As skilled at strumming the strings of a guitar as he is at shredding the fibers of a basketball net, Robert Woodard II is a man of many talents, and an unusually quick, willing learner.
He was the valedictorian of his graduating class, a Junior National Honor Society member and a two-time recipient of his high school’s Principal Student of the Year award.
He needed only a handful of bass guitar lessons and tips from his choir director before teaching himself more complex chords.
He performed in middle school plays and covered Motown tunes at a high school dance, before dabbling in the drums and piano. He’s spent many nights studying the riff techniques of John Mayer and Tom Misch on YouTube, and at one point, deliberated starting a band with a close friend.
All the while, the Columbus, Miss. native was even more diligent and dominant in the gym.
And while Woodard, the musician, is relaxed and easy-going, Woodard, the basketball phenom, is relentless and insatiably competitive.
He began receiving recruitment letters from Division I schools as early as the eighth grade, and as a sophomore, led his team to its first Mississippi Class 6A state title.
By the time he graduated, he was a gold medalist in the 2015 FIBA Americas Championships, a two-time Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year, and a four-star recruit with double-digit scholarship offers from many of the country’s premier programs.
There’s a common thread running through his uncommon accomplishments: Woodard knows exactly who he is as a player — whether he’s fingerpicking or finger-rolling — which, as much as any instrument in his toolkit, is why he’s so poised for success.
Some rookies might bristle at being typecast as ‘3-and-D’ specialists, a category reserved for role players entrusted to knock down shots from the perimeter and lock down their defensive assignments. But Woodard is just fine not being the focal point of the offense, not disillusioned by what’s expected of him, instead recognizing he can make the biggest impact by doing what he’s always done best.
“I’m just realistic with myself,” he said. “When I first got to college, it was a reality check for me. I was used to being the best player on the team. Then I had to learn, you’re going to be a role player this year and you’re just going to have to do what you have to do to win. I realize that coming to the NBA, it’s going to be pretty much the same thing because every team has their star players. Everybody can’t be a star, take all of the shots and do everything they want to do.
“So I’m very comfortable with being the ‘3-and-D’ guy, simply because that’s pretty much what I had to do in college. And it’s a pretty fun role. I get to be competitive and gritty, which I like to be, so I can do all the dirty work and let everybody else handle the flashy things.”
It’s why he’s long admired Lakers guard Wesley Matthews, and studies film of Clippers All-Star Kawhi Leonard to gather intel on how to impact the game on both ends.
“Looking at Wesley Matthews’ progression over the years, he’s a great defender — he knows how to guard on the ball and off the ball — as well as he can knock down shots, ” Woodard said. “Kawhi is a great person to try to model my game after, and as my career progresses, I keep adding pieces of his game into mine because I feel like we have a lot of similarities.”
His father, Robert Woodard Sr., not only put the first guitar in his son’s hands, but is also the main reason why Woodard II, as he was still taking stock of his multitude of special abilities, gravitated toward basketball and flourished in it.
Woodard Sr. remains the leading scorer in Mississippi high-school basketball history with over 4,000 points, and was a standout player at Mississippi State from 1987-90.
“My dad introduced (basketball) to me since the age I was able to walk,” Woodard said. “In elementary school, I was playing at the YMCA against older guys; guys who were two to three years older than I was. Playing in their league, it was pretty rough on me. But the love for it, the passion, it was just kind of in my blood. I just loved being around basketball all my life, so that’s why I kept playing.”
He chose to follow in his father’s footsteps and attend Mississippi State, but while the elder Woodard didn’t reach the pros, his protégé had his sights set on doing whatever it took to get there.
He learned early in his career about sacrificing for the common good, soaking up knowledge from an older, NBA-bound teammate without disrupting team chemistry.
“Going against Quinndary Weatherspoon every day was very difficult and very humbling for me,” Woodard said. “Getting beat up every day definitely brought the competitive side out of me. I realized, you’re going to have to put your pride aside and just do what you have to do to help the team.”
The straight-A student has always valued education. With more minutes and experience under his belt, combined with his thirst to learn, it’s not surprising few players made as pronounced of a leap as Woodard from his freshman to his sophomore year.
In 31 games, the second-year star doubled his scoring, from 5.7 to 11.4 points, pulled down 6.5 rebounds (12th in the SEC), and averaged a shade over a block and steal each night. In the Power 5 conferences, only two other players, Colorado’s Tyler Bey and Michigan’s Jon Teske, matched his nightly output across all of those categories.
Perhaps most impressively, Woodard improved his three-point percentage from 27.3 to 42.9 percent on nearly twice as many attempts, a product of a training regimen focused on repetition and mimicking game situations.
“It’s all about work ethic, staying consistent and being self-disciplined,” he said. “I knew my role would change from my freshman to sophomore year, so it was just about self-improvement; improving all over, in every aspect, in every area as far as defense, offense, shooting, whatever it might be.”
Woodard, an upper-echelon athlete with incredible burst, came within a few decimals of entering the bSPARQ Hall of Fame at the virtual NBA combine. He recorded the highest score (94.8 percent) among all timed and measured wings in his class, barely missing the rarified 95 percent threshold.
Much like hammering away at homework helped him ace final exams, watching game film, the 21-year-old says, helps him learn opponents’ tendencies. His counterparts scored only 0.67 points per possession when guarded by Woodard in one-on-one situations, according to Synergy Sports.
At 6-foot-7, the Mississippi State alum isn’t built like a prototypical rim-protector, but he came up with emphatic swats and chase-down blocks all the same thanks to his length and nimbleness. Opponents who were either courageous or naive enough to challenge him around the basket were in for a demoralizing awakening last season.
“Come fly with me,” he said with a chuckle. “I feel like a lot of times, I probably catch them off guard, just because I like to set people up to make it look like (they can) get easy lay-ups.
“Defense is pretty much all about pride, and I've been very prideful of it since a young age,” he continued. “It’s something I really honed in upon, so it’s kind of been instilled in me. I just take it personally. I don’t want anybody to score on me because in my eyes, it’s pretty embarrassing. Any time that somebody scores on me, they have to earn it, for sure.”
That two-way versatility is why his game is translatable to the increasingly positionless NBA, where he can rotate between shooting guard and either forward spot and switch defensively on either wings or bigs.
His size and smarts could make him valuable in many lineups, where No. 13 can do a little bit of everything in a lower-volume role alongside De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and fellow rookie Tyrese Haliburton.
Woodard, comfortable spotting up or curling off screens, averaged 1.08 PPP on catch-and-shoot jumpers (69th percentile). As he developed into a more well-rounded perimeter player, he continued to score at a high rate around the rim — 1.29 PPP (79th percentile) — primarily on cuts, put-backs and in transition.
“I feel like I fit in pretty well, especially on the defensive end, being able to switch pretty much one through four; five whenever I get the opportunity, if teams are playing small-ball,” he said. “On the offensive side, we have a lot of creators and playmakers, so I’ll be able to spot up, be ready to catch and shoot, and contribute in any way possible.”
With Earth Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson and Daniel Caesar tunes booming on his eclectic pregame playlist, the snap of the net as his shot rips through it will be the sweetest music to Woodard’s ears.