McKinney’s Ja’Kobe Walter, enjoyed ‘outstanding’ season with Raptors

Ja’Kobe Walter was probably destined to be in the NBA. After all, his parents named him after Michael Jordan AND Kobe Bryant — arguably the top two players of all-time.

But Walter, who is a rookie with the Toronto Raptors, didn’t know about his connection to Jordan and Bryant until he was a teenager and playing basketball for McKinney High School.

“They told me that my junior year of high school, so I didn’t really have any pressure thinking about it,” Walter told Mavs.com. “Even afterwards, I just thought of it was more of a cool thing.”

Walter went on to average 23.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game while leading Mckinney High to a state title during his junior season. From there, he played his senior season at Link Academy in Branson, MO.

After that, Walter played last season for Scott Drew’s Baylor Bears and was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and third-team All-Big 12. The Raptors then made the 6-5 shooting guard the 19^th overall pick of the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft.

A rash of injuries have hampered Walter’s rookie season, but Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said he’s had an “outstanding” year.

“Taking into account all the injuries that he had — he missed the whole training camp,” Rajakovic said. “He missed the start of the season, and then when he was cleared to start playing — literally based on just watching film and being smart and coachable — he was able to step on the court and he did not mess up one time a play during that run.

“I don’t know if the plays are too simplified, but he’s an extremely smart player (and he) plays very hard. I think that he proved his value with his defense, his approach.”

Walter is averaging 8.6 points in 21.2 minutes while playing 52 games this season.

“Overall, I’ve been enjoying it,” he said. “It’s a part of the journey and I kind of understood that from day one.

“I’m just taking it day-by-day and every day’s been good.”

Rajakovic believes Walter is set up to have a bright future in the NBA.

“When you come to the NBA, the first year a lot comes your way,” Rajakovic said. “You just don’t know what to expect. You hear those stories, but you have to go through it through the season.

“You play what, 30 games in college, now it’s 82 games. There is a game every other night and you wake up and there is another game tonight and there is a lot of adjustment there, and I think he did an outstanding job. I think that he’s setting himself up for a great summer and for a lot of growth this summer as well.”

Walter, now 20 years old, credits Drew for a lot of his development.

“He’s one of my favorite coaches of all time,” he said. “He kind of supported you as a person more, and off the court, too. He just wanted you to find your faith in the Lord. That’s really what he cared about the most for us.

“And then basketball, he’s just one of the great minds of college basketball. He really helped me in my game.”

BRIEFLY: Wednesday’s game at American Airlines Center between the Mavs and Los Angeles Lakers drew the largest audience on ESPN for any NBA game this season, excluding the games played on Christmas. The average viewership for Wednesday’s game was 2.26 million folks. . .The Kimball High School boys basketball team attended Friday’s game as guests of the Mavs. Kimball won the Class 4A Division I state championship last month with a 71-48 victory over Houston Washington. It was the eighth state title Kimball has won in its school’s history. . .Mavs guard Dante Exum played Friday for the first time since he fractured his left hand in the March 14 game against Houston. However, he did dress for Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, but was slated to play. “He wasn’t ever going to play Wednesday, but wanted to dress and start the process of going through the routines of his pre-games,” coach Jason Kidd said. “And that all went well.” Exum had six points and three assists in 14 minutes during Friday’s 124-102 win over the Raptors. . .Prior to Friday’s game, Kidd said the primary thing he wanted to get from the final two regular season games was to come out of it healthy and see his players playing in different positions.. He also pointed out the play of Naji Marshall during Wednesday’s game against the Lakers when he finished with 23 points and eight assists while playing point guard. “We were a little bit bigger having Naji at the point guard position, and I thought he did a really good job there,” Kidd said. “When you talk about getting downhill, I thought he did a great job in the Laker game of getting downhill and putting pressure on the defense. His ability to score is at a high level, and then his ability to play-make is really good. So, it was something that we needed to look at as we go forward to playing in the play-in.”. .Kyrie Irving (torn left anterior cruciate ligament), Spencer Dinwiddie (right knee soreness) and Olivier-Maxence Prosper (right wrist sprain) were the only members of the Mavs on the injury list for Friday’s game.

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