LAS VEGAS — Austin Reaves sat shotgun in a rental car driving along East Flamingo Road while telling his story, the one about the odds he overcame to star for the Los Angeles Lakers, when he slammed on the brakes mid-sentence.
A mobile billboard crossed through the intersection heading south on Las Vegas Boulevard. Right in the center of a space usually reserved for pop stars, comics and strippers, the Lakers’ guard saw his face in an advertisement for Team USA’s exhibition game with Puerto Rico.
“OK,†Reaves said as it passed. “That was weird.â€
He better get used to it; it’s about to get weirder.
Soon after the rental car crept around the corner while the Bellagio fountains danced, the 1,100-square-foot video board for the Aria showed the same Team USA advertisement, again with Reaves’ face in the middle surrounded by teammates like former No. 1 pick and All-Star guard Anthony Edwards of Minnesota, defensive player of the year Jaren Jackson Jr. from Memphis and New Orleans All-Star forward Brandon Ingram.
The next image on that board? Lady Gaga.
Yet as he went back to his hotel during Team USA’s training camp ahead of basketball’s World Cup, which will be played Aug. 25 to Sept. 10, Reaves somehow still felt the same — even with everything changing.
On one hand, Reaves is still the undrafted kid from Newark, Ark., a town of 1,000 people and one stop sign. He’s anonymous enough that fellow NBA player Kyle Lowry scooted his golf cart past Reaves earlier that day on a tee box without stopping — Lowry later said he did a double-take but he wasn’t sure it was a colleague.
Fans have embraced Reaves because of all of this — they see him like he’s Notre Dame’s Rudy with a crossover and a jumper.
On the other hand, Reaves has just signed a contract worth nearly $54 million. He’s on billboards dotting the 405 and across the suburban landscape in Los Angeles, and he’s got a signature sneaker with Rigorer ready to launch.
After two years in the NBA, anyone paying attention knows that Reaves has serious game. The spot on Team USA’s World Cup team cements that.
“This ain’t no underdog s--- no more,†Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges said of Reaves. “He’s here.â€
It certainly started that way, with Vegas serving as a launching pad to his rise from undrafted rookie to Lakers starter.
During a players-only minicamp hosted by LeBron James before Reaves’ rookie year, he played so well he earned a full-time contract. He also left Vegas emboldened that his skills would translate to the team, with him confident that he’d matter for the Lakers sooner than later.
It was at that camp where he proved to the Lakers’ stars, Anthony Davis and James, that he wasn’t just some feel-good story.
“In my head, it’s like, ‘Kid, you’re trying to guard me? You need to switch. You serious?’†Davis told The Times last March. “I get the ball, I back him down and he steals it from me.â€
Subscribers get early access to this story
We’re offering L.A. Times subscribers first access to our best journalism. Thank you for your support.
Reaves had confidence in his ability. “I kinda always felt that I knew myself enough that if I got my foot in the door that I would figure out some way to be impactful to the team,†he said.
He did more than that. By the end of his second season, he was the Lakers’ second-best player, one who flirted with shooting 50% from the field, 40% from three-point range and 90% from the free-throw line.
In his first trip to the playoffs, he reveled in the spotlight, averaging 16.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists. Among players who averaged 16 points and appeared in at least six playoff games this past season, only All-Star Suns guard Devin Booker and two-time MVP center Nikola Jokic of the champion Nuggets had better true shooting percentages.
“This happened quickly … like in 18 months,†USA Basketball director Grant Hill said.
In Reaves’ Team USA debut against Puerto Rico on Monday, he stepped off the bench and immediately drained a corner three. He quickly scored nine points before the American team pulled away.
“I love the fight that he is and embodied to get to this point,†Hill said. “His shooting, his playmaking, he’s got a grit and a toughness about him. That will translate. We’re excited that he’s a part of it. He’s a basketball player. At first, I thought he was a shooter. But then he emerged [in the playoffs]. You saw what he did against Golden State, how he played against Denver, what he did to Memphis. To be so young and kind of had the path he’s taken, to be unafraid in those moments — he’s got it.
“… There’s a lot of depth to his game. If at first glance you think he’s a spot-up shooter, no. He’s a baller. That’s what he is.â€
Team USA coach Steve Kerr praised Reaves’ IQ and his ability to serve as a “connector†for the team — a wildly valuable skill considering the team is made up of relative strangers from all over the NBA.
But they know Reaves.
“From afar, I’ve watched him,†Ingram said. “The one thing I’ve noticed is that he’s consistent at how he plays and he doesn’t do anything outside of how he plays. And he’s really detailed on the defensive end, whether it’s him being in front of the ball, boxing out on a rebound, whatever it is, he does it.
“… He’s going to be good for us.â€
Bridges, one of the top young wings in the league, said Reaves’ ability to get a whistle had his attention.
“I’ve been a fan. … I think the biggest thing about him I like is that he knows how to draw a foul,†Bridges said. “He knows how to create fouls and get to the free-throw line and that’s like a skill. He’s not just getting there. There’s a skill to that and it’s very underrated. People don’t really understand it but the ones that do, they know how tough it is to guard.
“That s---‘s an art.â€
Reaves knew he belonged on this stage, playing international basketball. He just didn’t think he’d be doing it for America.
Reaves said he gave serious consideration to playing for the German national team. His brother, Spencer, plays professionally in Germany and recently obtained citizenship. His dual-citizenship papers are a few signatures away from being completed.
But with Team USA looking at younger players to fill out its World Cup roster, Reaves couldn’t say no.
“It’s a good opportunity to learn from a lot of guys, a lot of coaches and kinda steal what they do and go give it back to the Lakers,†Reaves said.
Last summer, Reaves and a friend attended a charity event in Los Angeles when he saw Will Ferrell. Reaves, the last person to ever ask for a picture, got talked into it because Ferrell is his favorite actor and the star of his favorite movie, “Step Brothers.â€
“This might be the only time in my life that I actually ask for a picture,†Reaves remembered. “And he’s walking towards us, just walking and talking to people. And I go to introduce myself, and he was like, ‘“AUSTIN, I’m a huge fan.’ And I didn’t even know what to say. I was just like, ‘Uhhhhh. Me too.’â€
And that was before the playoffs, when Reaves was one of the best players on one of basketball’s most watched teams.
Celebrity also led to one of the strangest rumors of the summer — the online speculation that Reaves was dating Taylor Swift.
Sign up for This Evening's Big Stories
Catch up on the day with the 7 biggest L.A. Times stories in your inbox every weekday evening.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
“I’ve never met her,†he said. “I don’t. … It was so out of left field that I literally thought it was funny when people sent it to me. Obviously, my friends back home were gassing it up.â€
Reaves shook it off.
“People know who I am. And it’s kinda weird,†Reaves said. “But at the same time, in my profession, you’d rather people know who you are than not.â€
The people who know Reaves best aren’t worried that the windfall from the three-year, $54-million contract is going to change him much.
Earlier this summer, he visited one of his agents, Aaron Reilly, in New Jersey. He found Reaves playing “Smash Brothers†with his 7- and 5-year-old daughters, Charlotte and Izzy.
Reaves wouldn’t let them win — and it wasn’t close.
“Murdered them,†Reilly said with a laugh. “Talked trash, too.â€
A few days into Team USA’s training camp in Las Vegas, Reaves seemed like the same person that helped connect the Lakers. He joked with Nets teammates Cam Johnson and Bridges. He laughed with Ingram, the Lakers past and present now together.
While he’s started doing some house shopping and some research for a country club, the big purchases he made all fit into his golf bag.
“It obviously changes things in the fact that me and my family, my friends, don’t have to worry about that part of life anymore,†Reaves said. “Like, if you’re good with me, you’re good on that standard. But my everyday life, I don’t think anything really will change. It’s not like I’m going to go out and buy the craziest stuff or things like that.â€
Eventually he’ll get a watch — “one good watch that I like†— but otherwise don’t expect him to get flashy all of a sudden.
“Sweats and a hoodie everywhere, can’t beat it,†he said.
Yet the pressures of Los Angeles are real — “If I was with the Lakers, I would delete my social media,†Ingram said — but Reaves’ focused approach seems perfectly suited for this. Basketball, golf, family, friends. That’s really all there is.
Oh, and a championship.
“I’m not going to say it’s the only goal, but that’s the one. … Just the talent, the attention to detail, everyone’s locked in on one common goal,†he said. “And you have to take every possession as if it’s make or break — and that’s kind of how I feel like I have to play year round. ...I’m not the most athletic person in the world, but I pay attention to details and know the game. And the playoffs were just a lot of fun.â€
As Saturday afternoon turns to night in Las Vegas, the golf clubs in the trunk, Reaves is settling in to telling his story.
It’s one he’s told before — how no one thought much of him in high school because he was too skinny, about how co-workers around the league need convincing that he’s not just some mascot for hard work or extra effort.
Told that things will probably be different now, he’s skeptical.
“Will it?†he asked. “I still really think that there are a lot of guys out there in the NBA that think it’s … a fluke, kinda. But I don’t mind that.
“… It’s just been like that forever. I can’t remember a time that it wasn’t.â€
Reaves as an underdog, either in reality or mindset, has been an inescapable pattern. And as the expectations rise at each level, the doubt usually follows.
“It’s kind of really been my whole life, me proving that I’m capable of doing things, And then having to re-prove it again. And it’s been repetitive my whole life, something I talked to my agents [Reilly and Reggie Berry] about multiple times — even this past year,†Reaves said. “Like, was it ever going to change? Just because it happened so much to me.
“Reggie was like ‘This is why you are who you are. You’re going to figure it out regardless of minutes, touches, whatever.’ He was like, ‘You’ll make an impact on winning basketball.’â€
The ones who know, know.
“He’s going to forever be loved,†Ingram said. “He does all the right things — every basketball guy, which are the only really important people, the ones that know — really, really love Austin.â€
Whether fans or players believe in him or not, Reaves will continue to think he needs to prove people wrong, that the ceilings that have been placed on him are all false. Real or created, neither the money, the fame, the sneakers, nor the country clubs will change that.
A little more than a year before he sat shotgun in the rental car on the Vegas strip, Reaves tried to cool down after a round of golf in the Arkansas humidity. His pictures were there, too — just not on giant videoboards. The family mantle would have to substitute.
That summer day after his rookie season, Reaves plopped down onto the family couch and spoke extensively about why people have doubted him, about how he keeps track of the slights and about how much fun it is to shut them up.
He told the story about someone in town who made a bet with one of Reaves’ friends that Austin would never make it in the NBA. And during the All-Star break of his rookie year, Reaves saw the person who bet against him and made sure to soak in the moment.
“Oh yeah,†he said. “It was amazing.â€
As his day in Vegas more than a year later began to end, Reaves brought up that story. About how, even in his tiny hometown, a place where he won state championships, people needed convincing. It didn’t make him mad, he said.
In Arkansas a year ago, Reaves didn’t want to say who it was that bet against him. Yet the story has stuck with him, enough where he retold it even after being a starter for the Los Angeles Lakers and a newly minted multimillionaire.
As traffic inched ahead, his face in lights above the Vegas strip, Reaves toyed with saying who it was that made that bet against him — another chance to publicly call out his favorite hater.
“Nah,†he said with a laugh. “F--- that guy.â€
Sign up for This Evening's Big Stories
Catch up on the day with the 7 biggest L.A. Times stories in your inbox every weekday evening.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
