How James Wiseman’s ‘man of the house’ childhood mindset helps NBA work ethic

How Wiseman’s ‘man of the house’ mindset helps NBA work ethic originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea

Before James Wiseman was a center in the NBA with the Warriors, he was a kid from Nashville, Tennessee who loved the game of basketball.

But given that Nashville isn’t necessarily a hotbed for NBA talent, Wiseman had to work extra hard to make his dream of playing professional basketball a reality.

It wasn’t until seventh grade when a then-13-year-old Wiseman started taking basketball seriously.

While his peers were busy being kids, doing middle school things, Wiseman was in the gym perfecting his craft. He grew to 6-foot-8 by the time he entered the eighth grade, and that’s when he really began developing his skills.

While he devoted most of his time to the physical part of the game, Wiseman believes his upbringing made him into the man he is today.

“My mom worked two jobs and my dad worked two jobs. So I was the man of the house,” Wiseman said on the “Point Forward” podcast with Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner. “My sister was in college as I started going through high school, so I just had to be the man of the house.

“I had to do everything on my own. I had to learn how to cook, I had to learn how to clean and do a lot of stuff so that when my mom gets back home, she doesn’t have to worry about that.”

Wiseman made sure to hold it down at home while his parents were working, but that didn’t stop him from putting in work at the gym.

During the summer before eighth grade, Wiseman worked with his basketball coach on the physical side of the game, which included training together, going over drills and working on his hops.

Wiseman said he was going outside “every day” to work on his bounce, something he hadn’t developed yet at such an early age. He would jump rope for five minutes every day and then took it to the next level by creating timesheets for himself.

Story continues

100 calf raises. 100 pushups. Every single day.

RELATED: Why Kerr wants Warriors to do less, not more, with Steph out

He noticed his skills developing at a very “rapid rate” at that time.

“I was outside working on my game. And in practice, I was in the gym all day, all night,” Wiseman said. “Like when my friends had parties and they wanted me to go to parties in high school, I didn’t go to parties. I just committed myself to the gym.”

Eight years later, that decision surely has paid off for Wiseman. Golden State drafted the big man with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft and although his NBA journey has been rocky so far, his story still is being written.

“I got to the NBA just by my ambition,” Wiseman said, firmly.

And that, at the very least, is something no one will ever be able to take from him.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast