Dylan Harper didn’t go looking for a motivational speech before the biggest games of his life. Ron Harper, a five-time NBA champion, handed his rookie son a short message ahead of the NBA Finals, and it had nothing to do with X’s and O’s.
As the San Antonio Spurs guard prepares for Game 1 against the New York Knicks, the advice from one of basketball’s most decorated role players comes down to a single idea.
A father who’s been there hands down the message to Dylan Harper
Harper has leaned on his father’s experience as the Finals approach, and the guidance has been simple. “I’ve picked his brain. We talked a little yesterday. He just tells me, ‘Be you. You don’t have to switch who you are in this situation… Do whatever you did to get here.’ That’s been the biggest thing.”
Ron Harper won three titles with the Chicago Bulls and two with the Los Angeles Lakers, so when he talks about handling the big stage, words carry weight. There’s a personal layer beneath it all. Harper grew up going to Knicks games, and now he’s preparing to play them at Madison Square Garden as a rookie. He called it a dream come true.
“Never in a thousand years would you have told me that my first year in the NBA, I’d be playing against the Knicks, going to play at Madison Square Garden in my rookie year in the finals,” Harper said.
Furthermore, Harper’s first Finals assignment runs straight through Jalen Brunson, who’s averaging 26.9 points and 6.6 assists this postseason. The rookie knows the test.
“Jalen Brunson kind of just has, when he gets in the paint, his footwork is elite and is among the best,” Harper said previously.
He’s already shown he can hang with star guards after drawing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the Western Conference finals, and the Spurs punched their ticket by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-103 in Game 7, with Victor Wembanyama posting 22 points and seven rebounds.
The production backs up his role. Harper has averaged 13.1 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 52.5% from the field across 18 playoff games, and his jumper got there the boring way.
“If you want to be a good shooter or better than good, great, you kind of have to stay in the gym constantly,” he said.
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The Manu Ginobili comparisons, now that the Hall of Famer works as a special advisor in San Antonio, don’t rattle him either. “I think it’s an accurate comparison. We’re both lefties, big guards,” Harper said.
He credits De’Aaron Fox, a guy he half-jokingly calls his uncle and his big brother, for steadying the rookie ride. “He’s done a great job of just mentoring me,” Harper said.
