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In celebration of P.J. Tucker's amazing NBA career

This longevity never seemed possible in Tucker's early days in the league.

Jul 20

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

The Stone Breakers, Gustave Courbet, 1849

This NBA free agency has, like many others, been focused on unrest. In particular, Kevin Durant’s trade request in Brooklyn, the Utah Jazz’s implosion and Russell Westbrook’s uncertain future are dominating attention. We should, though, take a step back and acknowledge the stories behind some of the free agency contract worth celebrating.

Back on June 30, two deals of note were quickly announced. JaVale McGee signed a $20 million contract at age 37, a monumental achievement for a player whose early years were mostly an NBA on TNT punchline. The second contract was a 3-year, $33 million deal for P.J. Tucker, who has never been a laugh but whose journey to this point is even more amazing.

Seriously, let’s look at P.J. Tucker’s path to this point, signing a $33 million contract at age 37.

He played college ball with LaMarcus Aldridge and Boobie Gibson. In the Big 12 he played against guys like Tony Allen, Wayne Simien, Joey Graham, Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers. Tucker left Texas the year as a junior before Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin arrived. He was THREE recruiting classes before Durant and Augustin.

Second-round pick in the NBA. One of four rookies on the Raptors with Andrea Bargnani and two international players, Jorge Garbajosa and Uros Slokar. Tucker finished third in Raptors rookies in total minutes, just edging Slokar with … 83 minutes on the season.

The Raptors cut Tucker toward the end of his rookie year to sign Luke Jackson. Luke Jackson. Jackson played 10 games for the Raps, and then a couple hundred minutes with the Heat the following year, and then left the NBA, never to return.

Tucker, meanwhile, ended up on the Cavaliers’ 2007 Summer League team, also featuring Shannon Brown, Tucker’s college teammate Boobie Gibson, Kevin Pittsnogle and Friend-of-LeBron Romeo Travis. Tucker was seventh in minutes per game on that team. The effort did not result in an NBA contract. So he decided to go to Europe.

Tucker had huge success across the ocean: he won MVP of the Israeli league in 2007-08, was an All-Star and scoring champ (scoring champ! P.J. Tucker!) in Ukraine and won Finals MVP for a German club. He played in Greece and Italy, too.

And he clearly worked really hard to build out his game. He came back to Summer League in 2012 for the Suns. Tucker was 27 years old at this point, with all of 83 career NBA minutes. It had been nine years since he arrived at the University of Texas, six years since he’d been drafted by the Raps. And here he was, fighting to make an NBA roster again, back in Summer League, starring alongside a 22-year-old Markieff Morris and a 20-year-old Kendall Marshall.

His effort in Summer League didn’t wow anyone outside of Phoenix, but the Suns did offer up a minimum contract. Once the regular season hit, Tucker got opportunities on a bad team under Alvin Gentry and his midseason replacement Lindsay Hunter, and Tucker made the most of them. He became an important piece for a weird Suns era, earned a modest-for-the-NBA but life-changing 3-year, $16 million contract in 2014. He made it.

And then he made it some more.

In the post-Bledsoe Phoenix teardown — Tucker got traded back to Toronto a decade after his last Raptors appearance. At this point, he was 31 and about to be an unrestricted NBA free agent for the first time since 2012 Summer League.

You know the rest: he signed with the Rockets and became a key part of a team that could (would?) have won a title if not for those pesky juggernaut Golden State Warriors (starring Tucker’s Texas successor Durant), then Tucker got traded (for Augustin!, among other things) and helped Giannis Antetokounmpo win a championship in Milwaukee (beating the Suns in the Finals, poetry), had to decamp for Miami to get a 1-year contract worthy of his contributions and now gets his last big multi-year deal in Philadelphia.

Talent and potential capture our attention most of the time. There’s something inherently cool about a young athlete who can do amazing things. But there’s so much beauty, too, in the mundane reality of hard work and maximal effort that players like P.J. Tucker exhibit. Maybe it’s corny, but the grind and grit that Tucker has shown over his 15-year career as a pro basketball player is as inspired as anything we see in Summer League from lottery picks. And it’s a story that anyone can take something from.

This isn’t to shortchange Tucker’s physical gifts or the incredible effort that superstar players put in to remain at the top of the elite sliver of the best basketball players in the world. But Tucker’s path feels like a particularly inspiring tale, and it’s worth acknowledging how seemingly unlikely and truly amazing it is.

Cheers to Tucker and all the people out there grinding in their walks of life, working for something better and more secure.

I Appreciate Your Concern

Several readers and friends reached out regarding my irrational exuberance about the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, concerned for my wellbeing. To them I would say

a) I appreciate your concern

b) the heart wants what it wants

c) let’s see if I feel this way when there are games to watch or if this is just summertime longing.

In unrelated news (unrelated, I swear!):

br_betting @br_betting

We have our first HUGE NBA bet for next season... @CaesarsSports just took a $10K bet on the SACRAMENTO KINGS TO WIN THE NBA FINALS It would win $7.5 million 😅

Scores

Liberty 63, Sun 82 — Fourth straight loss for the Liberty, now two games out of No. 8 with 11 games left. The next three games are against the Mystics, Sky and Sky. After that, New York’s last eight games are all against teams they are battling for a playoff nod. They control their own destiny in that sense.

Alyssa Thomas Is Incredible: 18 points on 7/12 shooting, 13 rebounds, 6 steals, 5 assists.

Dream 92, Aces 76 — The Las Vegas defense might have some issues, even with Riquna Williams back. Among the league’s top tier of teams, the Aces’ defense is by far the worst (No. 6 overall in the W). The Dream rained down threes, Tiffany Hayes put up 31, and Rhyne Howard is BACK.

Atlanta Dream @AtlantaDream

Goodnight kiss. @howard_rhyne

Even the social team was going in on Las Vegas. Can the Aces stop anyone?!

Atlanta Dream @AtlantaDream

Fever 79, Sparks 86 — Nneka Ogwumike is single-handedly trying to rescue this L.A. season. And she’s succeeding so far: the Sparks are No. 7 in the league.

WNBA @WNBA

Nneka Ogwumike was on FIRE dropping a season-high 35 points in the Sparks' win over the Fever 🔥 @nnekaogwumike: 35 PTS, 2 REB, 2 STL, 1 AST

Ten straight losses for the Fever. Eight games left, five against the Aces and Mystics, two against the Wings, one against the Dream. It’s entirely possible Indiana loses out. The Fever’s last win was June 19. Brutal.