After his sophomore year at San Diego State University (SDSU), Jamaal Franklin decided against entering the 2012 NBA Draft. The feedback from the NBA advisory form and the advice from SDSU head coach Steve Fisher made it clear that it wasn’t Franklin’s time.
In his junior year he focused on two things: the season and his undying hunger to grow as a basketball player.
“He was committed to not having you say, ‘you’re doing good,’” said Steve Fisher. “He said ‘help me get better.’ He knew that he wasn’t as good as he needed to be or could be.”
Franklin’s time came just a year later, and his lifestyle would change as he embarked on his journey to the 2013 NBA Draft.
The feedback he received this year from the NBA that projected him as a first round pick, the advice he got from Felicia Price, his mother, Fisher and some close friends, along with his own intuition, prompted him to leave for the draft.
“I was ready to go,” Franklin said. “There was no way for me to come back.”
His next step was picking an agent, and he chose to sign with Impact Sports Basketball (ISB).
“My former teammate, Kawhi Leonard, signed with Impact too,” Franklin said. “I’m a person that trusts a lot of people that’s close to me, and I trust Kawhi.”
Franklin said that the advice he received from Leonard, now a star on the San Antonio Spurs, about ISB is a major reason why he signed with them. Franklin contacted him whenever he had questions concerning the draft process, and Leonard gave him valuable feedback.
Fisher noted Franklin’s intelligence by his ability to naturally observe and ask questions. Because of Leonard’s reserved demeanor, Fisher believes that Franklin was the initiator of a lot of their conversations.
Shortly after choosing an agent in early April, Franklin was on a flight to Las Vegas.
Franklin awoke and fell asleep to a view of The Strip from a Vegas hotel he was staying at called The Signature at the MGM Grand.
In a city that is mostly known for lights, gambling and partying, Franklin was there for one reason, basketball. A sport that he said kept him out of trouble while growing up and served as his release.
“I just love it,” Franklin said. “If you have fun in this game it can take you a long way. It’s taken me a long way. It’s just a real good way to be away from everything.”
Just a little over three miles away from The Signature was IMPACT Basketball, the training facility where Franklin would prepare for the NBA draft. Outside the entrance to IMPACT Basketball, The Strip could be seen in plain sight past the airport runway.
Franklin approached the entrance and to his left he saw the word IMPACT in silver capital letters near the top of the brick wall. To the left of IMPACT was an Air Jordan poster that took up almost the entire wall. In white text against the black background of the poster it read:
Take them by surprise
Take them to the hole
Take them to their knees
Take over
On the court, Franklin has a “take over” mentality.
“A lot of people judge me by just the way they see me on the court, but on the court I’m a real competitor,” Franklin said. “I’m a warrior, I give it my all. You could be my brother or my cousin or my best friend from high school, but if you’re on the opposite team from me, you’re my enemy at that time.”
Monday through Saturday, Franklin was present on the IMPACT floor, where he trained under Joe Abunassar, coach and founder/president of IMPACT Basketball, and Andrew Moore, program coordinator, director of player development and coach. Franklin described the IMPACT workouts as more intense, but not as fast paced as the ones in college.
“It’s more creating space and getting somewhere faster than you do in college,” Franklin said. “At the NBA level, you’re taught to go slow, then fast and be explosive. In the NBA you got to be real smart because at the next level everybody is going to be fast. Everybody can jump. Everybody’s strong, so the best way to get yourself off is to be smart.”
A typical day at IMPACT Basketball for Franklin consisted of waking up around 8:30 a.m. He trained in the morning for an hour and a half. After he would get treatment such as icing his ankle. He then had lunch and sometimes enough time to rest at the hotel for maybe an hour. In the afternoon, he was back at it again for his second workout of the day for another hour and a half. His day would usually end around 6 p.m.
The soreness would creep up on him on Thursday. He described Saturday as a “cool down” day, and Sunday as the day to relax and watch game film of himself and other players.
It was another day of training for Franklin at IMPACT Basketball. While playing three-on-three, he went to go up for a dunk.
Michael Snaer, another NBA draft prospect and former Florida State University guard, stepped up to deter Franklin.
In the process, Franklin’s left foot stepped on Snaer’s foot, which caused him to twist his ankle.
“It was just so swollen,” Franklin said. “It was so puffy and the way it was swollen it made my foot look crooked, so I thought it was broken.”
Carlos Dew and Brian Elfus, his agents, Harrison Gaines, his longtime friend, Kenny Boynton, draft prospect and former University of Florida guard, and Snaer are some of the people that went with Franklin to the hospital.
Boynton and Snaer had also signed with ISB.
“We became a family,” Franklin said. “That day really let me know that we’re a real family. They all left the gym and came to the hospital; that really made me appreciate signing with IMPACT.”
Franklin expressed that after May 4, he had a new appreciation and respect for Snaer as well.
“Mike Snaer, being the good person that he was, he was more sad than me,” Franklin said.
Snaer was afraid that he had ruined Franklin’s career.
Although Franklin was trying to stay positive, he still immediately called Fisher after the incident.
"He was scared,” Fisher said. “I told him don’t do any workouts until you’re ready to go.”
“And when we got to the hospital I still thought it was broke, but I wasn’t really down on myself,” Franklin said. “I just felt like it was another bump in the road. I just got to work on strengthening and coming back stronger than ever.”
Two and a half hours later, after the hospital did x-rays and other tests, the diagnosis was in.
“By the blessings of God it was just a sprain,” Franklin said.
Franklin’s road to the draft took a brief detour because of his sprained left ankle. He hasn’t had as much time as other players to do workouts with NBA teams, but he was recently cleared on June 14. Since then he’s been travelling more to go do workouts with teams.
Franklin was relieved that it was a sprain because he wouldn’t need surgery or lose any mobility; he just had to wait for it to heal with the help of physical therapy.
There wasn’t time to do nothing on the court while he waited. At the time, the 2013 NBA Draft was only seven and a half weeks away. Even with his sprained ankle, he continued to train at IMPACT Basketball. When he was in the boot, he trained from a chair by shooting and dribbling while sitting down. Even with the sprained ankle, the intensity that he brings every time he steps on the hardwood floor failed to cease.
“He’s a real competitor,” Abunassar said. “He works hard every time he steps on the court.”
Once he was out of the boot, he continued to take things slow. He had his ankle taped and really focused on perfecting every aspect of his shot. His shooting was one thing that NBA teams were concerned about. Although he averaged 17 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game in his last season with the San Diego State Aztecs, he also shot 27 percent from the three-point line that is three feet closer than it is in the NBA.
“I explained to a lot of teams that I was put on a team where I was forced to score a lot of points for our team to win,” Franklin said. “For me to score a lot of points, I had to take a lot of shots, and I took a lot of difficult shots.”
Abunassar also noted that he was off-balance on a lot of those shots last season.
“I think part of the reason he shot so poorly last year is he took bad shots, so we really tried to work with him on what shots to take and how to get his body and feet set,” Abunassar said.
There was a high focus on Franklin’s perimeter skills and cleaning up his shooting during his training at IMPACT Basketball since his position in the NBA will most likely be a shooting guard. They also worked on making his shooting form more consistent. Franklin would shoot 500-700 shots in a single workout – and they would train twice a day. The kinds of shooting drills varied from spot shooting to shooting off the dribble. Abunassar said Franklin’s shooting improved a lot after his 2-months of training at IMPACT Basketball.
Abunassar and Moore also worked with Franklin to make his dribbling more efficient.
Franklin was able to use the injury to his advantage because it forced him to slow down and really focus on the dynamics of his shot.
The NBA Combine was scheduled for May 15–19 in Chicago. Before Franklin got on a plane to head to the Windy City, he went into IMPACT to get some shots up. Franklin was still in a boot during this time, so he did the workout from a chair.
Once in Chicago, he had a driver come pick him up to go to the hotel he would be staying at. On the way there, they hit Chicago traffic. From the car he could take in the city around him. About an hour later, they had reached downtown Chicago.
He checked into his room and met his roommate.
“It was just a real honor to be at the combine because only 60 players get to go, and I feel honored to be able to go when there’s way more players out there,” Franklin said. “To be part of that top 60 it’s definitely an accomplishment, and I’m definitely blessed to be here.”
Through May 15-19, Franklin and the other draft prospects would awake to long days. The time that they would start was different each day. Franklin said sometimes they began at 6:30 a.m. and other times at 9 a.m. The one sure thing is that the prospects would be going for several hours; no matter what time they started.
The days consisted of interviews for sites such as NBA.com, Bleacher Report and more. Photos were taken of the players. Franklin described one instance as several photographers surrounding him in a circle just taking pictures of him. Height, weight, wingspan, body fat and hand length and width were all recorded.
The most impressive measurement of Franklin was his six-foot-eleven wingspan.
Drug tests were performed, and at the hospital blood pressure, heart rate and more were recorded. If a player were injured, like Jamaal was, he would have an MRI and x-ray done.
Meetings that discussed life as an NBA rookie were even held at the combine.
However, during the on court workout portion of the four-day event, Franklin found himself watching from the sidelines. Obviously he was disappointed that he was not able to compete, but he said he was still thankful to be there.
However, Franklin was able to take advantage of the interviews he had with teams; a valuable part of the NBA Combine because it could greatly influence where a player stood in the draft.
Two to eight people representing the NBA team would await the next player to walk in the room. The teams that were in the playoffs at the time had fewer representatives there.
Each interview would last 30 minutes.
Franklin said that the attitude of the teams varied; some were laidback and cracked a few jokes, while others were all poker face.
Standing at six-foot-five and weighing 191 pounds, Franklin walked into the interview room with a boot on his left foot and free of nerves.
“A lot of people get nervous when they go into interviews with teams,” Franklin said. “I don’t really get nervous when I go to interview with teams because at the end of the day it’s a test that I have all the answers to. It’s about my life and basketball, and I have the answers to all of that.”
Franklin enjoyed getting to show teams the laidback person he is off the court, and he wasn’t surprised when they brought up his past.
“Kawhi was telling me they’re going to know a lot of stuff about you,” Franklin said. “They pretty much know everything. There’s nothing you can hide from them. The best thing about me is I’m a truthful person. It was fine for me because I knew they were going to know everything, and I was going to admit to everything I did.”
Franklin met with 10 teams in Chicago, and he said it was hard to read their responses to his answers. One of the craziest questions he was asked was “Would you rather get picked on a team that loses every game and you start? Or on a team that always wins, but you don’t play at all?”
“I told them it plays a little bit of both because I want to be a person that plays and I want to be a person on a winning team,” Franklin said. “I told them it’s a tough question for me to answer because I want to be part of both.”
After the four-days of the NBA Combine were up, Franklin was back at IMPACT Basketball up until he was cleared to start working out with teams.
Franklin could have been done with school a year ago. He could have been in Newark, N.J. at the Prudential Center on Thursday, June 28. He could have been in the 2012 NBA Draft.
“You can leave anytime you want, but Jamaal was not ready to leave after his sophomore year – even the NBA didn’t think so,” Fisher said. “You want to be a first round draft pick so you don’t have to climb from oblivion to get on people’s radar.”
Franklin shined in his sophomore year where he took the Mountain West Player of the Year honor with an average of 17.4 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. Yet, there was still room to grow on the court…and off the court.
He was recognized by the news for his performance in games, but he also made headlines past the hardwood floor in September 2011 for underage DUI, and consequently was suspended from three games. In March 2012, he gave the middle finger to a University of New Mexico fan, who he said racially abused him in a loss to the Lobos in the conference tournament final. Franklin apologized for both incidents.
In his junior year, Franklin improved as a basketball player, but more importantly, he matured outside of those game lines.
“A lot of the things he’s grown in is his ability to deal with frustration and disappointment and things that you don’t think will happen, that happen,” Fisher said. “That’s called life. The ones that deal with that adversity and frustration are the ones that quickly move on from that.”
In a three-year time period, Fisher became a big contributor to that growth. He wasn’t afraid to tell Franklin what he thought.
“I think he trusted me enough and respected me enough that he knew I was telling him stuff that I truly believed and I really, really cared about him,” Fisher said.
When Franklin was just a kid, his father left him and his mother. Yet, Franklin found a father figure in Fisher, who said he talked to and treated Franklin like he would to his two sons.
“Waiting,” Franklin said. “That’s the most stressful part because you hear a lot of things. You just want to know the exact truth.”
He stays away from mock drafts. He doesn’t look at social media. He doesn’t even own any social networks, and he hasn’t gone out since he left SDSU and began training for the draft.
His diet has also changed since he’s said yes to the draft.
As a college student always on the go, he would eat one of his favorite kinds of food five to seven times a week.
“My favorite fast food place would have to be McDonalds,” Franklin said. “McDonalds is something. They have everything you could imagine, ice cream, cookies, pies, everything.”
Now, Franklin focuses on having more fruits in his system, and has fast food maybe once a week to rarely ever.
The best part of the experience for Franklin is all the new people that have come across his path to the NBA draft.
“I like meeting new people,” Franklin said “The best thing is getting to know new people and getting the experience to get better every day in a facility like IMPACT too.”
Franklin has come a long way since his freshman year when Fisher initially wanted Franklin to redshirt for the 2010-2011 season. At the time SDSU had many returners along with a group of four seniors and sophomore Kawhi Leonard.
“We talked about it,” Fisher said. “He thought about it and said he did not want to redshirt. I said what happens if you don’t play? He said ‘I’m going to play.’ What happens if you don’t play? He said ‘I’ll be the best practice player you’ve ever had, and I’ll make whoever I guard that much better.’”
Halfway through the season, when guard Chase Tapley and Leonard was sick, Franklin got his opportunity to work into the rotation on February 8, 2011. He played 17 minutes against Utah where he scored 13 points and snatched 10 rebounds.
Franklin worked on his game, and in his sophomore year he became a starter and leading scorer. He went from an average of 2.9 points per game as a freshman to leading San Diego State to the third round of the NCAA tournament in his junior year. In his sophomore and junior years he also led SDSU to seasons with over twenty wins.
“His play, his animation, it exudes his passion for the game,” said Harrison Gaines, a longtime friend of Franklin’s. “A lot of people don’t love the game, but you can tell every time he steps on the floor he wants to win, he’s passionate about winning, he’s passionate about the game and he enjoys it.”
Whichever team does pick Franklin on June 27, they can expect to get a player who never stops working hard. Franklin said he’s never going to be satisfied and will always have a desire to improve. He’s a player that will do whatever it takes to win; at any role a team wants him to play. He doesn’t care if he has to start at the bottom because he’s been there before and worked his way up.
“I got great love and respect for Jamaal because, and I know this and I’m not afraid to tell anybody this, if Jamaal says ‘I’m going to do this’ you don’t have to follow him around,” Fisher said. “He’s going to do it or try to do it.”
About the Author
Alexa Ard was born and raised in the fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. She is currently working on earning her Bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Throughout high school, Alexa competed on the varsity basketball team and trained at Impact Basketball. She no longer plays basketball due to injuries, but she knows that basketball is still a part of her. She wants sports to still be in her life, and she sees becoming a sports journalist as the perfect path for her. Alexa serves as the beat reporter for Nevada Women’s Basketball, and has reported on other collegiate sports such as soccer, swimming, volleyball, and softball for the student-run newspaper, the Nevada Sagebrush. Alexa will also intern for Impact Basketball to gain experience and build her knowledge in Media Relations.
