Tyus Jones said there’s no substitute for hard word. (Photo: Bob Donnan, USA TODAY Sports)
For an unranked high school basketball player, hearing Tyus Jones say, “Trust the process” could very well prompt an immediate eye-roll reaction.
Jones was the No. 1 point guard in the 2014 class, he went to Duke, he was named Most Outstanding Player in Duke’s national championship win over Wisconsin in April and two months later he got drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers and eventually ended up with his hometown Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft.
“It was really like a dream scenario,” Jones said. “I couldn’t have imagined it going any better.”
Still, Jones vividly remembers the part of his story that’s often glossed over; when he was taking his lumps back in the early days when his name was just beginning to ring out nationally.
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“It took a lot of hard work and mental toughness,” Jones said. “That’s the part that I think people miss. They only see the good, but I had to work to accomplish everything that I’ve accomplished. And my work’s only beginning.”
Jones didn’t have the same path as most elite high school players; he didn’t attend a showcase camp every weekend in the summer in between running with his AAU team the Howard Pulley Panthers.
“I really only played AAU and played with USA Basketball,” Jones said. “I didn’t want to wear my body out playing too much all summer. I focused on skill work and the weight room. I simplified it.”
During his junior year at Apple Valley (Apple Valley, Minn.), Jones suffered from extreme back spasms that sidelined him for a month. In that time, Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft who also plays with the Minnesota Timberwolves, reclassified from 2014 to 2013, subsequently moving Jones into the No. 1 overall spot in the ESPN 100 rankings.
“I felt so much pressure because I was hurt and I wasn’t playing as well,” Jones said. “I ended up dropping to No. 3, which, of course, is still good; I just had to get over the mental aspect of it and get back in the lab and work. That’s how I handled everything. That’s gotta be the process, so if you’re unranked and want to be ranked you’ve gotta put in even more work and not get discouraged.”
Jones followed the back injury up by leading the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League in scoring, steals and assists in his final AAU season.
“Trusting the process might sound cliché,” Jones said. “But it’s the best way to get the results that you want. It’s 100 percent true.”
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