Behind the Article - Oregon’s Next: Jackson Shelstad

My most recent article, Oregon’s Next: Jackson Shelstad was published on Pro Insight.

It was never my intention to write this article or one of this kind and yet, maybe, it’s always been my intention.

During my final seasons with the Trail Blazers, I was really interested in doing more writing.  Sure, I could write scouting reports and such but I wanted to utilize more of the creative side of writing.  I met with the Assistant General Manager of the team and shared some ideas I had for the team utilizing my creative writing.  He green-lit my project and I even garnered a small budget it for it.  Over the next couple of months, I began to gather information from every Trail Blazers game… utilizing my time in pre-game preparation and video meetings combined with in game action and post-game breakdowns and quotes.  And then… a pandemic hit.  And then… I was working from home for the next one and a half years.  The project never got off its feet the way I’d hoped.  And before I was even back at the office full-time, I was fired. 

I didn’t really watch any NBA basketball over the next year.  I didn’t really watch NCAA basketball either.  But the one kind of basketball I didn’t mind watching was high school.  Working in the NBA, you aren’t able to attend high school basketball games so it was something different.  The first game I attended after no longer working in the NBA was Lake Oswego vs West Linn.  I enjoyed the game, watching my friend Marshall Cho coach, and catching a couple of young studs, Jackson Shelstad and Winters Grady. 

I’ve always been a pessimistic scout.  I’ve watched enough players, enough games, enough practices, workouts, interviews, etc to know… it’s rare for anyone to make it to the NBA.  It’s rare for Top 10 high school prospects to have a successful NBA career.  It’s rare for guys who dominate college basketball to have a great NBA career.  So when I scout players, my default is that they’re not gonna make it, and they have to prove me otherwise.

That night at the Lake Oswego vs West Linn game, I watched Jackson and Winters and thought, two really nice high school players.  Probably can star at a Mid Major or play a role on a High Major NCAA team. 

The next high school game I went to was the next season at the Les Schwab Invitational.  I wanted to see if the hype around Bronny James was real.  And I walked away after watching him for 10 minutes… sold.  Yes, it was.  He’d make it.  It wasn’t just hype.  Bronny was an NBA player. 

But… there was another player who attracted even more of my attention, the combo guard out of West Linn, Jackson Shelstad. 

I still was not sold in any sense that he was an NBA player but I loved watching him play.  And as the tournament unfolded, I saw more and more of why he could make it, but still, I wouldn’t have pegged him as an NBA player until… the tournament was over.  Watching his demeanor was when I realized, he had ‘it.’  The ‘it’you need as an undersized guard. He wasn’t shocked that he and his team had just knocked off the 2 of the top high school teams in the country.  To make it at that size, you have to be a bit cocky, overly confident, have a chip on your shoulder.  And Jackson had it, he had it all.  All the intangibles he’d need to make it at his size.

Some of the good folks (Tyler Glazier) at Pro Insight were encouraging me to do more writing for Pro Insight.  And I thought, well, Jackson is in our backyard, I should explore writing a piece on him.

The first person I reached out to was his trainer, Jacob Begin.  I had met Jacob this past summer while doing a couple of camps with Pro Insight.  It was the week of the Oregon State Finals so I didn’t want to interrupt Jackson’s flow but I was also interested to see if I could get some time with him.  I wanted to see what his mindset was going into the Finals.  I wanted to see how he approached the game, what a workout was like. 

With a lob from Jacob, he connected me with Jackson and Jackson’s father Darin who allowed me to attend one of Jackson’s workouts the week of the State Finals.  As I watched Jackson work out, I watched an NBA style workout with an NBA mentality.  It’s rare to find someone, even an NBA player going 100% in an individual workout.  Jackson was going 100%.  It’s rare to see someone walk into a gym and start hitting 25 footers with ease.  Jackson was doing it.  It’s rare to see someone who understands the little things they’ll have to do to make it, Jackson was doing the little things. 

I was sold even more.  Not only did Jackson have an NBA mentality, he was already training like an NBA player.  When I talked to him afterwards, he told me about his 2-a-day workouts with Steve Blake throughout the COVID year and I understood more of how Jackson operated the way he does.  He was studying game film on players like Devin Booker, Trae Young, Dame Lillard, Pritchard, and Blake and could tell me what he was picking up and learning from each one. 

I started writing my article, “The Making of a Champion.”  I wanted to learn what it took to make Jackson Shelstad a Champion.  And although, he certainly is a Champion, West Linn faltered in the State Championship game versus an impressive Tualatin team.  But I was ready to pivot on the article, because I had realized Jackson was more than just a State Champion, he was a future NBA player. 

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