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Blue Devil Weekly Q&A WIth Jamal Boykin
1/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
After bringing California's 2004 Mr. Basketball, DeMarcus Nelson, to Duke last year, coach Mike Krzyzewski lured another of the state's top prospects this season. Freshman Jamal Boykin, an energetic 6-7 forward, was the Gatorade state player of the year in 2005 and now is working in a reserve capacity as a freshman Blue Devil. We caught up with him as Duke was preparing for its first ACC road trip to Wake Forest last week.
What was it like growing up and going to high school in Los Angeles?
"I went to Fairfax High School, which is not far from Hollywood, not far from Beverly Hills. It's a great location, I feel the best location for a high school student. There are a lot of distractions, but if you can stay focused there it's a great thing.
I grew up in the Crenshaw area. I took the bus to school and it took me about 45 minutes to an hour to get there. It's a little bit different than Fairfax, with a lot of family and a community-type environment. It was a great experience."
There are also some rough parts in that area. How did you handle that?
"It teaches you a lot about valuing your own things, and looking out for yourself and looking out for others. But at the same time there are a lot of great people in those areas. It teaches you how to be tough but at the same time how to love and protect. There were about 20 kids in my community that would always come over to my house, and we'd play and have fun. It was a huge community. A lot of the kids moved on to go to college, which was a great thing. There were some kids who didn't, some who chose the wrong path, and that's hard to see. But there are others who made it and keep moving forward."
Since your mom is a high school English teacher, academics must have always been a big part of your life.
"Definitely. My mom has always stressed education from the beginning. I'm the youngest of four children. My oldest sister has graduated from college, my second oldest sister is getting her master's at Long Beach State and my older brother who goes to Northern Arizona right now. So everybody has focused on their academics and it's been a huge part of our family."
Growing up with those siblings must have been unbelievable. Your sister was a shot putter at Long Beach, your brother plays at Northern Arizona. Very athletic family, obviously. What were the athletics like growing up?
"The athletics were great. When I was very young my sister was very involved in track and field and did a lot of things. I remember traveling a lot. Wherever she went, the whole family went. I remember driving to Texas, Alabama, far places to support her. As time went on my brother and myself started getting better in basketball. As we got older and developed and got into AAU and the traveling teams, all the focus went to us and the whole family traveled with us.
Athletics have been a huge focus. It really helps when you've got four kids who can all go to college for free. It's worth investing the time and the money into athletics if you can get a free education and the opportunity to expand your life even better."
There was been a lot of great high school basketball in your area and at Fairfax. You were the state player of the year last year and led your team to the state championship the year before. What was your senior year like?
"My senior year was extraordinary. I was very close with my coach. We had a great relationship. I was the only returning senior from the previous year when we were state champions. It was an emotional year, every game. It was a phenomenal year. We ended up losing our last game by one point in the state semifinals, but throughout the year I had a lot of support. We had a lot of close games, a lot of big crowds and it was an extraordinary thing."
As much as you played and traveled to AAU events in high school, there was a big tournament in the Triangle area, the Bob Gibbons event, that you missed because you were the lead role in a school play, Guys and Dolls?
"Right, and it was the hardest decision I had to make. The previous two years I came here and played in the Bob Gibbons tournament with DeMarcus Nelson ? we were teammates ? and I just had a great time. Any time I could get in Cameron and get up extra shots, any time I could be around Cameron, I was. The play interfered with the Bob Gibbons tournament. I committed to the play about two months before the tournament and I had a very important part in the play. My teacher told me if I dropped out of the play, the play was cancelled. Here I have 40 kids all resting on me, and if I dropped out it's over. It had to do with ticket sales, and there was huge anticipation for the play. My dad told me I made a commitment and I had to stick to it, so that's what I did. I was scared because I didn't know if it would hurt my chances of being able to come to Duke or not. I was hoping that maybe they saw it as a character thing."
Obviously you made it to Duke, the place you really wanted to attend for a long time. Why were you so interested in coming to Duke?
"It's been a huge dream of mine. I always felt if I could put myself in position to come to Duke, I could set myself up for life. And not just from that aspect. As a kid, watching Duke on TV, those guys were my heroes. The Grant Hills... and Shane Battier was really the guy for me. Kids would compare me to him, and also, you look in his face and you'd see all the emotions. You look in his face and you'd see Duke. Then Jason Williams and all those guys. I just had so much passion for Duke, and all the kids in my neighborhood knew it. When I committed to Duke, everybody was ready to party. They all thought it was the craziest thing that could happen. I'll never forget the day, July 31st, around 4 p.m."
When you guys played at Greensboro a couple of weeks ago, there were over 20,000 fans there, a lot of kids watching you. Do you ever think when you are involved in a game like that, that there are all these kids maybe falling in love with Duke like you did and dreaming of one day playing for the Blue Devils?
"That's a great thing. That's why we try to conduct ourselves in a way and play in a way where we don't take it for granted when the kids can get so much out of it. They look up to us and they want to play for us. They want to play for Coach K. That's why I feel so blessed, because I was one of those kids. To actually be able to make it here is phenomenal."
After being The Guy at your high school, has it been hard this year not playing many minutes as you're used to playing, watching a lot of the games from the bench?
"Sitting on the bench hasn't been that hard just because of the fact that the guys ahead are mostly seniors, and everybody's doing their job. When there's a situation where my job is needed, I get in and do the best I can.
But the most important part is that I feel I'm becoming a better basketball player. I was talking to my high school coach and he was saying I could be somewhere getting a lot of minutes and maybe starting, but I might not be as good as I'm going to be playing at Duke sitting on the bench right now. I'm learning so much. Having six seniors and being able to learn from them and talk to them, because a lot of them went through similar situations, it's just going to help me be a very strong player."
What's been the most difficult thing for you to pick up here?
"We contest a lot (defensively), and in the beginning that was the hardest thing. And the way we talk here. When I was in high school they really liked the fact that I talked a lot. But the kind of talking I did was, “Let's go, guys” or “Pick it up.” Here it's more like, “I've got help side” or “Pressure the ball” or “Get in a stance.” It's more specific. That's been a part of my problem and a part of the challenge. It's a day to day thing where you have to get better every day.
Also, when you're told something once here, you're supposed to get it right away. The longer you take to get it, it's going to be harder. The guys who pick it up fast are the guys who excel faster. That's the advantage all the veterans have over the freshmen. It's just a learning process."
As we head into this ACC season, have you met the goals you wanted to reach by this point?
"The most important thing for me is that I've improved since the beginning of the season. I feel I'm more committed now. That's something the assistant coaches and Coach K have all helped me with. It's not just what you do in practice, it's what you do before practice, after practice and when you go back to your room. Everything is committed to the basketball program, and it's worth it. You make the commitment to this program and you're going to get great things and see great results. At this stage I feel I'm ahead of where I was before. Moving forward, everything has to just keep moving forward, and that's my goal."
What are your expectations of ACC play?
"First, I know that all the teams are going to hate us, so wherever we go, the crowds are going to be crazy. I really don't have an idea there but I'm looking forward to that. We have to embrace that. We can't be scared of that. We're ready for that. That's going to be an adjustment with the crowds and all that. Also, the teams now are going to be better prepared to play us, and we're going to be better prepared to play them, because they've played us before and we've played them before. Just looking at how other teams attack us and how we go through their strategies and attack them is a huge part of the ACC."
We heard that when you arrived on campus you had a goal of meeting at least five new people every day. How has that gone?
"I'm really a huge people person. I love meeting new people and I love going to new environments. When people come to me, I don't like to just talk about myself, I like to learn about them too. As a student here, I don't just want to be a basketball player. When I get out of that environment, when I'm in the cafeteria or walking on the East Campus quad, I want to meet other students and find out about them, where they're from, how they got here, the struggles they've had. It's been great. I have a lot of friends around campus and the fans have really accepted me. Every day I meet about 10 or 12 people, and it's a great thing."
You've been a fan favorite from the minute you stepped on the court. Your energy level seems to be infectious. Have you always been that way?
"Always. I remember when I first started playing basketball, I was in second grade and my brother was in fourth and my dad coached the team. I couldn't play because I was too young. He finally let me on the team because I was crying too much because I couldn't play. I remember when anyone on our team scored, I would just go crazy. And when I scored myself, I would dance on the court. It was rude to the other teams, just terrible, but that's where it started."
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