Thomas Walkup is on his way: Glory, anonymity, and everything in between
There weren’t any national headlines when Thomas Walkup made his first NBA appearance during a Saturday preseason game against the Indiana Pacers. The former Stephen F. Austin guard, who became America’s most adored player and Lumberjack-bearded hipster heartthrob during the NCAA tournament, had signed with the Chicago Bulls for training camp. While Walkup and his agent didn’t expect to make the team outright, they both believed the 23-year old could impress enough people within the organization to land one of the Bulls’ final roster spots. Based off his NBA debut — a minute-plus of action at the end of the Bulls’ 121-105 win, including a missed three and a turnover — Walkup seemed destined for the Windy City Bulls, the team’s new D-League affiliate.
For Walkup, though, that was fine too, considering he would have had no chance at even joining a preseason roster in an earlier era. Much has been written about the NBA’s positionless evolution — teams coveting multi-faceted and skilled players that are comfortable existing within the halfcourt space and both defending and operating on the perimeter — and Walkup is a prime beneficiary of that shift.
He may be a 6-foot-5 guard without a consistent jump shot who, though dogged, doesn’t have the requisite speed or athleticism to blow by an opponent, and yet, at least a dozen NBA teams inquired post-Labor Day to whether he was interested in signing onto their training camp rosters, and six squads wanted to lock Walkup into a D-League contract on draft night.
“The most intriguing thing about Tom,” says Alex Saratsis of Octagon, Walkup’s agent, “is that he is a fighter, and NBA teams saw that. The more I watched him play, I thought there would be a position for him.”
Walkup’s strengths are tailor-made for this new-look NBA — he can both play and guard multiple positions, his basketball IQ is exceedingly high, he can rebound well (leaving SFA as the school’s all-time leading rebounder), and his game is a sui generis blend of versatility and strength.
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In years past, Walkup would have been labeled a tweener and then quietly shuffled along to an overseas career, but NBA teams now covet those with similar skillsets — players whose only ‘detraction’ is the lack of the ideal presupposed height for the position. “I always knew I’d be playing basketball somewhere,” says Walkup. “But I also didn’t want to sell myself short to reach the NBA.”
Walkup’s versatility is an asset, one which he showcased during that inaugural NBA game: though his three-point attempt was well-short, his form was significantly streamlined — a result of pre-draft training workouts — and his ease within the Bulls’ halfcourt offense, which on one of the plays resulted in Walkup driving the lane, was evident.
“When Tom told me about this signing, I told him that I thought he was a smaller version of Royce White,” says Brad Underwood, Walkup’s former coach at Stephen F. Austin (and who is now head coach at Oklahoma State). “Fred [Hoiberg, who coached White at Iowa State] loves mismatches and ball screens with different guys, and Tom can be a tremendous asset because of his versatility at the perimeter spots.”
“I always knew I’d be playing basketball somewhere but I also didn’t want to sell myself short to reach the NBA.”
It is certainly an optimistic view, and though the odds are daunting, Walkup’s chances of launching an NBA career aren’t far-fetched. Consider Tyler Johnson, an undrafted point guard with far fewer college accolades than Walkup, who recently signed a $50 million contract with the Miami Heat. For Walkup, needing to prove he can compete is a far cry from where he was just seven months ago, a roller-coaster that has carried Walkup from hoops royalty and March Madness glory to just one of many in a swarm of hopefuls all trying to catch the eye of an NBA executive or coach.
Last Friday, the Bulls officially cut Walkup, but because of the guaranteed deal he signed with the team in September, he already has a spot on its D-League affiliate, joining the Windy City Bulls as essentially a franchise player. But Walkup knows that he has come along at the right movement in the basketball zeitgeist: “I am a very small fish in a big pond now. I am back to having to prove myself, and having to prove I can play with anyone, but I am used to that.”
To understand how Walkup got to this moment, it’s necessary to start at the journey’s beginning — last March at 3:33 AM, when SFA’s team bus pulled up to the school’s gym in Nacogdoches, Texas, following their Round of 32 loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament. An afterthought as a No. 14 seed, SFA had taken out No. 3 West Virginia in the first round and lost a one-point heart-breaker to the Irish.
The crowd waiting for the Lumberjacks swelled to 200-plus, and after making his way through the fans — all wanting Instagram and Twitter-worthy photos with Walkup — and heading home for the night, Walkup made sure the first thing he did as a newly-minted March legend was go to NacBurger for a legendary Donut Burger.
Walkup was never accustomed to the spotlight — as a high schooler, he tore the ACL in his left knee twice, broke his right foot midway through his senior season, and received just two scholarships offers (SFA and Houston Baptist). “I wasn’t any good,” he has said in past interviews, though playing through injuries on a stacked AAU team (with Cameron Ridley and Ryan Manuel) likely didn’t help his exposure.
Per-40 minute average of 23.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 2.3 steals during has last two seasons at SFA hadn’t done much to raise his national profile, but now Walkup had become not only a legitimate NBA prospect, he had also transformed into a meme — the photo of Walkup flashing his tongue after upsetting West Virginia in the first round of the 2016 NCAA tournament went viral, as did another comparing Walkup to Washington Nationals’ Bryce Howard. Even his beard, which he began to grow for Movember 2015 and kept once SFA began winning, added to the legend.
Now he just had to focus on polishing off his Donut burger, a heart-stopping concoction of meat, cheese, and bacon stuffed between two donuts. Next on Walkup’s itinerary was some beard maintenance — “I’ll keep a beard because I enjoy having one, but that length was a little much for me. I won’t grow it that long again,” he says — and then Walkup began to gameplan for the coming months.
“I would get phone calls and inquiries from scouts, sure, but they were about other players in the Southland, and not Tom.”
Even with his romp through the NCAA tournament (54 points and converting 47 percent of his two-point field goals in two games) and consecutive Southland Conference Player of the Year Awards, scouts weren’t necessarily flocking to Nacogdoches to inquire on Walkup. “We didn’t have anyone come to our practices,” says Underwood. “In most people’s eyes, he was a small school power forward, even though we played him at every position. It can’t help when you are in the Southland and you are not on TV. And it doesn’t mean he is a bad player because he was in our league, but performing the way he did against West Virginia and Notre Dame opened eyes.”
Underwood continues, “I would get phone calls and inquiries from scouts, sure, but they were about other players in the Southland, and not Tom.” There is a bit of revisionism to Underwood’s comments, a polishing of the Thomas Ryan Walkup myth, but there is a truth that no matter how dominant Walkup had played throughout his time at SFA — from conference to non-conference and postseason games — he was still undervalued. This, to Saratsis, made him valuable.
Lamar Evans, an SFA assistant, had recommended Walkup to Saratsis, who quickly did his due diligence, talking to scouts and “guys in the league” about Walkup’s chances to succeed in the NBA. He learned that Walkup was a coaching cliché stretched out over a stocky and rugged frame, a player to whom winning meant everything and, despite a wonky jump shot, one who had the skills to succeed. “Tom had been overlooked, and not a lot of people gave him a chance,” says Saratsis. “Nerlens Noel and Andrew Wiggins are easy to represent. The fun ones are the guys that scrap and claw. You get to see their development, and how they end up improving.”
During their initial meetings, Saratsis stressed to Walkup that he needed to adopt the mindset of ‘I belong here.’ “I knew that you could play overseas if you really, really wanted to,” says Walkup. “You didn’t have to have an outstanding career to continue that dream. That’s something I kind of knew, and what I thought my basketball career would be. But Alex wanted me to understand that nobody’s a mid-major kid now. We’re all trying to get to the same place, and I can play with anyone out there.” Though Walkup wasn’t necessarily lacking confidence: “When you work on something you have confidence in it. I’ve worked a lot on my game, and that’s why I do have confidence in it.”
By the end of April, Walkup was training with Dustin Gray, a Phoenix-based trainer and founder of Empower Basketball. Gray has become somewhat of a go-to trainer for undervalued draft prospects — he trained TJ McConnell and Alan Williams for the 2015 draft — and as he watched video of Walkup to prep for their workouts, he became bearish on Walkup’s NBA possibilities. “TJ was very much the same as Tom,” he says. “TJ wasn’t projected as highly as we thought he could end up going, and Tom similarly wasn’t drafted but we thought over the next three to four years, he would work himself into a guy that could be solid role player in the NBA and have a long career.”
It was a daily grind. Days started at 8:30 with foam rolling, mobility workouts, and corrective exercises, which were followed by weight training, skill work, and shooting for the next four and a half hours. All the while, Walkup was watching video Gray and his fellow trainers had loaded on to his smartphone and iPad. It was a crash course in reading various pick-and-roll defenses and other defensive schemes, but Walkup was a sieve, filtering out the noise and focusing on the essentials. “He has great court vision and picked up stuff quickly,” says Gray. “We only focused on what would give him the upper hand during workouts with NBA teams and three-on-three situations.”
“At SFA we have a very unique offense, and didn’t run a ton of pick-and-roll, so it was never really showcased that I could do it,” says Walkup. “It’s all the passes out of it, all the shots out of it, and flow to finishes.”
The only aspect of his game that was still very much a work in progress was his jump shot, and while Gray thought the shot was better than initially anticipated, it still was a stumbling block. There was a hitch that required a tweak — “He collapsed his knees when he shot,” says Gray, who added, “as soon as his knees would cave in, like he was knock kneed, power would be sucked away from his hips and would make his shot upper body dominant. It was almost like he would fling the ball at the basket.” — but soon Walkup was making between 200 and 400 NBA three-pointers a day.
The process was grueling: from training to work out for Boston, Utah, Cleveland, Houston and more than a half-dozen other NBA teams (“I was told he won all the drills during the sessions,” says Underwood) to film review, all while staying motivated. Thoug,h according to those who know Walkup best, that isn’t an issue. “We like to work with the guys that have a chip on their shoulders, and Tom is one of those kind of guys,” says Gray, who believed Walkup could fit an NBA niche similar to Matthew Dellavedova. “Delly created this window of opportunity for guys that will accept a role, contribute a strong work ethic and commitment to winning, and be happy with that.”
“The dream of the NBA always stays in the back of your mind but you get into situations where the realness of it fades away a bit.”
It wasn’t a surprise to Walkup that draft night came and went without hearing his name called. Watching at his family home in Deer Park, Walkup knew that despite what he had achieved at Stephen F. Austin and the work he had put in with Gray, there was little chance he would be selected. But that wasn’t a deterrent — he was now a free agent, and essentially had his pick of whichever team he wanted to run with during summer league. According to Saratsis, the teams that wanted Walkup to sign a D-League contract that evening were offering contracts of at least $15,000 to $50,000, but both he and Walkup felt inking this early was a mistake. “He could always go to the D-League if he wanted to, and he’d be able sign a contract with good money guaranteed,” says Saratsis. “If you’re willing to bet on your guy, and that he can show what he is capable of, I don’t think it is necessary to lock it in.”
“It would have been great if Tom heard his name called, but that dude has fought more battles than that,” says Underwood. “To get to where he wants to be, he is a very goal-oriented person.”
Summer league turned out to be a disaster. For any undrafted player, playing in either Orlando or Las Vegas is a must — there isn’t another way to drum up NBA interest for the upcoming season — but the setting isn’t conducive to Walkup’s game, even if he did suit up for the Golden State Warriors, who must have viewed Walkup in the mold of another possible Draymond Green. He knew that he fit the NBA’s new normal — “people like bigger guards and guys that can see over defenses, so I like I have that on my side” — but it was now delivering on that impression in what essentially was a job interview several times over.
Walkup averaged just over three points and three rebounds in limited minutes, and he couldn’t get comfortable in the setting. “Everyone is trying to get theirs,” he says. “It is all about individually showing what they have, and if a team wins a game, it’s a bonus.” Coupled with a broken finger he suffered at the end of league action, Walkup returned home to southern Texas thoroughly dejected. “He wouldn’t say this, but summer league was hard for Tom,” says Underwood. “He was frustrated he didn’t shoot the ball better, and it is hard for a guy like Tom to put his best foot forward when he does every aspect of the game well but doesn’t get 20 points.”
“This has been a completely different experience coming from a place where I was the top dog.”
After all the work he had put in, and after all the high-major teams he had shown up against and pawned, and after all the workouts where he bested other prospects, this must have felt like a backwards step for Walkup. Teams were finally paying attention, but in Walkup’s mind, their gaze had slightly begun to shift to others, which was even more of a gut punch as the dream of the NBA was nearly a reality. “I didn’t think I even had a shot of playing in the NBA until midway through my senior season,” he says. “The dream of the NBA always stays in the back of your mind but you get into situations where the realness of it fades away a bit.”
At home, Walkup kept his stamina up by playing pickup with the local high school team, and lifting daily. Because of his injury, he couldn’t work out with any teams, a crucial step in determining whether he would earn a training camp invite. He became frustrated. Talk to Walkup, or anyone that has spent enough time with him, and it’s clear he doesn’t lack for confidence, but with this opportunity came an increased pressure he had never felt before.
Since it was his first time going through this process, Walkup spoke every few days with Saratsis, peppering his agent with questions of whether he should ditch the process and sign with a team overseas. “I told Tom that he’d have to go through the side door, the doggy door, the window to get into the league, but I believe he would get in,” says Saratsis. “If we try to do the quick fix of going somewhere in Europe to make some money, it doesn’t help your cause in the NBA.”
Of course this emotional state was fueled by a desire to end the process. “I hadn’t had a break since the summer before my senior year,” says Walkup. “I was naïve — I thought that I would agree to a deal, a team would send the paperwork, and I’d sign the next day. It’s not like college anymore.”
He continues, “It is a bit frustrating and annoying. Each week is a mystery. I was never exactly sure of where I’ll be, what I’ll be doing, or where I will be living. It was sometimes difficult.” Some teams, though, still took notice. A handful that were initially interested in Walkup for their D-League affiliates and wanted him to work out post-draft stayed in touch with Saratsis, like the Bulls, who were intrigued with Walkup’s mismatch potential. There were several offers, but none as large as what the Bulls had put on paper, and Walkup felt that Chicago represented a legitimate chance to crack a final NBA roster.
“They talked about putting me in the best situation to be a scorer or a playmaker,” claims Walkup. “It was nice to finally have a coaching staff that knows the strengths of my game, and knows exactly where to put you to bring those strengths out.”
It was a quick deliberation, chatting with friends, family, and Saratsis before signing the one-year deal, which guaranteed he would suit up for the Windy City Bulls if he was cut. The signing, in classic Walkup fashion, was understated — he agreed to the Bulls’ terms after working out and then showering at his Chicago hotel, after which he texted his parents, and went to an Italian restaurant for a bowl of take-out chicken alfredo.
“This has been a completely different experience coming from a place where I was the top dog,” he says. “I always knew I would be playing basketball somewhere, but the process came up so quickly, got momentum behind itself, and I just kept riding the wave.” As for when, or if, he might be called up, that’s a more difficult question. “I still have my doubts about the D-League, but it is still the fastest path,” says Saratsis. “I think it’s a good fit, and they certainly value him enough to give him the opportunity he deserves.”
He adds, “Tom has something to prove, and he feels like he is just one step away. He is excited because he knows he is so close.”