Arkansas stuff: The small-town bond that drove Austin Reaves and Malik Monk to new heights -

It’s Oct. 26, 2021, and the Los Angeles Lakers are in San Antonio for their fourth game of what was already shaping up to be a challenging 2021-22 season. As he sat on the bench before the game, Austin Reaves had an epiphany, one that only his new friend, Malik Monk, could possibly understand.

“You know, this shit is kind of crazy,” he says. “Who would have thought?”

“Me,” Monk replies.

“Not me,” Reaves responds. “It’s probably not crazy for you because everybody knew you would be here. But for me, two kids from Arkansas, small towns, on the same team, the Lakers. This might not happen again.”

On the surface, the two are an odd pairing.

Reaves, the two-way contract overachiever who earned the Lakers’ 14th roster spot and signed a two-year pro deal at the start of training camp.

Monk, the one-time future franchise cornerstone now trying to claw back to relevancy after the rest of the league seemingly gave up on him. The Dallas Mavericks were the only team other than the Lakers to offer Monk a contract over the summer, forcing Monk to sign a one-year minimum deal — less money than he made in any year of his rookie contract.

Reaves grew up on a remote cow farm. Monk was raised by a single parent in one of the poorest areas in his home state. Reaves, a no-star recruit who started his NCAA career with a mid-major (Wichita State, before transferring to Oklahoma). Monk, the five-star, blue-chip prospect who went to a blueblood (Kentucky) after an intense recruiting battle. Reaves, who went undrafted and got his foot in the NBA door via a two-way contract. Monk, a former lottery picks selected to be the Charlotte Hornets’ shooting guard of the future.

Each of those contrasts paled in comparison to the one commonality the two had rediscovered in a setting that could not be more different than their humble origins. These two 24-year-olds, now playing for the NBA’s marquee franchise, both grew up in Northeast Arkansas.

Specifically, in separate small towns 77 miles apart (Monk in Lepanto and Reaves in Newark), each with fewer than 1,900 people. They’re part of a small fraternity of Arkansas natives in the NBA (there are 10 currently on NBA rosters following the 2022 NBA Draft), many of whom have chips on their shoulders because they believe the players from their region are overlooked by scouts and media.

And as they learned more about their unique connection, they also realized they both are introverts who prefer staying at home, avid hunters and golfers, and hoopheads who live in the gym. All of this is on Reaves’ mind when he leaned over to Monk on the bench.

“The odds of them both being from Arkansas, in the NBA and on the same team, that’s like winning the lottery,” said Marcus Monk, Malik’s brother and agent.

It’s March 9, 2013, and freshman phenom Malik Monk and his East Poinsett County Warriors are in the Arkansas 2A championship game against the Cedar Ridge Timberwolves. On the other side: a 5-foot-9, 120-pound pass-first guard named Austin Reaves.

With 6,000 fans watching from Little Rock’s Barton Coliseum, Monk shines with 25 points, the last of which give his team a two-point lead with 19 seconds left. Reaves, on the other hand, had an off shooting night and only scored three points. But Reaves got the last laugh when Cedar Ridge, led by a 35-point performance from Reaves’ older brother Spencer, won the game, 58-56, for their first state title.

My newspaper @Cossey70 friend took this photo when Malik Monk @AhmadMonk (EPC)& Austin Reaves @reavesaustin31 (Cedar Ridge)where 9th graders in the state championship game. Classic photo for the man cave. pic.twitter.com/BBUMR4jcyD

— brian parrish (@brianparrish86) February 26, 2021

“I always hated him and his brother,” Monk said, laughing. “I always hated him since then.”

That was not the first time Monk and Reaves crossed paths growing up. They were aware of one another coming up in the Arkansas AAU and high school scene, occasionally saying “What up?” They played for the same AAU program, the Arkansas Wings, but never together; at the time, Reaves was only good enough to make the select team.

But they would not cross paths again for several years. Any chance at a brewing Monk-Reaves rivalry ended when Monk transferred to Bentonville High School his sophomore year, placing him in a different division.

Unlike Reaves, Monk was a high-school prodigy on his way to a stint in the Nike EYBL circuit, NCAA stardom at Kentucky and a Green Room invite after declaring for the NBA Draft after one season. Reaves, meanwhile, played second fiddle to his brother and began to emerge once he grew to 6-foot-5. He never earned an invite to Monk’s EYBL teams and was a no-star recruit when he committed to Wichita State in 2016.

Fast forward to the summer of 2021. The Lakers’ vaunted scouting department identified Reaves, a fifth-year senior after transferring to Oklahoma in 2018, as a two-way contract candidate due to his versatile offensive skill set, high IQ, team-first mentality and tenacious defense.

They also had a longstanding interest in Monk, now a free agent after his career stalled with the Hornets. After trying to acquire him at the 2020 and 2021 trade deadlines, the Lakers again pursued the electric scorer and playmaker. Impressed by pitches from Lakers vice-president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, head coach Frank Vogel and LeBron James, Monk signed a one-year minimum contract.

The two Arkansas natives, whose paths only briefly crossed nearly a decade earlier before their careers went in different directions, were now reunited. It soon became clear they were each what the other needed.

They first connected in the middle of an offseason workout with several of their teammates at the UCLA Health Training Center in late August 2021, after the conclusion of the NBA Summer League and before October’s training camp.

During a break in the action, Monk and Reaves found themselves standing next to each other off to the side. They began talking about their backgrounds, how they hadn’t seen each other in several years, and how surreal it was to finally be playing together.

“We sat there and talked for a while,” Reaves said. “And ever since then, it just built.”

Once they did, they learned they had a lot more in common than just their home state, Southern drawls and love of basketball. Their deep bond was just beginning to form.

They learned they were both born into basketball through their respective bloodlines.

Reaves’ parents both played basketball at Arkansas State, and his brother, Spencer, parlayed his high-school success into a four-year career at Division II universities North Greenville and Central Missouri before going overseas to play for German pro team Bayer Giants Leverkusen.

Malik’s brother, Marcus, starred at Arkansas as a wide receiver in football and a forward in basketball (he was eventually drafted into the NFL and played two years of professional basketball in Germany), and his cousin, Rashad Madden, played basketball at Arkansas and made the Memphis Grizzlies’ summer league team in 2015.

They learned they like to do “Arkansas stuff,” as both of them put it. The pair have been planning a trip to a shooting range, but haven’t been able to find an open time in their schedules. Reaves used to shoot cans with Spencer on his 300-acre family farm.

They’ve also discussed going deer-hunting and deep-sea or pond fishing back home in Arkansas. (Reaves was surprised to learn that Monk likes hunting.) Reaves’ family farm has multiple ponds the two could use.

“His town is almost basically like my hometown,” Monk said. “Super small and just super country.”

They also learned how their respective personalities complemented each other. They both like to keep to themselves away from the hardwood, preferring video games and chill time with close friends and family rather than going out and partying. They learned that they both have steely, deep-rooted confidence.

Though Monk identifies as an introvert despite his affable demeanor, he’s learned how to get out of his shell during his NBA tenure. His experiences helped Reaves, who’s even more introverted, acclimate to NBA dynamics and feel more comfortable heading into his sophomore season.

“It’s not hard to be more social than Austin,” said Spencer Reaves jokingly.

That’s why the elder Reaves was surprised to learn his younger brother attended Monk’s Louis XIII-themed birthday party at a private residence in the Bel Air Estates in early February, joining teammates Dwight Howard, Trevor Ariza, Talen Horton-Tucker and Kendrick Nunn.

“That says a lot,” Spencer Reaves said. “They must have a good relationship because Austin just doesn’t do that with a lot of people. His circle is very, very tight.”

Meanwhile, Reaves’ low-key demeanor helped ground Monk in a new situation.

They regularly went to dinner together after late-night workouts and recently bowled with a group of mutual friends. Reaves won, but Monk insists he’s a better bowler.

“He beat me by like two points,” Monk said. “We ain’t gonna talk about that.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Reaves said. “You can take about 50 percent of what he says when it comes to me and him. If you ask him if he’s better than me, he’s only gonna say yes. Don’t believe it. He got smacked that night.”

Over the next nine months, through their individual triumphs and the team’s many tribulations, a dynamic that began as merely a commonality evolved into what both describe as their closest friendship on the team.

“It started as a respect thing,” Marcus Monk said. “They just respected each other from a basketball standpoint. But now, they have an actual bond and they actually have a brotherhood, a friendship, that they build throughout the season because they have so much in common.”

Their connection spurred both to new heights on the court when their careers desperately needed it. They each emerged during an otherwise dismal season for the Lakers, injecting some energy into games while often complementing stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis far better than their more accomplished counterparts. They even finished 1-2 on the team in total plus-minus (plus-54 for Reaves and a plus-53 for Monk).

They personified arguably the lone bright spot of the Lakers’ 33-49 season: the effort of the team’s younger players in contrast to the rest of the aging roster. Reeves had to grind his way into the league, and Monk had to do the same after his Charlotte tenure began to go south.

In that way, they share a character trait the Lakers’ scouting department prioritizes to great effect with their non-lottery picks and less heralded free-agent acquisitions.

In the weeks since the Lakers’ season ended unceremoniously, Monk and Reaves have joined a crew of overlooked Lakers such as Horton-Tucker, Stanley Johnson, Wenyen Gabriel and Mason Jones every Monday through Thursday at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo. (Nunn, who missed all of last season because of a bone bruise in his right knee, has also been in the gym multiple times, according to teammates.)

Reaves, Gabriel and Jones went undrafted. Horton-Tucker was a late second-round pick. Monk and Johnson are former lottery picks whose original teams gave up on them. Though all of them showed flashes of success last season, their high energy in the group workouts stems from the collective disappointment the group felt with the Lakers’ 33-49 record this season.

“I mean, to say the least, it sucked,” Reaves said of the season from a team perspective. “We had high expectations for ourselves and felt like we just couldn’t piece it together throughout the year.”

“I think we underdid the Lakers’ expectations, man, and the fans and all that,” Monk said. “We let them down.”

Monk and Reaves don’t want a repeat of the team’s disastrous season next year. That is if both of them are in Los Angeles next season.

It’s April 10, 2022, and the Lakers have just finished a 146-141 comeback overtime victory over the Nuggets in Denver with James, Davis and Russell Westbrook out of the lineup with LA’s play-in hopes dashed. It was the perfect stage for Monk and Reaves to end the season on a high note and remind the organization how important they are before a long offseason that could feature an overhaul of the supporting cast.

“We were just walking in and coming into the game telling them, ‘This game right here can just boost us into next year,'” Monk said. “‘They can see that we really can go out there and play and help the team win.’ And that’s what we went out there to do.”

They did that and much more. Both notched their career highs in scoring. Monk dropped 41 points, while Reaves chipped in with 31 while becoming the first undrafted rookie to post a 30-point triple-double (adding 16 rebounds and 10 assists) and the fifth Lakers rookie to post a triple-double in team history.

Afterward, their friendship was on display while they sat next to each other at the postgame press conference, especially when a reporter asked Monk if Reaves’ record-setting performance explains why Reaves’ team defeated Monk’s in that Arkansas state championship game in 2013.

“Hell nah,” Monk said. “Hell nah. He ain’t do nothing.”

“I didn’t,” Reaves dryly quipped as he smiled and playfully tapped Monk on the arm.

“He ain’t do nothing,” Monk continued. “He didn’t do anything that game.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Reaves said as both players leaned away from the mic smiling and laughing.

As they celebrated the culmination of a season-long bond that drove both to new heights, reports of former head coach Frank Vogel’s firing surfaced on Twitter. Instead of discussing their career nights, Monk and Reaves had to field multiple questions about their head coach’s dismissal.

It was another downer in a season full of them. But it was also another opportunity for the two to lean on each other, as they had throughout their respective lows of the season.

“It’s just great being with my boy,” Monk said. “It’s always great being with somebody from home. It always feels comfortable. And I think that’s why we really got so close.”

“He helped me through DNPs a couple of times, just telling me to keep my head down, work and do the little things that’ll get me on the court,” Reaves added. “I owe him a lot for that.”

Now they have new challenges. While Reaves is tasked with improving and becoming a critical part of next season’s Lakers, who are hungry to bounce back and contend again, Monk is a pending unrestricted free agent with an important decision to make about his future in the league. He has long craved security in his role and comfort in his team surroundings. He enjoyed his season with the Lakers, but because of his minimum contract, Los Angeles can only offer him the taxpayer mid-level exception (worth approximately $6.4 million annually), and Monk is expected to command more on the open market.

Reaves has been talking through options with Monk — but the end result is always the same: Reaves advising him to stay.

“Every time I see him, I’m like, ‘Come on. Come back,'” Reaves said. “But whatever he does, I’m happy for him.”

Monk and Reaves have always been tied together because of their roots and shared history. The Lakers finally brought their paths together, forging a strong kinship.

This time, whether Monk remains in Los Angeles and helps Reaves try to turn the Lakers around next season, or signs elsewhere this offseason, their friendship should long outlast their respective careers.

“We’ll stay close forever, man,” Monk said. “It’s because we got the same roots. We literally like all the same things, do all the same things. It’s hard to find somebody like that.”

(Top photo of Malik Monk and Austin Reaves: Adam Pantozzi / NBAE via Getty Images)

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