PHOENIX — After all of the years both Miles and Mason Plumlee have played basketball, they both experienced something Friday night they had never had done before: Playing against one another.
“I guess so,” older brother Miles said with a smile of this being his first-ever game against Mason after the Nets pulled off a 100-98 overtime victory over his Suns Friday night. “It’s been a long time … in a real uniform? Probably never.”
“It’s weird,” Mason said, “but it’s also something we always wanted to have happen. So having it happen is pretty cool.”
The fact they were going up against one another for the first time was just another wrinkle in what already was set to be a special night, both them and their family. The two brothers, who have a younger brother, Marshall, who followed in their footsteps at Duke, as well as a younger sister, Madeleine, were set to have their parents and several other family members in the stands cheering them both on Friday night.
“They’ll be fine,” Mason said with a smile when asked who his parents would root for. “They’ll be cheering for two individuals, they won’t be cheering for either team.”
The two first-round picks in each of the last two years — Miles with the Pacers in 2012, who then dealt him to the Suns this past offseason, and Mason by the Nets in June — already have moved into the rotations for their respective teams.
Miles, who finished with six points and seven rebounds in 35 minutes, has been one of the NBA’s biggest early season surprises, and has become a key cog for the Suns — who, in turn, have been one of the biggest surprise teams in the league. He entered Friday night’s game averaging 11.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks for the Suns, while playing more than 30 minutes per game and starting each of Phoenix’s first eight games of the season.
It’s a pretty dramatic change from his role in Indiana last season, where Plumlee appeared in just 14 games during his rookie season before being shipped to the Suns as part of a package for veteran forward Luis Scola during the offseason.
“It’s great, because he wasn’t so sure about the trade [at first],” Mason, who finished with seven points and three rebounds, said of his brother. “But then he comes here and really it’s been a blessing because he’s gotten a lot of minutes and he’s done well with them, and I think it just shows he was ready for some time.
“And, honestly, if he was in Indiana he probably wouldn’t be getting much time this year because they really have the same guys back. So it’s been great for him.”
The same thing also can be said, in a sense, for Mason, who entered the season as an afterthought in many ways thanks to the amount of star power already on the Nets’ roster following their busy summer. But the rookie big man has quickly worked his way into the team’s rotation early on, playing double-digit minutes in three of the last four games, in which he has averaged 4.3 points and 4.0 rebounds while playing about 17 minutes a night.
“I’m really proud, but I’m also not surprised,” Miles said. “That’s Mason. When he sees an obstacle, he just grits his teeth and finds a way to get through it.
“The depth on the roster would have been the obstacle, and I figure he’s found a way to bring something that no one else on the team could bring, and that’s going to get him on the court. He’s a smart guy, and a hard worker.”
But whether they actually face off against one another on the court or not, both are excited to be able to experience the dreams they shared growing up.
“It’s going to be really special,” Miles said. “It’s something we both dreamed about growing up, and it’s going to be fun to play against each other in an NBA game.
“I think all the way back to us playing in the driveway. It’s been a long time of us playing basketball together, so it’s a cool opportunity.”