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Growing up watching basketball Is an experience any young kid that has an interest in the sport goes through -- watching your favorite players, rooting for your home team in spite of their losses, staying up late to catch games on tv, and imagining what it would be like to be one of them -- it’s all consuming. Jalen never once had the thought of not playing basketball, what with his parents encouraging him and all, but he was always overlooked due to his size. Everyone always saw his brother first – the better athlete, the better son, always better overall, and always got the opportunities in high school while he could only hope to get into a good college program. When he finally hit the growth spurt he’s been wishing for and grew up to 6’3 in his senior year of high school he started getting more attention from scouts.
After high school he committed to Santa Clara University and finally got out of sweltering Arizona. At Santa Clara the staff was absolutely enamored with him after seeing him play in the AAU circuit during his sophomore year which shocked him when they told him because he thought that nobody was looking, I mean why would they, he was just the skinny gangly kid with big feet that averaged 11 points a game until his senior year where he averaged 25. After only playing for 3 years in college he was being drafted 12th overall in the 2022 NBA draft.
He finally made it, he finally got what he wanted. He was on an NBA team with teammates that loved him and a coach that saw and respected him. It all came crashing down on warm spring night on April 9thth 2025 when he heard a paper like ripping noise and tore the ligament in his wrist – his shooting wrist which is even worse, during a win against the Suns.
Despite the injury he didn’t miss a single game while simultaneously getting Lidocaine shots in his wrist and taping it up to be able to keep playing. That win over Phoenix successfully eliminated them from being able to compete in the playoffs. All that pain led to the crucial game 5 of the playoffs against the Pacers. Now was the decision to keep playing during the playoffs with the ligament tear? No, probably not, but with him dropping 40 in the win over the Indiana Pacers that led to him and his team becoming NBA champs? He felt like it was at least kind of worth it.
He did it, he finally did it, he was an NBA champ. He was finally where he wanted to be all those years ago back in Arizona looking up to Kobe and knowing that due to his size, he had to quell his dreams just a smidge. But now he was out indefinitely. Shai – the teammate that he was always drawn to told him “It’s all good Dub don’t even worry about it.” But what did he know? I was the one that was injured and he was the MVP, I appreciated the gesture nonetheless.
Now he had to spend his offseason rehabbing so that he could come back to his team and the fans. What he didn’t anticipate was missing 20 games and the season opener to the 2026 season because of a screw that was causing irritation and needing yet another surgery. He was sitting at home with ice on his wrist watching the Thunder game that was on and wishing he was out there with his team. He fell asleep near the end of 4th t quarter due to the pain medication he was on but woke up to his phone ringing. “Hey dub! did you happen to catch the game tonight?” asked a low and unmistakable Canadian accent -- Shai.
“Nah I’d miss the game, dude of course I watched it don’t even play with me” he slurred back due to him just waking up.
“Ah good I’m glad, I was just calling to make sure my star player was doing alright, and speaking of would you want me to come over?”
Yes.
“Nah that’s all good, I’m not that fun to be around right now.” He said with his usual self-deprecating attitude.
“Ah get out of here with that, I’m coming over, be ready by the time I get there.”
So, I guess he saw right through my lie.
“Okay jerk, better get here fast before I fall asleep again.”
“Alright, bye dub, see you soon.” and he heard the resolute click of Shai hanging up.
While he tried to keep his eyes open long enough, he was no match against the aforementioned pain meds, and he woke up to his front door being unlocked and a burst of panic
shot through him before he heard “Yo Dub I’m here” in Shai’s heavily accented voice.
He calmed down but his heart was still beating so heavily you would think he was having a heart attack, but Shai didn’t seem to notice as he was talking off his shoes by the door and putting his keys on the hook.
“Wassup” he slurred back.
“Yo Dub you good?” Shai said while making it into the living room where I was currently stationed on the couch.
“Yeah man I’m fine, I just fell asleep for a bit.”
“Ah I get it, don’t even worry about that” said Shai comfortingly.
“Soooo you wanna watch something, or you just gonna fall asleep again?” Shai asked with a smirk
“Nah man, you’re on! whatchu wanna watch?” he said while sitting up and resituating himself so that Shai could sit comfortably on his couch.
“Uh uh injured guy gets to pick!” Shai said as he sat down on the now empty spot on the couch.
“Hmm maybe just throw on Matilda” he said while still fidgeting with the blanket he had wrapped around himself.
“Ah I didn’t know you and Ant were similar in that regard.” Shai joked while queueing up the movie on the tv.
“Man shut up, it's a good movie and you know it.” He said while sprawling out and resting his legs over Shai’s lap.
If Shai had any problem with it, he showed no discomfort and only leaned further back into the plush cushions of the couch. While the intro of the movie was playing Shai asked
“Hey I know I already asked on the phone but are you good?” Shai said, with genuine concern in his voice.
“Yeah man, I mean my wrist hurts like hell and I hate missing games, my pain meds are working pretty well given the circumstances.” he said while readjusting the ice currently on his wrist.
“Alright, well if you ever need anything, and I mean anything just let me know, ok?” the Canadian said while holding the ankle currently sprawled over his lap.
“Yeah dude, appreciate it.” He said with sleep still lingering in his voice.
He fell asleep around the middle of Matilda and woke up to the credits rolling.
“So sorry man, I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.” He said already ready to defend himself to Shai as he rolled his neck out from being at an odd angle on the arm of the couch for about an hour. The man didn’t respond so he looked up and realized that Shai had also fallen asleep during the movie.
“Ah I guess I need to wake him so he can go back home” he thought as he pulled his legs back towards himself and sat up but then he remembered that they didn’t have a game tomorrow and the next one they played was a home game so he didn’t bother with waking the man up, he always felt uncomfortable doing so anyways. He resituated Shai on the couch so that he was laying comfortably and made his way to his bedroom, his blanket trailing behind him like a cape and flopped on his bed and let sleep consume him.
He’ll deal with Shai when he wakes up.