Nets rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson will be providing a recurring diary to The Post as he begins his NBA career. This week, he dishes on how he plans to overcome his doubters heading into his rookie year, and specifically doubts about his jump shot. As told to Tim Bontemps.
People have always doubted me. Growing up, for a lot of people I would be the last person to be on their list to make the NBA. A lot of people doubt you … a lot of people will smile in your face and then you hear from somebody else, “Oh, so-and-so is better than him.”
I’m the type of person where if you’re from where I’m from, I’m going to have your back. That’s just the way it should be.
I don’t know why people have always doubted me. But one thing I’ll say that I’ve always noticed is hard work and how hard a guy plays on the court. If you can’t notice that, I don’t think you really know basketball. If somebody is out there diving on the floor for loose balls, if somebody is being like Dennis Rodman … I would say those things mean a lot to a team.
I don’t have to be the greatest player right now. I just have to do the things that got me here and help make the team better.
Now it’s my jump shot that’s being doubted. But I know it is going to improve because people don’t know how much work I have put in to develop it. It’s all about going from Step A to Step B to Step C, and about it getting better each day I’m working on it.
It’s definitely progressing. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Coach Jay Humphries working on it. He’s been trying to help me with repetition and focus and finding that rhythm that I need and I’m supposed to have on a consistent basis.
Some people develop their jump shot quicker than others, and some people it takes time. In this case, my time when it does come, whenever it does happen, that’s when things will start to be more flowing and natural.
People don’t know the amount of work that goes into this. It’s a lot. Especially, you know, because you play the game because you want to be great, you want to be something special, and so you’ve got to put in a lot of work.
The hours they have us going for practice, you have to exceed those and go beyond what you think is necessary. But that’s a part of the game. You have to put in these extra hours to get in that extra perks you want out of the game. You want to be called great, you want to be mentioned as the best at what you’re good at, you have to put in the time working at it.
It’s different than you being a low man and working your up in, say, college, and working your way up in the pros. You have to put a lot more time in to work your way up. It’s not just going to happen right away, and probably not even in a year. But your teammates will start to trust you more, and things will start to flow more when they can see what you can do in practice and things like that.
They’ll expect you to have the capability to do things, that’s when things start to go a lot easier. Then when they kick it out to you, they trust you to make the right play, whether it be knocking the shot down or finding the open man. They trust you doing that. So I think it takes a little bit of time, but as the days and time go on, I’m building their trust.