when I was a little older I would just hang out there.

Some players still … remember me from back then. I remember I met Mark Jackson – and even now he still remembers me from middle school.

"I ran around the court, it must have been, like, five times – just screaming!" Jordan Clarkson, remembering his first dunk

I would say those guys influenced me … to play basketball because I really didn’t start playing until I was older, like in eighth grade.

I really didn’t think I could play … hoops for a living until my last year of college. I mean, you definitely want to get there, but I wasn’t thinking about that.

The first thing I was thinking … was just going to school and figuring it out from there.

Of course I remember … my first dunk. I was a sophomore in high school and it was in a little pick-up game at the park.

It just happened … that I wound up dunking that day – off one foot, a one-hand dunk.

I ran around … the court, it must have been, like, five times – just screaming! I took my shirt off like I’d just won the championship.

But actually … I wasn’t even the first of my friends to dunk. My one boy, who was shorter than me, was dunking before any of us. So, I guess that kind of gave the motivation to get up there.