Everyone moves on different schedules.
Some players rocket to the NBA, fully formed as megastars. Some become valued role players. And some never make it. In his seventh season with the Memphis Grizzlies, Jaren Jackson Jr. has leveled up.
Drafted fourth overall by the Grizzlies in 2018, Jackson Jr. has patiently and confidently expanded his game. As the team added Ja Morant and Desmond Bane around Jackson Jr., the Grizzlies have become a perennial top-tier team in the Western Conference.
In the meantime, Jackson Jr. has become a constant. In 2022-23, he was unlocked as a dominant help defender who won the NBAs Defensive Player of the Year award. This season, hes unleashed a flurry of mid-range and driving moves to complement an already solid perimeter shot. While averaging a career-high 22.7 ppg and making his second All-Star Game, Jackson Jr. appears en route to another DPOY nod, or at least to be named to an All-NBA team. (Should either of those options come through, Jackson Jr. would qualify for a supermax contract extension worth about $345 million over the next five seasons.)
Here in Memphis, weve watched the kid everyone calls Trip grow up. He started off alongside Marc Gasol and Mike Conley as the Grit and Grind era transitioned. Hes planted community roots through youth camps and women in sports initiatives. (His mother, Terri, is the Executive Director of the Womens National Basketball Players Association; his father, Jaren Sr., played 13 seasons in the NBA, winning a championship with the Spurs in 1999.) Jaren has also displayed his love of fashion and music, and just being creative in general.
While hes grown into his frame, at seven-feet tall, Trip has become a literal cornerstone for Memphis. As the Grizzlies look to leap into that final tier of contending teams, theyll need the only player in the NBA with at least 5 steals and 5 blocks in crunch time to continue his consistency.
Everyone moves on different schedules. It just turns out Jaren Jackson Jr.s time is now.
SLAM: When you were drafted by the Grizzlies in 2018 out of Michigan State, what kind of impact did you think you could have in the League?
JAREN JACKSON JR.: I kind of came into it with a fresh mind, for sure. I knew what I could do defensively, in terms of blocking shots, and stretching the floor with shooting. But I knew that I had a long way to go in terms of shot creation, off the dribble, isolation scoring, something
I do a lot of now.
SLAM: Has defense always been your calling card?
JJJ: Yeah, I think so in AAU, and I was always playing with really good players in high school, too, so I needed to find a way to be effective, and I was just blocking shots. And guards were not as good back then, so you could really time it up pretty easily. It was just fun making people feel bad.
SLAM: You dont strike me as the kind of guy who, like, talks a lot of trash, though.
JJJ: Not too much. I mean, it just depends on what were doing. Theres a lot of subtext in there. I feel like there are some unwritten things, you know. I feel like if you celebrate, it should be organic. Im not about to celebrate a block until I know we have the ball. Because if you get a block and they lay it in, it aint going to work.
SLAM: In 22-23, you won Defensive Player of the Year. From your rookie season to that year, how did you evolve defensively?
JJJ: I stopped prioritizing shot blocking as much and just made it about changing shots, making it harder on the offense and making it harder on the top players. And at the time, Dillon Brooks was on our team, and he was taking a lot of attention away just by guarding probably the best wing scorer every night. And then if youre worrying about him, and I come out of nowhere, Im getting a lot of blocks. And keeping the ball in bounds, too. Thats something my dad told me: Dont just block it and try to hit it as hard as you can, because then its just their ball. Try to keep it in bounds and start a break.
SLAM: Youre the only guy from your rookie season who is still here in Memphis. What do you think when you look at the way this whole things evolved in the last seven years?
JJJ: I dont think there was a long low period or developmental period. I mean, outside of my rookie year, we have been making the playoffsoutside of last year when we were all injured. When Ja came here, it just kind of unlocked a lot of things for everybody. Then you just start seeing peoples games evolve. You start seeing Des, you start seeing BC [Brandon Clarke,] then we get Zach [Edey.] So, I mean, it was a lot, man.
SLAM: This season, youre really putting it on the floor, spinning, converting hook shots, working in the mid-range, all these different things. How did all that kind of get unleashed?
JJJ: Well, in all my summer workouts, I have live bodies. I never work out with cones or props. I like to have people in front of me. I like to make it challenging. It helps me work on my one-on-one game. A floater, a hook, is really a middie to me, or a layupIm very confident in that shot. Its really just about working on ways to get to your spots. Thats what the greats do. Thats what a lot of my favorite players do that I look at and watch on film. I take a lot of things away from them, add it to my game. Also, it just feels like the court feels a little more open now, you know? When you get the ball, its like, just go. Theres space, for sure. I can feel that. Especially with the way were coached, that has a lot to do with it, toothe way were positioned right now, it gives everybody the ability to make plays and playmake. So now Im working on my playmaking. Thats the next step. When we really get into itlike passing, those no-look passesI need to have that. I need to have all that.
SLAM: You just mentioned, and weve seen it the last couple weeks, teams are starting to double you and bring guys from the weak side.
JJJ: Its playmaking and being able to read defenses just at an A-plus level. I think I can read defenses pretty well right now. But I have to be even better for what theyre throwing at me. Thats the next step, along with a bunch of things that Im just not even going to say.
SLAM: It looks like youre going to win another Defensive Player of the Year award, and it looks like youre going to make All-NBA this season. Has that been a goal?
JJJ: Of course. It comes with the territory when youre winning games. If your teams successful, things will come for you. I just wanted to put myself in a position where our teams in the playoff hunt. Everything else is just falling into place. If you really hunt for awardsI dont feel like the great players do that. I dont feel like any of the people who get those types of awards do that. I definitely didnt the first time I won. Im out there playing free. Right now, when were taping this, we have a month left. I havent felt freer up to now.
SLAM: Do you feel like you deserve to be All-NBA?
JJJ: Of course. I think I played to that level. And I think my team has. I think thats what it is: All-NBA is an award that goes to the best players on the best teams doing the best stuff. Its similar to an All-Star bid, but it includes the whole year. I think just being able to be available is a huge thing. Thats what Im doing.
SLAM: Im going to push back a little bit because I feel like All-Star goes to the best players on the best teams. All-NBA goes to the best players, period.
JJJ: Thats dope. Hey, look, I think it works either way.
SLAM: Do you ever think about why your fit in Memphis has been so good?
JJJ: Probably because we just keep it real here. Theres no facade. I dont even know what you call ityou would only know if youre here. Im authentic. I think in the community over the years, weve made a huge impact on a lot of peoplewomen in sports, youth hoops. And when I did the speech at the Freedom Awards at the National Civil Rights Museum, it just tied everything together. I couldnt get a word off without them cheering. My family was there, too. And it just made me feel very warm, very at home.
SLAM: Youve become a LeagueFits star. When did you get into fashion?
JJJ: Ive always been creative, and I always liked clothes. In terms of wearing clothes at this level and telling stories with what I wear, doing that came about when I think I met Toni [Posh.] Tonis my creative director, and shes teaching me what it means to really storytell through clothes. Weve been all around the world because of it. I eventually want to be a creative director myself. The end goal is to always keep pushing the limits of everything. But right now, being the present, yeah, were putting that on. Were putting it on right now.
SLAM: Making music has also been a big passion of yours over the years, and vlogging has become important. How are those things connected?
JJJ: Yeah, the goal is for everything to be tied together. Nothing should be moving without the other. If you look at a vlog, the musics on the vlog, the clothes are on the vlog. If you look at the music, the clothes, you know, everything is just kind of balanced off each other. And, yeah, you look up and were a season of a vlog series in, were six albums in, were however many outfits in, like three years going to Fashion Week. But that doesnt even matter. The point is that we tied it all together every single time.
SLAM: Youve also been a spokesman for everyone from 2K to Fanatics to Nike. Did you ever see yourself having these sorts of corporate relationships and being a person companies would come to for these things?
JJJ: I think I did. I mean, Im a corporate kid. I grew up in this environment, having to speak for myself at events. A lot of people who work in the NBA, Ive known them for a long time. When I was a younger kid, I used to see them. Now they have the big-time jobs, and Im seeing them walk around. But everything is relationships. You have to be able to hold your own and have your own voice and be confident. I was just kind of thrown into that as a kid, and now I can swim.
Portraits by Johnnie Izquierdo.
