Other Spieth looks for a club
Jordan comparisons don’t bother the Spieth brother who’s pursuing hoops career
The question had barely gotten out of a reporter’s mouth when Steven Spieth began to smile. He’s heard it plenty of times before.
So, how often does your brother come up in conversation?
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “S---, that’s all anybody wants to talk about.” Then, he laughed. “I was kind of surprised that wasn’t your first question.”
It isn’t a topic from which he’s exactly shying away. Spieth was leaving Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas after having his most prolific performance of the summer for his hometown Dallas Mavericks — he had five points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal in18 minutes in a win over the Boston Celtics on July 15 — while wearing a Ryder Cup backpack.
In fact, before Jordan Spieth crossed the Atlantic and won his third major championship by claiming the British Open last weekend, one of the world’s most famous golfers had briefly been in Las Vegas to check on his younger brother.
The younger Spieth graduated from Brown University this spring after a four-year career in which he finished third in the Ivy League in scoring as a year, while also being named a third team academic all-American.
None of that mattered in Las Vegas, though. It was about showing he deserves a shot a professional career.
“It’s been great,” the six-foot-six Spieth said. “Just getting the opportunity to come out here and in the minutes I get, try to produce when I get them.”
It turned out those were the only extended minutes Spieth would receive in Las Vegas, getting spotty playing time in three other games on a Mavericks team featuring several roster players, including flashy No. 9 overall pick Dennis Smith Jr. and Yogi Ferrell, an all-rookie second team selection last month. That’s life for players on the fringes of NBA Summer League, where minutes wax and wane as their teams attempt to juggle multiple priorities.
But in that performance, Spieth showed some of the qualities that turned him into a well-rounded contributor at Brown University over the past four years — the same multidimensional skill set that once drew the eye of an assistant to Brown head coach Mike Martin while scouting a high school tournament in Dallas.
At the time, Martin had no idea who either Spieth brother was.
“I’m trying to get a feel for the family, and they talk about having an older brother Jordan, who happens to be a pretty good golfer at Texas,” Martin said with a laugh.
“That’s how the Spieths are. They are very genuine, humble people.”
Steven Spieth, who started all but one game during his four years at Brown, said his love affair with basketball began as a kid. His parents encouraged their children to play various sports, rather than sticking to one of them.
And while Spieth said he’s a good golfer in his own right — “When I get out there, and I’m playing a couple weeks in a row, I can get under 80” — he had his own reasons for why he chose basketball over golf.
“(Jordan) would go out every day at the country club in the summer, and it was100 degrees,” Spieth said with a smile, “and I was in the gym, where it was air-conditioned, getting shots up.”
Getting in synch with teammates is something Spieth’s older brother never has to worry about. In golf, there isn’t a coach preventing you from playing, or drawing up plays for someone else. Every swing and every decision is in the player’s control.
“I think it’s definitely more difficult,” Jordan Spieth said last week of breaking into a team sport. “Being an individual sport, you control your own outcome. That’s what I loved about golf and I loved going out there and putting in the work and the ball is never going to somebody else. It was always in my hands. And therefore, I think Steven wishes the ball was in his hands as much as possible, but it’s got to be passed around. And, therefore, credit can sometimes be given elsewhere, versus golf.
“But both are extremely difficult to do to make it to the highest level, in anything you do in life. It’s difficult and lonely, even in a team sport. It’s uncharted territory but for a few. And I think he’s on a tremendous path. He had a great summer league. And I think he’s very excited for what’s coming in the future. And I’m excited for him.”
With summer league now over, the question for the younger Spieth brother will be what, exactly, that future holds for him. His most likely path to playing professionally this fall will either be a trip to the NBA’s development league (now called the G-League), or going overseas to a foreign league.
Wherever he winds up, though, Steven Spieth knows he’ll have his brother’s support — just as he’s supported his brother throughout his meteoric rise to the top of his chosen profession.
“There’s nothing but love and support between the two of us,” Steven Spieth said. “We’re both really, really supportive of each other living out our dreams, and blessed that we’re able to do that.”
Jordan Spieth’s career is already fully underway. His brother hopes his is just getting started.