“I’m just happy I’m putting on a Mavericks jersey with my name on the back,” Jackson said.
The 5-foot-11 point guard has had a difficult road to the NBA, but he’s finally earned his first chance at NBA minutes. The No. 42 pick in the 2013 Draft, Jackson spent one season torching the D-League for 29.1 points per game before rupturing his Achilles the following offseason during the 2014 NBA Summer League.
While it seemed like Jackson was closer than ever to breaking through at the NBA level, that injury pushed back his climb even more. But he twisted that adversity into a positive, using the time away from the game to rehab hard — he said his doctors told him to slow down his recovery after five months because he was so far ahead of schedule — and to learn about himself as a person.