Pushing ahead with the Pelicans: Keion Brooks Jr. embracing journey to the NBA
local coverage you can count on continues with josh aan sports report sports coverage you can count on he was a legend in the making during his time at northside high school and now keon brooks jr is starting to carve out his path as a pro hooper the former kentucky and washington standout is coming off his rookie season where he split time between the nba and the g-league now brooks was actually back in town for a little bit and we happened to catch up with the fort wayne native on his journey to basketball’s biggest stage i mean my whole life i i envisioned myself being an nba player playing on the biggest stage playing against the best players in the world and um i remember when that time came with the draft and everything i knew i was good enough um you know my route was a little bit different a little bit longer but it never deterred me from what my end goal was and that was to be in the league and and go out there and compete against the best
keon brooks jr may have missed out on the call of a lifetime in last year’s nba draft but when another opportunity arose the fort wayne native slammed that door open brook starting his pro career in the gleague with the birmingham squadron last fall he then signed a two-way contract with the pelicans that led to his nba debut on february 5th at denver i was prepared for when when my opportunity came my coaches in the g- league put me in great positions they allowed me to do stuff that i knew i was going to be able to do in the nba so when i got up there i wasn’t a lot of shell shock i wasn’t caught off guard by anything it was it was um kind of like i kind of hit the ground running cuz my coaches put me in a good position
brooks briefly went back to birmingham after getting his first taste of the nba but then the fort wayne native was called back to the pelicans for the final 12 games of the regular season and man did keon leave a lasting mark with the franchise in that 12ame stretch keon dropping double digits in eight of those contests that includes a career-high 20 points against the milwaukee bucks
and the main thing was just at the end of the day you’re still playing basketball now you are playing against the best players in the world but at the end of the day the game is the same and um my coaches and my teammates put me in great positions to allow me to be myself allowed me to be comfortable and um that really really helped a lot of people around here they might not know it but they they played an intricral part in me getting where i am today i didn’t do it by myself it wasn’t just my mom and my dad like they weren’t always around so it was other people that kept me in line along the way too so you know it’s not just about me making it it’s about fort wayne making it as a whole and um i feel like we’re doing a great job of that and anytime i can come back and support or try to pull some of the young kids up and try to give them some knowledge and put them in the position that i possibly could be in anything uh i i can do i’ll do that brooks is going to spend his july with the pelican summer league team that is coming up on the 10th in las vegas i’m josh shagan and that is your local sports report
Pushing ahead with the Pelicans: Keion Brooks Jr. embracing journey to the NBA
