from a small town zero star recruit to
the most electrifying player in the nba
today this is the story of john moran's
small town dreams demetrius jamel morant
better known as john morant wouldn't
just make his dreams come true but his
father teased as well he had basketball
dreams much larger than the town of
dalzell south carolina with just over 2
000 people that his son was born into t
morant won a high school basketball
state championship playing alongside ray
allen before going on to play at
division two claflin university he was
considering a professional career
overseas and was ready to live his dream
until some news would change his life
forever t's wife jamie was pregnant with
jaw giving up on his aspirations t
directed all of his energy to helping
john make a career out of basketball to
even hand build a small cement
basketball court in their backyard this
is where t pushed jaw to be great and
where jaw fell in love with the grind
from mastering the art of the step back
jumper to doing tire jumps with tractor
tires the two would spend hours at a
time working on jaws skills and
athleticism looking back on the
sacrifice jaw said instead of going to
play basketball he stayed to raise me
that's my motivation i'm living my dream
and his dream right now jaw had to work
that much harder to achieve this because
his physical stature didn't scream at
future nba player in fact josh stood at
just five foot nine as a freshman in
high school so he actually didn't suit
up for the varsity basketball team until
his sophomore year he also didn't play
for a well-known aau circuit growing up
job played with the south carolina
hornets a small grassroots team based in
columbia south carolina that lacked the
backing of a major shoe company that
other top aau teams had but he was
teammates with zion williamson for a
season which provides for some crazy
throwback photos that almost seemed fake
and i'm sure plenty of lobs from jada
zion back then diamond in the rough
while the infamous saying is curiosity
killed the cat curiosity led to jog
getting discovered even though jaw was
coming off a season in which he received
all-state honors as a junior in high
school he was not being recruited by
colleges the summer before his senior
year jaw was a late addition to a camp
put on by chandler parsons aau program
murray state assistant basketball coach
james kane was there scouting a
different player at the time kane
ventured down a hallway in pursuit of
the concession stand and as he was
eating his doritos and sipping on a soda
kane heard balls bouncing in an
auxiliary gym so out of curiosity he
decided to take a peek he was
immediately taken aback by jaws play in
a game of three on three and said it
only took a few minutes to realize jaw
was special kane was so impressed with
what he saw that he had murray state's
head coach matt mcmahon drive up to the
camp to personally witness jaw in action
mcmahon quickly agreed with kane's
assessment so murray state's recruitment
of jaw began when it came time to offer
a scholarship john was so
under-recruited at the time that his mom
asked kane if the scholarship was for
four full years i just started laughing
i was like yeah it's a four year
scholarship but he's only going to be
there for two years said kane at the
time 24 7 sports and rivals two of the
most notable voices in raiding high
school athletes and following their
recruitments didn't even give jaw a
rating and showed him as having zero
offers outside of murray state but kane
firmly believed that his hankering for a
snack resulted in him finding a diamond
in the rough as jock committed to play
for murray state making a name for
himself when job first arrived at murray
state he was faced with the harsh
reality that he still had a ways to go
before making it and just accepting a d1
offer didn't mean he had done so joe was
far from being viewed as a big man on
campus like a traditional top basketball
recruit would be josh said coming from
being under the radar i could sit
somewhere and nobody would know me that
lack of notoriety quickly began to
change following an impressive freshman
season with the racers where josh showed
he belonged in division 1 basketball he
averaged 12.7 points 6.5 assists and 6.3
rebounds per game that year on his way
to earning first team all-ohio valley
conference honors following a season
where he did it all for murray state and
helped him reach the ncaa tournament
josh started to find himself on nba
draft prospect lists he solidified his
spot on these after being one of just 20
players invited to chris paul's elite
guard game during the summer after his
freshman season with newfound attention
from pro scouts jaw took this momentum
and ran with it as he grabbed the
attention of the college basketball
world with his sophomore campaign that
season jaw averaged 24.5 points 10
assists 5.7 rebounds and 1.8 steals per
game jia was named ovc player of the
year as he became the first ncaa player
to ever average more than 20 points and
10 assists per game as he also led the
country in assists that year his
popularity then soared after shining
under march madness's bright lights in a
first round win he became just the
eighth player in tournament history to
record a triple-double as he recorded 17
points 16 assists and 11 rebounds even
though he and the racers fell in the
next round john didn't go out quietly
going off for 28 points john became the
talk of the entire basketball community
and declared for the 2019 nba draft
making the jump job becoming a fan
favorite with his electrifying playstyle
and eye-popping numbers still wasn't
enough to silence all the doubts that
surrounded him he dealt with questions
and concerns about his game's ability to
translate to the nba level was his
success the product of playing in a
small conference not traditionally known
for basketball is he too skinny to score
on and guard grown men will he be a
flash in the pan and never fully
establish in the league after being fun
to watch in college like a jimmer for
dead this was the noise jaw heard as the
grizzlies drafted him second overall but
it drove him to prove it was exactly
that just noise his rookie season was
his opportunity to show everyone that he
belonged in this league that's exactly
what jaw did that year as he took home
the nba rookie of the year award he
averaged 17.8 points 7.3 assists and 3.9
rebounds per game leading all rookies
and assists and total points scored
while jaw demonstrated that he can
achieve personal success in the league
and was tremendously talented the
conversation shifted to his ability to
lead and turn an entire franchise around
with the conclusion of jaws rookie
season the grizzlies missed the playoffs
for a third straight year with an 89 and
148 record jaws second season in the
league was nearly identical to his first
as he again averaged around 20 points
seven assists and four rebounds per game
the difference jock carried memphis to
the playoffs and to say he carried them
is not a stretch in the newly
implemented play-in tournament job put
up 35 points six rebounds and six
assists and an overtime win over the
warriors that gave the grizz the eighth
and final spot in the playoffs then they
stunned everyone by taking game one on
the road against the top-seeded jazz jaw
followed up that win by exploding for 47
points and seven assists in game two
while memphis ended up falling to the
jazz in the first round it was clear
that the future was bright in memphis
with jaw running the show face of a
franchise with ja having proven he's
talented enough to carry a team the
question in year three became can he
take the next leap into the realm of
super stardom expectations were high
thanks to what he had already
accomplished as the conversation shifted
to seeing how high his ceiling is jazz
play this season has shown that that
ceiling seems to be sky high averaging
over 25 points per game and just under
seven assists and six rebounds jaw was
selected to his first all-star game and
not only that but he was named a starter
in the game an incredible honor for a
player in just his third season this
year has shown jaws capable of putting
up video game numbers on any given night
in addition to consistently producing
nothing better demonstrates this than a
four game stretch in february against
the trailblazers jaw tied his career
high of 44 points scoring 20 in the
fourth quarter while adding in 11
assists for the game then following a
tough close loss to the timberwolves in
the grizzlies next game chow responds by
setting his career high dropping 46
points in a win against the bulls just
when it seems like he can't get any more
dominant child erupts for 52 points on
an extremely efficient 22-30 shooting
performance in memphis next game and his
individual performances aren't the only
thing that have improved this year
either as a result of his play the
grizzlies find themselves battling for a
top seed in the west a team that once
focused on trying to make the playoffs
is now focused on securing the home
court advantage jaw has clearly
established himself as the face of the
memphis grizzlies and potentially the
future of the league the next thing for
him to do is achieve postseason success
which based on his track record it would
be safe to assume that is coming awfully
soon
[Music]