IRVINE, Calif. – Head coach Doc Rivers is trying to come up with the right word.
Maybe “swagger” isn’t it, so he uses “professional” to describe DeAndre Jordan’s manner and demeanor as the Clippers go through training camp after a summer that started with a First Team All-NBA nod for Jordan and ended an Olympic gold medal getting placed around his neck.
Ask Austin Rivers, though, and the former word is perfectly appropriate to describe the assertive way Jordan’s carrying himself after his successful Team USA stint.
“It’s a confidence,” Austin said. “To do something only so many people have done, that kind of breeds a new type of swagger about yourself, and he has that. He’s just a beast.”
After a summer Doc called the most important of Jordan’s career, it wouldn’t be a shock to see a different level of consistency, or swagger, or professionality, or a certain way Jordan carries himself and plays.
In fact, Doc expects it.
“I think seeing the work ethic of all the other players, being around them all those days, feeling what winning feels like, giving himself up for a team in a short period of time … I think all those things were great for D.J.,” Rivers said at media day. “I expect him, in some ways, to be the most improved this year because of the summer he had.”
Jordan won’t deny the effect his incredible summer had on him.
Of course, he’ll have physical memories of the Olympic journey, most notably the gold medal he still has with him out at training camp (he’s eventually getting a case for it so he can hang it at his house).
But the experience goes beyond the tangible.
It’s also seeing how Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony and other superstars around the league worked every day. It’s learning lessons from a litany of experienced coaches, from head coach Mike Krzyzewski to Tom Thibodeau and Monty Williams.
“The leadership aspect of USA basketball has really helped me out a lot,” Jordan said.
It’s also the feeling of being a key cog of something far bigger, and then getting it done.
“That was an awesome experience,” Jordan said. “I’ll never forget that. I made so many cool friends on the team who I probably will hate for the next few months, but they’ll be my brothers for life. We did something together not a lot of people get to do.”
When Jordan thinks back to some of his fondest memories from Team USA outside of actually winning the medal, he goes back to before the team ever took off Brazil.
He thinks to the exhibition games and wearing a Team USA jersey in front of friends and family in Houston, then doing the same in front of fans in Los Angeles.
“And getting booed in Golden State,” Jordan says with a grin, “that was awesome. It was all fun. The first practice we had, the last practice we had before the gold medal game, all those different things along the journey I still remember.”
And, as Doc said, all of those experiences can only serve as a positive, as he’s seeing first-hand with how assured and professional his center looks on the court.
As Austin went on describing Jordan’s swagger, he told a story about a dunk Jordan pulled off that “only one or two people on the planet” could’ve finished, which preceded a Jordan block at the other end. He adds that in addition to Jordan being in great shape from playing all summer, he seems to have added a couple post moves.
It’s exactly the type of start Doc hoped for and continues to expect from a center he believes will continue to grow from a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“The light’s on,” Doc said, “and it’s just going to keep getting brighter.”