‘Super stubborn’ James Bouknight retrospective on rookie season with Hornets
Add up all the twists and turns featured in Carowinds’ biggest attractions and it still wouldn’t equate to the amount of ups and downs James Bouknight experienced in his first NBA season.
It was quite a ride.
“I feel like I would describe it as a roller coaster,” the Hornets guard told The Charlotte Observer. “Having good moments, having moments I could have done better, took the situation and made it better. But I think overall I learned a lot.”
Bouknight found himself in a unique position, one that hasn’t been a common occurrence in franchise history. Unlike many of its lottery picks, particularly those drafted over the past decade, Bouknight wasn’t a major part of the rotation. With the Hornets improving their depth to potentially assist in offsetting the kind of injuries that wrecked the tail end of their 2020-21 season, they tried to build a roster with versatile, interchangeable pieces to fulfill their vision of position-less basketball.
Bouknight played sporadically, showing flashes of brilliance mixed in with the typical rookie struggles in the 31 games he appeared in. He spent seven games with the G League’s Greensboro Swarm, averaging 21.4 points, six rebounds and 4.9 assists.
Frustrations reached a boiling point in Charlotte’s first-half finale leading into the All-Star break.
That’s when Bouknight had the incident with coach James Borrego on the sidelines during their loss to Miami, needing to be restrained by a member of team security to keep from confronting him. Bouknight, who was inactive for the next 18 games before appearing in three of the Hornets’ final four matchups, learned something from the brief episode: He and Borrego are like-minded individuals.
“I think there’s no bad blood between us,” Bouknight said. “I think we are just both competitors. We both want to win so bad and we both fight a lot, you know? We both fight a lot. We fight, we are going to work hard, we are going to have fun.
“I think that was just two competitors having a misunderstanding. I think we are good, and I think he knows I want to be here. I think we’ve got good will, and I think we love each other. So I ain’t worried about that.”
Bouknight didn’t help himself less than 48 hours after that incident when he attended a game at UConn, where he played before he decided to turn pro and be drafted No. 11 overall by Hornets in July. Standing courtside during a men’s basketball game between UConn and Xavier at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., he got caught chatting on a cellphone and was ejected from the arena by a game official.
Footage emerged of him returning and heading straight into the student section to view the action from there. Consider it another lesson learned by the 21-year-old native New Yorker.
“Being in the spotlight,” Bouknight said, “going back to college where I kind of helped turn the program around, being in a position I am … just all eyes on me. That’s what it is. Being smarter with my decision-making.”
He said veterans Isaiah Thomas and Montrezl Harrell were key in helping him navigate these last few tricky weeks of the season. They’ve been beneficial in aiding him in figuring out what he has to do going into the offseason in order to crack the rotation next year.
That’s gone a long way in giving him proper perspective.
“Yeah for sure,” Bouknight said. “I’ll say one thing: I’ll say I am super stubborn. I feel like I want it all at once, but having guys that have been through similar situations and having then tell me that it’s going to be good and I have the talent to play in this league 12, 15 years. Just hear those things, of course, that always helps.”
The words provide him with the necessary fuel to push through any mounting dissatisfaction associated with the natural competitor in him. Bouknight is used to playing and his path to more time begins now.
An offseason lunch-pail mentality is a necessity.
“Well, he’s going to put the work in,” Borrego said. “On the court, off the floor, in the weight room. He’s going to have time on the floor with these young guys to get better. Next year is just going to be about opportunity. Be ready for your opportunity and it starts this summer. And he’s been working behind the scenes. He hasn’t got a lot of time recently
“Right now it’s his challenge to get better in the weight room and off the floor, on the floor and be ready to go next year.”
Participating in the Las Vegas Summer League for a second straight year is a part of their plan to get Bouknight up to speed. Combined with a focus on body nutrition and diving deeper into the Hornets’ strength and conditioning program, the regimen lined up for Bouknight should put him in position to thrive if his number is called.
He insists he’s dedicated to making sure that happens.
“I think Vegas is going to be extremely fun,” he said. “I think that’s like the first step in showing what I can do in the regular season next year. I’m going to work hard and just put all the work into Vegas.”
That’s where he initially met a few of his current teammates, first getting introduced to the Hornets’ core of LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges and Terry Rozier when the trio were training in the desert. Bouknight sees something special with this group, forming a bond he’s intent on fully picking up again in a few months in Charlotte.
It remains where he wants to be.
“These are my brothers,” Bouknight said. “This is one of the most fun teams I’ve played around. We’ve all got like a similar attitude and enthusiasm to us. We are really like a brotherhood. These are my guys. I feel like I’ve known them for years, (not) just meeting them this year. But it was different this year, just being around these guys, I loved it, man. It was so much fun.”
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
