The Vibes Are Immaculate

I never saw any of this coming. Can’t even lie to you.

If you’d told me when I was back in Brooklyn that five or six years down the line I’d be on a new team … with one of the best records in the entire NBA? I’d have thought: Where’d I get traded to? Boston? L.A.? Golden State?

“No, Cleveland.”

No disrespect but … What?

And, to me, that’s one of the coolest things about all of this. Just how improbable it’s been, all these things coming together like they have for this franchise and this city in the years since LeBron left. Even just the me-landing-in-Cleveland part of it all, that was something I never imagined would come to pass. Even at the very moment when that trade was happening, I never for a second thought I was going to be a Cav.

When that deal went down, I actually found out the same way you all probably did. I hit up social media and it was like: “James Harden traded for half of Brooklyn’s roster and a ton of picks.” I saw my name listed, and then … everything started happening fast. Woj is tweeting. Retweets flying. Friends are texting me. It’s a million things at once, in like 90 seconds.  

And at that point, it’s just on social media as a Brooklyn and Houston trade. So I see it pop up on my phone and it’s like: Oh, OK. Cool! Back home to Texas! My mind’s already spinning: I can drive home and be with my family on off days … they can come to our games … sounds good to me!

Then my phone rings. It’s Sean Marks.

“So I’m sure you saw, but … we’re gonna be trading you.”

After that, he’s saying some other stuff, and wishing me the best, and then it’s like, “But yeah, with this trade, you’re actually..…” And then, there’s this pause.

Lasted maybe a second or two, but it felt like two hours.

“Yeah, you’re actually gonna be going to Cleveland.”

My forehead wrinkled as soon as I heard that. It was like….

“Wait. What? I’m going where, now?”

Sitting down and looking back on everything now, it’s not just the Cleveland part of my story that I didn’t see coming. It’s the basketball part, too.

Like, the whole story. 

I wasn’t one of these kids who had a basketball in his crib, or was dunking on a plastic hoop at age two or whatever. I wasn’t a prodigy. As a little kid, I barely even played hoops. I was more into Pokemon and Zelda. (Wind Waker … very underrated masterpiece, by the way.) 

When I was six or seven, I went to this rec center with my brother, and my very first shot ever in life, I run up to the basket all excited, toss the ball up at the rim and….

Clank ………

It hits off the bottom of the rim, ricochets back, and — WAP!!!!! — nails me square in the face.

Knocked on my ass. Down for the count.  

After one shot, I retired on the spot. I swore I was done.

I wasn’t a prodigy. As a little kid, I barely even played hoops. I was more into Pokemon and Zelda. (Wind Waker … very underrated masterpiece, by the way.) 

- Jarrett Allen

I only kept playing because it was a chance to hang out with my friends. And I didn’t take the game all that seriously. I was never practicing to become a superstar, or even really to get good. I would just go to practice because that’s what the kids I knew did.

But I would’ve rather been doing something else. I was really into the whole video game universe back then. (Still am!) So it was lots of this one Ninja Turtles game on the PS2, or any of the Zelda games (except Skyward Sword, which I have real issues with, as a purist). Basically anything but sports games. (The only sports game I had as a kid was 2K12, and only because I was achievement hunting at the time.) Beyond that, there was a lot of Boomerang Network — shout out to Yosemite Sam, Thundercats, and Duck Dodgers! — and Courage the Cowardly Dog and, most of all … The Twilight Zone.

And yeah, I’m talking about the old black-and-white ones. Like from the ’60s.

I absolutely loved The Twilight Zone. (Still do!) When I was in elementary and middle school, my dad would put it on, and I’d constantly be there watching with him. During the Fourth of July holiday and around New Years, they’d run these marathons on Sci-Fi. That was like my Super Bowl Sunday. They don’t have them anymore (because I was probably the only one watching them), but I loved those marathons so much. “The Obsolete Man,” “Eye of the Beholder,” and on and on. I could literally take you through all the episodes. They’re all classics to me!

Other kids were maybe watching Kobe or Dirk highlights all day. But me? I’d be holed up watching some weird Twilight Zone episode where all the characters had pig faces, and there were these pig doctors trying to do facial surgery on a beautiful human woman who, when they took the bandages off, still looked like a human and didn’t look more like a pig, and then all the pig doctors and nurses gasped because the procedure was a failure.

So … yeah. 

It’s maybe no surprise that I didn’t really know I was any good at basketball until very late. I was more concerned with … other things. It took until sometime around my junior year in high school for me to realize I had some talent.

And then, three years later, I was in the NBA.  

I’ve always felt like I was very lucky to be drafted by Brooklyn. I was 19 when I got there, and then, in what seemed like a flash, I was playing with KD and Kyrie.

In New York, with all that media and attention, I had to grow up and acclimate myself to professional basketball pretty fast. And when KD and Kyrie got there, everything was even more magnified. It’s just a different level of basketball when you’re learning how to play with guys of that caliber. They taught me a lot about the level of work you need to put in if you’re looking to become truly exceptional at your craft. They were relentless in their desire to always be improving. I’m forever grateful I got to witness that.

And then, off the court, I know there are narratives out there about both those guys, media constructions about who they are, or whatever it may be. But all I can say is that they were completely respectful to me in every way. They checked in on me, asked how I was doing. They asked about my family. And that’s more than enough, in my view — just a level of care and mutual respect for your teammate as a human being. Those guys gave me that. In addition to teaching me a million little things about basketball and preparation that I carried with me when I came over to Cleveland.

Make no mistake, Cleveland is never going to be confused for New York. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. It’s not big and huge and loud and in your face. It’s just a really wonderful place to live, or to spend some time.

And Cleveland is one of those towns that … you don’t know how good it is as a city — especially when it comes to the people — until you’ve actually lived there. Something I learned pretty early on about this town is … just being honest … not a ton of people are rushing to move here. (They should be! But I’m just being real.) So what you have is a lot of people who grew up in Cleveland, or in the region, and there are multiple generations of families here, and, as a result, everyone has this long-standing love for the city. It’s a lot of good, well-mannered, nice folks who genuinely care for this place. And the more time you spend here, the more that feeling seeps into you. Before you know it, you start to love this place, too.

Of course, with how nice everyone is, that also adds to the mix, as well. Everywhere I go around town, people come up to me with a big smile on their face, just wanting to say hi, or to wish me well. I mean, how can you not love a place where that’s the norm, right?

It feels so good to be able to bring smiles to people’s faces here. To know that our team, what we do out there on the court, that it really can make people happy.

And this season especially, the smiles have been abundant.

I know I said up top that I didn’t see this coming for the Cavs a few years back. But you know what? Once I got here? You know what I did see?

Consistent progress.

Each year, we got better and better. That year when I came over, we missed the playoffs. By a lot. The next season, though, we just barely missed the play-in. Then we make it in but lose in the first round. The next year, we make the conference semifinals. And now, best record in the conference. That type of improvement … there’s no magic formula. It’s a lot of big and little things over time. 

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have guys like Donovan and Darius on your team. Being able to pencil two of the best players in the world into your lineup every night? That’s huge. But I truly believe that there’s so much more to winning basketball than just good players. With us, it all starts with having good people on the roster. Our system, Kenny’s blueprint for winning, it’s all about selflessness. And you don’t have to take my word for it to see that we’re all buying in. Just look at the box score every night. This team, there are no selfish individuals. So that’s the big picture.  

Then, if you ask me what’s maybe put us over the top this season, or what’s allowed us to make such a gigantic leap in the standings, beyond the bigger, team-level stuff, there is one thing I could point you to. Or better yet, one person.

Evan Mobley.

Everyone knows what Donovan and DG can do. I’d like to think I’ve done my part. And our role players have been tremendous all season long. But I really do feel like the big difference-maker is Evan. And his ascension into an elite NBA player.

You could see the sparks of this coming in past years, flashes of it every now and then. But this season he’s really started tapping into his potential. And now, the sky’s the limit. With Evan, my goal has always been to try to help him become the best player he can be, and to not get in his way. Just basically make it as easy as possible for him to develop. If that means I need to guard the biggest guy, let me do that. If I have to take on the brunt of the physicality, so be it. Whatever I can do for that man, I’m basically doing. Because I see what he can be. We all saw it very early on. We knew that when he put it all together, that’s what was going to take us to the next level.

And that’s what’s happened.

Evan’s not the most talkative guy, he’s super humble. So he’s not gonna want to hear all of this but … he’s been the difference-maker for us. And if he keeps improving during these playoffs, who knows how far we can go.

It’d be ridiculous for me to sit here and suggest that no one in our locker room is thinking about possibly bringing another championship to Cleveland this summer.

Anyone on a great team who tells you they’re never looking ahead isn’t being completely truthful. So yeah, hell yes we’re thinking about it. Everyone on this team is. Everyone even associated with this team is. For everybody in the organization, that’s the ultimate goal — to hold up that trophy when it’s all said and done. And sure, that’s far away, and at the moment we’re just trying to stack wins and prepare for the next game and all that. But still, it’s undeniable that our confidence level, our belief in ourselves, is sky-high right now. Without a doubt….

The vibes are immaculate.  

We’re behaving more like a family than coworkers. And we’re all just having so much fun. It’s unmistakable. If you pan to our bench when we’re doing our thing — running our stuff, everything’s clicking — you can just see how much joy is involved in everything we do right now. Everybody's smiling. DG might be dancing, Donovan’s cracking jokes. We’re all having a good time.

Just immaculate vibes on full display.

And sure, on a personal level, I’m having the time of my life right now. But, to be perfectly honest, it’s not really even about me. It’s about us.

Like I said, from a young age, I never played basketball to become a superstar. That wasn’t the plan. I played because the game allowed me to connect with my friends and be a part of something bigger than myself.

Even though I’m in the NBA now, nothing about that has changed.

It’s not complicated. I literally just want to have fun and play ball with people I like and do what I can to make people smile.

It’s funny, sometimes I get asked questions like, “Man, does it ever bother you that you don’t really get any hype? You kind of stay under the radar.”

But that’s been my whole life. I’m fine with it. I love it. And let’s be real, it’s a narrative-driven league. I’m a guy who loves going home and playing Zelda. I spend my free time researching like … topography maps. Learning about architecture plans so I can design my own house from scratch for me and my fiancée. Not to mention our two cats, Sasha Fierce and CeeLo Green.

I’m not really that guy, you know what I mean? Not nailing the narrative.

All I care about is that my teammates look at me every day in practice and they know….

He’s not that guy. But he’s THAT DUDE.

That’s good enough for me.