REGGIE JACKSON HAD spent enough time in Los Angeles over the years to have an idea of what he was signing up for when Paul George invited him out to a summer pickup game at his old high school in Palmdale, California.
The two friends had lived together at houses in the Hollywood Hills on and off for the past few summers, training together during the days, playing video games and going to dinners with friends and family at night.
But Palmdale is a bit of a drive from basically anywhere in Los Angeles -- an hour and 20 minutes northeast with traffic luck -- and another world from the scene in L.A.
"Once I got out of the city, it was just real Western out there," Jackson says. "I kept trying to call Paul so he could direct me. But he was already on the court, so he didn't pick up."
Jackson kept driving though. Growing up in a military family, he had never really stayed long enough in a place to call it a hometown. But that only made him long for and appreciate a connection like George had with Palmdale even more.
When Jackson finally found the gym at Knight High School, the 10- to 15-person pickup game he had been invited to had turned into a spectator event after word spread over social media that George was in town hooping.
"It was cool just being in his city, walking around the neighborhood and seeing some of the areas where he grew up," Jackson says of George. "That's why I wanted to make the trip out there."
Jackson had an entirely different childhood. He was born in Italy and then made stops in England, North Dakota, Georgia, Florida and Colorado. For college, he spent three years at Boston College. In the NBA, he has played in Oklahoma City, Detroit and L.A. But it's this last stop, with George and the Clippers, where he finally seems to have found his NBA home.
"He really has saved us, all year," Clippers assistant coach Chauncey Billups says. "Just hitting big shot after big shot, making play after play."
In the first round of the Western Conference playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks, Jackson was a revelation, scoring 18.2 points a game after being inserted into the starting lineup in Game 3. In the second round against the Utah Jazz, he also averaged 18 points, but Jackson stepped it up to 24.5 points and 6.5 assists after Kawhi Leonard was lost to a knee injury in Game 4. In the conference finals against the Phoenix Suns, Jackson is averaging 21.5 points through the first four games.
Overall, the Clippers are plus-104 with Jackson on the court during these playoffs. And according to ESPN Stats & Information research, he is one of only three players in NBA history to hit at least three 3-pointers in 14 postseason games. The other two are Golden State Warriors stars Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry.
Jackson has always had the talent to perform at this level. The Pistons gave him an $80 million contract in 2015 because they believed in his talent. He just hasn't been healthy enough or felt comfortable enough to shine like this.
"Honestly, this team has empowered me," Jackson says. "I've gone through my career trying to make the right play and not necessarily just being myself and coming out and playing the game.
"But the more I just continue to be myself, the more this team empowered me to be myself, I've been able to find success."
TRAVIS JACKSON KNEW his brother had found a home with the Clippers in late January. The Clips were on the road for a game against the Heat and playing without George and Leonard. Travis watches all of his brother's games and knows how to read his emotions better than anyone. And against Miami, Reggie seemed locked in, determined to carry the team to a win without its injured superstars.
But in the fourth quarter, with the Heat rallying, Jackson made a monumental error. He called a timeout the Clippers didn't have.
The look on Jackson's face said everything. He knew instantly how big a blunder it was. But before the emotion overwhelmed him, Serge Ibaka ran over to console him. Then Lou Williams. Then Patrick Beverley. Then everyone on the bench.
"I was like, 'Oh, they got his heart now,'" Travis Jackson says.
Travis and his brother had both struggled with the constant relocations growing up. They had each other, but lasting friendships were impossible to build.
"One of the biggest challenges in moving around every three years is you never build a home," Travis said. "You get good at making friends, but we can't really be forever friends."
But Travis has noticed a difference in his brother since he joined the Clippers. Reggie had his existing friendship with George -- whom he grew close with starting in 2011 during the NBA lockout. But he also had connected deeply with his teammates and the coaching staff.
So when the low moment came against the Heat, the support was real.
"It was like the moment he'd been looking for his whole career," Travis says.
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue sat back and watched the scene play out. He had been preaching positivity and building a supportive culture all season. But it's impossible for a coach to know how strong his team is really bonded until moments like this. Weak teams break apart; strong ones draw closer together.
"It was so great, because everybody on the team was supportive, like, 'Man, listen. It's over. It's OK, Reggie. We're going to win the game,'" Lue recalls. "It was so great, because all he's doing is just looking for confirmation that people's going to be there for him."
The Clippers did end up winning that game too. Jackson's mistake could've cost them, but the team rallied around him and then made sure it held on for a 109-105 victory.
Lue understood Jackson's need for a real and lasting connection, because Lue had grown up in a military family too.
"My mom's husband was in the military. So I lived in Seattle for a little bit, then Tacoma. Then we went from Tacoma, we moved to Clarksville, Tennessee," Lue says. "I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all."
Lue and his sister moved back each time to live with his grandmother in his hometown of Mexico, Missouri. Eventually, his mom moved back home, as well.
But the experiences of uprooting and moving around every few years stayed with Lue.
"I think having the chance to travel and be in those places, it puts you around different people. You have to fit in. You got to learn how to fit in in different crowds, different situations," Lue says.
"But now, when I get on the bus, the Greyhound, I throw up every time because of that smell. We caught a bus from Kingdom City, Missouri, to Seattle. I remember me and my sister playing old maid for three straight days. And there was this crazy smell the whole time. You can never get used to it."
Lue has never shared his own story with Jackson. The coach prefers to let players open up to him. But it informed the way he treated Jackson, and it is a big part of why Lue has been able to get the best from him.
"It's just about being positive and showing him that he's wanted," Lue says. "That he's needed. Staying with him."
ONE OF THE things Lue -- and, frankly, everyone -- notices right away is how Jackson interacts with every player and staffer.
"One thing about Reggie, he's always going to come in, speak to everybody, shake everybody's hand," Lue says. "And I mean everybody. Whoever's in the gym, general managers, the president, the owner, the equipment guys. He's going to come in every single day and the same thing. He speaks to everybody: 'Hello, how you doing? Have a good day.' That's just who he is."
That's the good-at-making-friends-in-a-new-place Reggie.
The real Reggie, the one the Clippers and his closest friends know, is the guy who keeps shaking everyone's hand and saying hello every day.
"I was ready to leave. I was ready to give up. I thought I was going to retire because I just couldn't get healthy."Reggie Jackson
Arnie Kander first met that version in 2015, when he was traded from Oklahoma City to Detroit. Kander was the Pistons' director of sports performance.
"We were on the road when he got traded, and he gets on the team plane," Kander says. "And he's literally dapping up everyone -- from coaches to staff to all the way to the back and even like sponsors -- he's dapping up everybody on the flight. I'm like, 'Wait, he's been on the team one day.'
"I have not seen that. Usually, guys don't dap coaches unless you win. But he was dapping everybody. And I'm like, 'Let's see if this is going to be a consistent trend.'"
It was.
"Every single game. Win by 20. Lose by 20. Whatever. It did not make a difference. Come in, dap, look at everybody," Kander says. "I'm like, 'Wow, this guy is different. Incredibly connected.'"
Kander stayed in touch with Jackson long after their time as trainer and player ended.
"Just such an incredible human being," Kander says. "He's been an incredible fit with the Clippers. And it's really letting people see him and his brightness and who he is."
IT'S HARD TO picture now, against the images of Jackson's joyous celebrations during this magical playoff run, when there was a time last summer he wasn't sure he would ever play again.
"I was ready to leave. I was ready to give up," Jackson says. "I thought I was going to retire because I just couldn't get healthy."
Constant ankle, back and leg injuries had wrecked his time in Detroit. After reaching a buyout with the Pistons in February 2020, George had convinced Jackson to join him in L.A. for what they'd hoped would be a championship playoff run.
They'd always talked about playing together, throughout their nearly 10-year friendship. But once it finally happened, the reality wasn't ideal. Jackson's back wasn't healthy yet. His ankle was better, but not 100 percent, either. The Clippers were still finding themselves after Leonard and George had teamed up. Then in March 2020, the pandemic hit.
The four-month layoff before the season restarted in the NBA bubble was difficult for everyone. But the isolation of the Florida bubble and the Clippers' postseason meltdown against the Denver Nuggets was even worse.
"Reggie is real tight, like a brother. He lived with me. He's been around my kids. My daughters love him. They adore him. He's family."Paul George
Jackson wasn't sure he had the motivation to get healthy enough to play and contribute again.
"It just started weighing on me," he says.
Last season was supposed to be the fulfillment of a dream. But nothing was working out the way he and George had dreamed about.
"I just felt like maybe it wasn't meant to be," Jackson says.
His brother encouraged him to take some time away. Read. Play video games. Rest. See if the love comes back.
Jackson went out to Los Angeles to stay with George and their group of friends -- Myles "YT" Williams, Dallas Rutherford and Alex "A1"Jackson. They fell back into an easy rhythm. The same easy rhythm they'd been in for the past 10 years, since Jackson had joined their tight circle.
Jackson had never really thought of himself as having a hometown. But he did have a home.
"Reggie is real tight, like a brother," George said. "He lived with me. He's been around my kids. My daughters love him. They adore him. He's family."
One day last summer, when Jackson was shooting on the court at George's house, Jackson had a moment of clarity.
"He hadn't picked up a basketball in months," his brother says. "He was with the crew, and it just happened organically while they were out at P's house hanging out.
"He took a couple shots and was like, 'I think I love it.' He took a couple more shots, and I could tell when I was talking to him, 'Oh, that's it, you're ready.'"
It might not have looked how Jackson wanted it to look. His body might not have felt like what he wanted it to feel. He had let free agency pass him by, for the most part. The only roles still out there were minimum-salary, off-the-bench spots. But the Clippers still wanted him. And the love was still there, for basketball and his teammates.
"It was a really emotional moment," Travis Jackson says. "I just said to him, 'OK then. We do it for the love of the game. We don't care about anything else. We don't care about roles and minutes. The only thing we can count on is we love what we do.'"
"Yep," Reggie Jackson responded. "I just love what I do."
With the Clippers, Reggie Jackson feels like he has a place in the NBA - ESPN Philippines
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