University of North Carolina Athletics
One On One With Joel James
February 5, 2015 | Men's Basketball
NOTE: This article originally appeared in the Feb. 3 issue of CAROLINA, the official magazine of the Rams Club and UNC Athletics.
by Turner Walston
Joel James may be 6'10 and 280 pounds, and wearing a Carolina jersey, but he's still learning to play the game of basketball. He spoke with CAROLINA's Turner Walston last week.
Turner Walston: You only began playing basketball at the age of 16, and you just turned 21 in late January. You're playing college basketball at a high level, and it's both rewarding and frustrating. How is your patience with yourself?
Joel James: It's frustrating, because I was able to learn at a rapid pace starting off, and I was just naturally bigger and stronger than other people. It helped me get to this level now, but at this stage, everyone is at my strength or my height, faster than me, can jump higher than me . . . So, I have to figure out ways to be effective playing any way I can. As a spectator, you lose sight of the fact that this is my fifth, sixth year playing basketball. You've been watching basketball longer than I've been playing. In a sense, it's very frustrating sometimes when I hear people criticize me, saying how I should be doing this or that, when you've been watching the game longer than I've been playing. Can you just sit and wait and let me try to figure this thing out myself? But every day at practice I just try to approach it with the mindset of I've got to get better. I've got to learn how to play this game, and be effective using what God gave me to be a better player.
TW: Do the coaches appreciate the learning that you're having to do?
JJ: (Laughing) At times, I think it's extremely frustrating to them because there will be certain situations on the court where they know I could be more effective than somebody else because I'm big and strong and guarding somebody, but they can't put me in the game because I don't fully understand the scheme of what they're trying to do. That's very frustrating to me and that can be very frustrating to them, because if I was playing basketball for 16 years, I'm pretty sure I would know what to do.
TW: But you had to learn what a screen was, what a rebound was, and then you had to learn basic plays. Then you have your high school playbook, then you have Roy Williams' Carolina basketball playbook . . .
JJ: Which is like this (stretches hands four feet wide). This is the knowledge I've come in with (brings hands much closer together) and this is Roy Williams' expectations and playbook (pulls them apart again). And I'm still reading the introduction, man. I'm still on that.
TW: Do you cut yourself any slack?
JJ: No. I'm from a family where you get out what you put in, and if you want something, you've got to do it yourself. That's the way I was raised, where you don't make excuses for yourself. None of all that babying stuff. My mother used to say, 'Stop babying yourself. You've got work to do; you're a grown man.' I was taught at a young age that I'm bigger than most grown men, so you've got to have that mindset.
TW: With all the injuries to the backcourt, how does that affect the way this team can practice and prepare?
JJ: I think it hurts us, because of the limitations. Marcus can only do so much in practice, Joel (Berry) can only do a walkthrough, Theo's foot's broken. Luke is out. Stilman's out. Sasha's out. He was even playing guard at some point in practice. Because we don't have a lot of guards, big men like Brice and Isaiah are playing the '3' sometimes in practice. In a real game situation, that's not how it's going to be. I'm not going to be guarding Brice Johnson at the three-point line, you know? It's kind of hard for me and the team because it's not giving you the quality of practice time you need to prepare for a game. Coach Williams and the staff have such great basketball minds that they figure out ways to prepare us for what we need.
TW: You come in, you block shots, you put back a shot, you get a rebound . . .
JJ: That's just a little bit of what I know. Sometimes I still find myself being lost on the court. I still find myself hesitating to play my game of how I know how to play. But it's something I'm working on every day.
TW: You have a lot of facial expressions that you make. I know you're aware that people are watching you.
JJ: Yeah, but that's just me. Personally, I'm a very expressive person. I may not do it vocally, but I enjoy watching my teammates succeed, as cheesy as that sounds. I get happy. I get really happy when Brice gets a dunk, or Nate catches fire like he did in the Syracuse game, or anything like that. It brings a big smile to my face because these are the guys that I go through practice with every day. It's just great seeing them succeed. I try to get caught up in that because, heck, maybe some of their luck will rub off on me (laughing).
