Malik Monk wasn’t ready for the NBA. He became a better listener and found his place
How small-town was Malik Monk before heading to Kentucky and then the NBA?
“Most of my friends (growing up) wouldn’t even think about getting a passport. Most of them are just now getting a driver’s license at 22,” Monk recalled of growing up in Eastern Arkansas.
Monk entered the NBA at 19 after a single season with the Wildcats. There were huge expectations when the Charlotte Hornets drafted him 11th in 2017 that he might be the scoring complement to Kemba Walker and make the Hornets a perennial playoff team.
Two-and-a-half seasons later, Monk has yet to start an NBA game. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t progressed, both professionally and personally.
He has scored 10 or more points in each of his last five games, justifying the steady minutes (20 or more) he has gotten from coach James Borrego. The wild swings in performance — score 20 one game, go 2-of-15 from the field the next — have slowly steadied.
Monk had an epiphany early this season during a West Coast trip that he had to stop being so dependent on his 3-point shot; that driving to the rim, forcing opponents to foul him, was essential to him solidifying his career.
His shots at the rim have increased dramatically (29 percent of his attempts, versus 15 percent his first two season).
Last April, Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak called Monk the Hornets’ most athletic player, but he was never going to fully utilize that until he got stronger. Monk gained about 20 pounds over the summer to better handle the pounding involved in driving to the rim.
Bulking up was easy. It was growing up emotionally that was the harder part. It made economic sense to turn pro after a single Kentucky season, but that doesn’t mean he was prepared to be in the working world.
“You’ve got to know what 25-year-olds know when you’re 19,” Monk said repeatedly during an interview with the Observer. “I went to Kentucky, and I still wasn’t ready for the NBA.
“Some days you’re tired. Or your body hurts. Or you have a headache. And nobody wants to hear that. You’ve got to fight through that. That’s what I’ve really learned — that you’ve got to fight.”
Along the way, Monk has gained and lost mentors. He says three veteran teammates — Marvin Williams, Walker and Bismack Biyombo — have been there to support him. But Williams and Walker are gone, leaving center Biyombo as his go-to guy.
“We don’t talk about basketball,” Monk said. “It’s about how to carry yourself in life. How to become something.”
Biyombo, in his ninth NBA season, says he’s seeing Monk’s maturation this season in how he seeks feedback.
“He listens better this year than he did last year,” Biyombo said. “That is one of the great satisfactions for me; that the communication gets better.
“With Malik, you have to find ways to best communicate with him. I’ve found that involves listening to him a little more ... Leadership isn’t always forcing guys to come to you; sometimes it’s about letting guys come to you with their questions.”
In that sense, it’s about understanding Monk’s journey: A small-town prodigy (he started high school in Lepanto, Ark., a town of 2,000) who in two years was asked to assimilate Kentucky and then the NBA.
Monk feels blessed that his older brother, former Arkansas wide receiver Marcus Monk, played in the NFL (including a short stint with the Carolina Panthers) before knee injuries ended his career. Twelve years older, Marcus navigated Malik’s sudden ascension, and they still talk daily.
“He didn’t let colleges talk to me. He controlled all that,” Malik Monk recalled. “You don’t have to worry about people calling you, people trying to get money from you, people trying to get you to take money.
“Having someone like that, who’d been in the pros, who’d been through a lot” was invaluable.
Monk is learning is to better manage the noise; to worry less about perception and more about reality. If someone out there thinks he’s a bust because he’s not yet a star, don’t sweat it.
Sweat performance, instead.
“People say you don’t love working out or you don’t love the game. You can’t let that get to you,” Monk said. “I know I love the game and I love working hard. I just had to take responsibility for myself.
“I just turned 22 a week ago. I really had to grow up and be a man about everything: Look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘Do what you’re supposed to be doing.’ ”
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 6:01 PM.
