More fans and media are becoming intrigued by the developing culture of the Brooklyn Nets. It’s patiently and quietly becoming a respectable basketball environment, perhaps even an attractive enough destination for free agents such as Kyrie Irving in the near future.
If you’ve taken the time to watch the Nets play this season then you’ve been made aware of Spencer Dinwiddie. He was selected in the late second round of the 2014 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. Now, he’s one of the intricate pieces in a free-flowing Brooklyn system that has them playoff-bound.
Dinwiddie is averaging 17 points and five assists in 28 minutes per game for the Nets this season. His projected numbers per 36 minutes jump to 22 points and six assists per game.
In the seven games played so far in March, he’s a +13 and averaging 19 points per game.
While his impact for Brooklyn is consistently evident on paper and on the floor, Dinwiddie’s game has a special blue collar blend of simplicity and style.
When your role players are threats off the dribble and shooting off the catch, it’s a great luxury for any offense. But the ability of Dinwiddie was even considered as All-Star worthy this season. He’s become more than just your average role player. So much so that in December he launched his own sneaker line, K8IROS, which is meant to represent the convergence of optimal timing and maximum effort.
Looking closer at his story helps to make sense of how Dinwiddie got to this point. He was 5-foot-9 and 108 pounds as a high school freshman and grew to 6’3 by his junior year. He faced rejection from his high school of choice and had to prove himself from there, ensuring his game matured along with his body and mind.
It’s players like Dinwiddie who remind us that the NBA isn’t just made up of the superstars. Unique talents emerge every season that help us appreciate the blue-collar role players who help make the NBA special. Spencer Dinwiddie has become one of the true representations of that notion.
