HAVING been part of the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Philippines program presented by Alaska these many years I am steeped in the global basketball league’s core values of Sportsmanship, Teamwork, a positive Attitude and Respect (STAR).
Ask Jr. NBA or Jr. WNBA alumni what they remember most about the program and they’ll also quickly mention the STAR values. Ateneo’s Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena, University of Santo Tomas’s Aljon Mariano, Southwestern University’s Mark Tallo, University of the Philippines’s Henry Asilum, De La Salle’s Kib Montalbo, Adamson’s Dawn Ochea, De La Salle Zobel’s Aljun Jay Melecio, Xavier’s Tyler Tio and former Greenie, now LA Cathedral High School standout Kobe Paras are some of the Jr. NBA alumni now making waves in the collegiate league and the U16 national basketball team. They all spout out the STAR values even in their sleep.
Jr. NBA All-Star alumni are often asked what their favorite value is. For Thirdy Ravena, it is Attitude. “Positivity toward every challenge is what I learned from the Jr. NBA. It has helped me stay focused and determined to excel in my craft.”
For University of the East Junior Warrior Ichie Altamirano, Respect is the most important value. “Sportsmanship, Teamwork and Attitude all flow from Respect,” he said.
Kib Montalbo says the STAR values “may seem like basic values that can be taught by anyone, but learning them from Jr. NBA coaches is different. You hear it from international coaches who have vast experience in molding and honing the talents of young players.”
Personally, my favorite value is Attitude. It is the fountainhead of all the other STAR values, in my opinion. It can spell the difference between being a loser and a sparkling winner. Which is why I have been so impressed lately with a third-rotation guard of the Boston Celtics named Phil Pressey. To me, he is Mr. Positive Attitude incarnate.
Pressey is a bench player with a non-guaranteed contract next year who receives a team-low $816,482 minimum salary. The undrafted player—whose father, Paul, sits on the bench of arch rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers—is always third choice after Marcus Smart and Rajon Rondo, and even Evan Turner when he plays the point.
He would have been an easy player to part with, says the Boston Herald. But he’s been the team’s break-glass-in-case-of-emergency kind of guy. The team went to Pressey while Rondo rehabbed from his ACL injury, but his fortune looked iffy again when Marcus Smart, and later Evan Turner, was drafted. Now that Isaiah Thomas is with the team and has become its acknowledged messiah, Pressey’s number has an even lesser chance of being called.
But Pressey rides it out and does what he needs to do. He gets in there to train, puts in the extra mile after every practice and stays on top of his form, working with the strength staff to maintain his conditioning and running extra sprints and treadmill runs on off days.
The patient Pressey said Coach Brad Stevens would talk to him if he didn’t play for five or six games and tells him to just stay ready all the time. “It kind of stings sometimes when you don’t play and you’ve been putting in the work as hard as you are. Coach [tells me] to stay ready. [He says] any time during the season your name is going to be called and when your name is called you have to be ready to go.”
Brad Stevens appreciates Pressey’s A-1 Attitude. He told ESPN that the little point guard is “a really valued member of our team, of our organization. He works the right way. If he doesn’t play, he’s the loudest guy on the bench; and if he does play, he’s an energizer. He’s not going to play perfect, but nobody is, and if you can sustain that and not get down and be confident, there’s always a role for you. And that’s a great compliment.”
Pressey remembers Stevens telling him that “guys get hurt and you know you have to step in and play.” “Having him talk to you, it makes you know you’re still part of the team. For me it’s just winning. I don’t mind not playing as long as we’re winning, and I’ve been that way from Day One,” Pressey said.
So when the new crowd darling Isaiah Thomas had to quit being messiah because of a back injury he sustained during the game against the Heat on March 10, Pressey was good and ready. He had a double-double (10 points, 10 assists), sparking Boston’s rally from a double-digit deficit in the win over the Magic on March 13.
He’s been a steadying presence as backup point guard, averaging 7.3 points, 5.3 assists, two rebounds, and one steal over 21 minutes per game. Pressey is plus-30 over 63 minutes of floor time for a team that won those three games by a total of 14 points. The Celtics also own an offensive rating of 106.5 during Pressey’s floor time—or 10.4 points per 100 possessions higher than the team’s average during that three-game span. What’s more, the team’s defensive rating with Pressey is 84.4, or 6.3 points below an already stellar mark (90.7). Pressey’s net rating of plus-22.1 is downright staggering, ESPN says.
“He’s been ‘a dogged individual defender, getting into his opponent’s body and making things difficult’. The league’s player-tracking data suggests that Pressey’s opponents are shooting just 36.8 percent overall over the past three games, or 7 percent below their season averages. They’ve burnt him a bit beyond the three-point arc, but those players are shooting a meager 25 percent on all two-point shots (three-of-12 overall). More important, Pressey has been pressuring the ball and making it difficult for teams to get into their offensive sets, especially when he picks the ball up before midcourt.”
Stevens says Boston would not have been on a five-game win streak (against Miami, Memphis, Orlando, Indiana, Philadelphia) without Pressey’s spark. In due time, Thomas will heal and Pressey will slide back to his third-option role again but he’ll still be there good and ready when his number is called. His team and its A-class fans truly appreciate him for it. That’s what a Positive Attitude does for you!