Olympia’s Grant can already do it all — and the UW commit is still growing
Some centers in high school basketball are bruisers, content to bang around the paint but not offering much in the way of finesse, footwork or touch. Others are more of the stretch four mold, spending their time around the 3-point line but not providing a presence on the low block.
Olympia junior Jackson Grant wasn’t content being pigeon-holed into one skillset, which is part of the reason he was such a dominant force for the Bears this season, leading the team to a fourth-place finish in the Class 4A state tournament, its best state finish since 2011.
Grant, a UW commit, is The News Tribune and The Olympian’s 2020 All-Area high school boys basketball player of the year.
The 6-foot-10 big man averaged 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Bears this season.
“He keeps growing, keeps evolving,” said Olympia coach John Kiley. “His motor this year has been clearly one of his strong points. That helps him defensively and, obviously, offensively.”
Grant spent the previous summer playing for Washington Supreme in the AAU circuit and for USA Basketball, facing some of the country’s top competition. Then Grant committed to Mike Hopkins’ Washington squad before his junior year. Kiley noticed how facing that level of competition made him a tougher player coming into his junior year.
“When he gets an opportunity like he did with USA basketball, he takes it and runs with it,” Kiley said. “He’s not afraid to engage. He grows playing higher-level competition. This idea of growth mode, it’s been fun to see.”
Is he a center or a power forward? That answer varies depending on who you ask. Scott Campbell’s Puyallup team won the 4A SPSL title this year, despite losing both its regular-season meetings against Olympia, 87-61 on Jan. 4 and 71-41 on Jan. 31, and then losing to the Bears once more in the district tournament, 54-49.
“He’s got a really unique skill set,” Campbell said of Grant. “Being 6-10, with that size and he really has a wide array of things he can do offensively, from stretching the floor and shooting the three, he can catch it and put it on the floor.
“He can play in the post, play in the high post, play in the short corner. I think that’s what his most unique asset is as an offensive player. And this year, he’s grown a lot defensively around the rim and protecting the basket.”
For Olympia’s opponents, it was a ‘pick your poison’ scenario. Either front Grant in the post and send weak side help, which would open looks for guard Kai Johnson and shooter Ethan Gahm, or play Grant straight up and hope for the best.
“He’s also a very good passer and an unselfish player,” Campbell said. “You can’t just double team him and force him into taking bad shots. He’s a high IQ player that’s going to make the right play, which makes it tougher to deal with it.”
That’s part of where Grant demonstrated the most growth in his game this season. When double teams inevitably came, he wasn’t afraid to kick it back out a teammate.
“It really helped me with my passing game, facilitating out of the post and also scoring over some double teams when both of those guys were smaller than me and I knew I could take advantage of my (height) advantage,” Grant said.
That meant some nights, Grant wasn’t going to score much. And he was OK with that if it meant getting a win.
“It kind of helped me realize me role on the team, where I might not be as big of a threat in some games depending on how their defense is kind of centered around me and I can just help my team by getting rebounds and playing well defensively and help my teammates step up and win those games,” Grant said.
To Kiley, that type of realization and maturity speaks volumes about the type of player and teammate Grant is.
“He’s an unselfish kid,” Kiley said. “The consummate teammate. He has never worried about his own stats. Never has. I’m so thankful for his humility. As we started to find more success toward the end of the year, he’s quick to kick the ball out. At the same time, if he’s open, we want him shooting the basketball.”
Olympia started the season slowly, losing two of its first three league games. For a team that was projected to win the 4A SPSL, that didn’t sit well with Grant and his teammates.
“I think we just really clicked after that 1-2 start,” Grant said. “We were like, ‘This isn’t where we know we can be and where we want this season to go,’ so we really turned a corner after that and ripped off a bunch of wins.”
And Olympia saved the best for last, heating up in time for the postseason and winning three of its four games at the 4A state tournament at the Tacoma Dome — including a 75-55 win over Skyview in a consolation game, in which the Bears set the 4A tournament record for field goal percentage, shooting 70.2 percent, which broke Anacortes’ mark of 68.9% in 1974 — and taking a fourth-place finish after beating Sumner in the placing game, 59-48.
“I think it was just the atmosphere around the Dome, the excitement of the state tournament,” Grant said. “Everybody just kind of wanting to shoot the ball and score in the state tournament. So everyone was just kind of shooting more free, feeling like a lot of the games we played were loser-out, so I’m just going to shoot the ball freely. When we shoot the ball freely and with confidence, we shoot really well.”
Grant has one more high school season left. He wants to win a state title and, individually, become unstoppable on the offensive end.
“What I really want to take to the next level is that mentality of, ‘I’m the best player on the floor and I can beat any opponent that’s across from me 1-on-1,’” Grant said. “That’s really going to help with my confidence shooting, trusting my training and all that.”
