Overview:
Ajay Mitchell returns from injury in time for the top-seeded Thunder; Gabe Vincent comes on strong for the resurgent Lakers
A half-century in jock journalism has taught me that sports history will often repeat itself.
It’s a lesson that should resonate with Ajay Mitchell and Gabe Vincent, two of the most studious UC Santa Barbara basketball players I ever covered as a Gaucho beat writer.
History tells us that Brian Shaw was crowned as the first NBA champion from UCSB a quarter-century ago.
And there is a championship ring of familiarity with how this postseason is sizing up for the current NBA Gauchos.
Mitchell and Vincent entered the playoffs as the backup point guards for two of the NBA’s best teams, just as Shaw did 25 years ago.
Shaw, who led UCSB to its first NCAA Division I playoff berth in 1988, gathered me up in a sweaty embrace in the locker room after helping the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Indiana Pacers in the 2000 NBA Finals.
“We did it! We did it!” he shouted over and over, and it sure sounded as though his “we” included the entire Santa Barbara community.
Shaw, a 34-year-old NBA veteran at the time, figured his career was over when the Houston Rockets released him before that season even started.
He got a last-minute call from the Lakers, however, when a young Kobe Bryant broke his hand during their exhibition opener.
Shaw wound up lending a big hand the entire season to a franchise that hadn’t won an NBA title in a dozen years.
The Lakers won the first of three straight championships, with the former Gaucho serving as their sagely leader through it all.
He was the voice of calming reason and togetherness that Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal respected enough to put their feud aside.
The Lakers wouldn’t have even made the 2000 NBA Finals without Shaw’s heroics against the Portland Trail Blazers during the decisive Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.
His 11 points in 17 minutes of play included a trio of three-pointers down the stretch that rescued them from a 15-point deficit.
“If Kobe doesn’t break his hand,” Shaw mused during the post-game celebration, “I might be up in Oakland on a fishing boat.”
Shaw is now aboard the Los Angeles Clippers’ ship, serving as the assistant coach of the team that’s pitted against the Denver Nuggets in this opening week of the playoffs.
He could be plotting against Mitchell and the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round, and then perhaps against Vincent and the third-seeded Lakers in the Western Conference finals.
New sports history is about to unfold, and a Gaucho is bound to be involved.
Ajay Is A-OK
Injuries are always a part of sports history, and Mitchell is attempting to overcome one that nearly ended his rookie season in January.
The Thunder signed him to a two-way contract last summer, having selected him in the second round of the 2024 NBA draft after his junior season at UCSB.
Two-way players usually spend a year developing in the NBA G League. Mitchell, however, was an A-Lister from the jump.
He asserted himself as the Thunder’s backup ball-handler and play-finisher to superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the odds-on favorite to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award.
“He has a role,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “He’s got utility. There are things he can bring to our team that are unique.
“He’s been hurt, but this is the time of the year where everybody has to bring their strengths to the table.”
Mitchell averaged 6.4 points per game while shooting more than 50% overall and 43% from three-point range through the team’s first 34 games.
By that time, Sam Vecenie was ranking him No. 8 in The Athletic’s list of top 10 rookies.
“The Thunder have won Mitchell’s 560 minutes this season by nearly nine points per 100 possessions, which is completely ridiculous,” Vecenie gushed.
“His ability to make quick, accurate decisions, shoot the ball and organize the offense has been huge.”
Toe Jam
Any ecstasy that Mitchell experienced from that praise was soon replaced by the agony of the tear he suffered in the ligament of his left big toe on Jan. 3.
His surgeon predicted that his recovery would take nearly three months — a timetable that might have sidelined him for the rest of the regular season.
Mitchell said “it was definitely tough” to hear the news.
“But I think with the people around me — the staff and my family — we looked at it more as an opportunity to come back and be even better than what I was,” he added.
“My mind, obviously, the first few days were hard. And then after that I was like, ‘OK, let’s attack this rehab and do everything we can to be better than where I was at when I was still healthy.’”
He hit the weight room to get stronger. He hit the film room to understand the game better.
Nobody was more impressed than Daigneault with Mitchell’s response to the unfortunate turn of events.
“He was playing great and playing rotation minutes for us,” he pointed out. “It’s easy to wish you were under a different set of circumstances. He doesn’t do that at all.
“He’s been as consistent as anything.”
The Thunder signaled their confidence in Mitchell just one month into his rehab by upgrading him to a standard NBA contract. He would have been ineligible for the playoffs had he remained a two-way player.
He rewarded them by making it back to the court in time for Oklahoma City’s final two regular-season games.
“I always wanted to get my feet wet before the playoffs,” Mitchell said. “My idea was just attacking the rehab.”
He scored nine points with five assists in his first game back against the Utah Jazz on April 11.
“First of all, I’m really happy for him — that’s a long rehab, and he worked really hard to get himself ready for this,” Daigneault said. “This is about as accelerated as he could’ve been.
“You never know what a guy is going to look like, but he’s in good shape.
“He’s pretty much in rhythm, which is a testament to the work that he’s done to prepare himself.”
The Thunder kept Mitchell close the entire time.
“I was with the team everywhere,” he said. “It was a great feeling, to feel part of the team, even though you’re out for that time.
“It was great. Everyone from players to staff really kept me in the group.”
Gabe Time
The Lakers wanted Vincent in their group after he helped the Miami Heat advance to the 2023 NBA Finals.
He averaged 12.7 points and 3.5 assists in a 24-game, post-season run that didn’t end until the Heat lost to Denver in their best-of-seven, championship series.
“The playoffs are the best time of the year,” Vincent said on the eve of Saturday’s series opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“It’s a long season — 82 games — and you’re kind of waiting for these moments.”
His playoff experience earned him a payoff of $33 million when the Lakers offered a three-year contract that runs through the end of 2025-2026 season.
“He’s someone who has been in a ton of big games, and been in stressful environments, so he’s an easy player to trust,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said.
There is also a leadership quality in Vincent which harkens back to Shaw’s influence on the Lakers a quarter-century ago.
Redick said he couldn’t “overstate how important” he is to the team’s “connectivity.”
That Vincent trait is well known throughout the league. The National Basketball Players Association board of player representatives voted him as one of its vice presidents in February.
One of Vincent’s strengths is keeping an even keel throughout the ebbs and flows of a season.
“You kind of have to ride the wave,” he said. “The past has to be the past in some regard.
“You get past all-stars, you get past that trade (deadline), and you look around and that’s the group we have.”
It now includes Luka Dončić, an all-star guard that the Lakers acquired in a trade for Anthony Davis on Feb. 2.
“Him, LeBron (James) and AR (Austin Reaves) … When they’re all on the court at the same time, it’s a handful,” Vincent said.
James wears four NBA rings, and now he wants one for the thumb.
“We have someone who’s gone the distance in LeBron,” Vincent said, “and others who have gotten close and tasted how terrible that is, and that pain.
“Hopefully, we can use that to motivate ourselves and follow LeBron’s leadership of getting it done to propel ourselves forward.”
Taking a Knee
Vincent felt a different kind of pain last year in his first season with the Lakers. He eventually needed surgery on his left knee and played in only 11 regular-season games.
It took him a while to find his rhythm this season. He averaged just 2.8 points on 31.3% shooting — 20.9% from three-point range — in the first 19 games of October and November.
He’s scored at a 7.7-point clip ever since, shooting 40% from three in the 22 games of March and April.
The Lakers are 14-2 in the games that Vincent makes at least three three-pointers.
“That’s part of why I’m here,” he said, “because I’ve done it in those moments late in the season.”
Vincent, who went undrafted after graduating from UCSB in 2018, took a longer route into the NBA than Mitchell. He spent two years in the G League before making Miami’s roster in 2020-2021.
“In the midst of it, it’s hard to remember where you started and where you’re at,” he said. “But the times when you’re sitting down with friends and family, they’ll remind you of that, and of how far you’ve come.
“A lot of people don’t get to be in the playoffs. A lot of people don’t have deep runs in the playoffs.
“I’ve been fortunate to have both.”
But now he wants it all.
