Leadership role arrives for Lakers’ Austin Reaves, but he’s been here before

Outside Cedar Ridge High School in Newark, Arkansas in the winter of 2013, a group of teenage boys crammed into the backseats of a 2008 Cadillac Escalade for the umpteenth time.

Read more Orange County girls athlete of the week: Reese Holley, JSerra

It was once Nicole Wilkett’s six-seater SUV, soon to be a twice-over hand-me-down vehicle from mother to son to younger brother in the Reaves family cycle.

Wilkett, a consummate supporter for her sports-obsessed sons, Spencer and Austin Reaves, chauffeured her children – who dreamed of competing professionally, whether that be on vast greens or hardwood courts – around like most parents of young athletes do. By the time Spencer inherited the keys, the vehicle bore the dents of mishit golf balls and boyhood hijinks from his and Austin’s childhood.

Spencer Reaves sat behind the steering wheel, as his Cedar Ridge teammates packed like sardines to traverse the 5-mile, 7-minute drive. Lakers star Austin Reaves, a sophomore when his older brother, Spencer, was a senior, was one of those seven to eight boys.

“We just had a lot of fun carrying everybody around,” Spencer Reaves said with a chuckle, “which was probably a little illegal at the time.”

The car eventually belonged to Austin. His turn in the driver’s seat. A team captain and a leader among his peers – modeled after his older brother.

“Those guys are basically family to me still to this day,” Austin Reaves said during a recent interview with the Southern California News Group. “There were probably a couple of times when we had people laying in the back of the car where we weren’t supposed to. We would blast some music, have a good time. It made you want to do more for them.”

One stop sign. Open road. The route was simple to Austin and Spencer’s home; a tradition since Spencer was in middle school.

Before every game, the Reaves family invited their kids’ basketball teams to their home for a pregame meal. Frieda Wilkett – Austin and Spencer’s maternal grandmother – served dinner, a home-cooked spread of unsophisticated, carbohydrate-loaded food.

“We had some kids on the team, like every team does in high school, that were less fortunate than all the others,” said Isaac Middlebrooks, Austin’s former coach at Cedar Ridge High School. “They (Austin and Spencer) drove their teammates to their house, they fed them and just made them feel so much as a part of the team that they were.”

There was “taco stuff,” as Spencer called it – a hodgepodge of Fritos, hamburger meat and nacho cheese – along with the regulars: grilled cheese, chicken spaghetti and lasagna, all fuel for the Reaves brothers to burn off during high school hoops later that night.

“I wouldn’t even call them Arkansas home-cooked meals,” said Spencer, now 30 and playing professional basketball in Germany, where his grandmother was born.

“She made a lot of Hamburger Helper,” Austin said. “We ate a lot of Hamburger Helper.”

Keagan Harrison, Austin’s childhood friend and former teammate at Cedar Ridge, remembers the meals well.

“She was a really good cook and took really good care of us,” Harrison said. “That whole family did.”

The Cedar Ridge boys basketball team spent just as much time together as a family would. Before hitting the hardwood, the group would pop on a movie, take a nap, and yes, roughhouse as teenagers would.

“That’s almost an everyday thing,” Austin said. “You grow up with those guys. The family mentality is just going to lead you to do better things on court. If you care about somebody – stepping on the floor in a deeper manner than just basketball – you’re going to want to do more for them.”

When Austin and Spencer’s grandfather, John – a fixture at his grandsons’ basketball games – died in October 2013, teammates cried alongside family, Spencer said. The closeness between the Reaves brothers, their family and friends, was the reality of the Arkansas small town.

“Everybody knows everybody, you know?” Harrison said. “The town of Newark, there’s only about a thousand of us. Cedar Ridge was – that’s the one school there.”

Cedar Ridge is where Spencer watched Austin go from talented high schooler to Division I college hopeful. Newark is the root of a career that has turned his brother into arguably the most successful undrafted basketball player in NBA history.

“Every little kid can dream about Austin,” Middlebrooks said.

Ten years later, Austin has returned to the role he once shouldered after Spencer left for college at Division II North Greenville in Tigerville, S.C.

Austin Reaves isn’t just a figurehead of the Lakers alongside Luka Doncic after signing a four-year, $180 million max contract in July. The 28-year-old, self-proclaimed “hillbilly” is suddenly the third-oldest player on the Lakers.

He’s also now the longest-tenured Lakers player – period.

“I never would have thought that that would be the case,” Reaves said during the team’s preseason media day last month, “but it is.”

A decade later, leadership has once again arrived.

“We all knew who the leader was,” Harrison said of Austin. “He took ownership. We followed him.”

‘HE WASN’T AFRAID OF THE MOMENT’

It’s a week and a half before the Lakers tip off their season against the Golden State Warriors.

Austin Reaves, three weeks into training camp alongside a roster filled with nine new players, shoots 3-pointers from the corner with Lakers assistant coach Beau Levesque. His light grey T-shirt has turned a sweat-soaked dark grey, submerging the No. 15 on his back.

One swish, another, then a brick – clanking off the front of the rim and against the backboard.

Reaves recollects himself, receiving the pass from Levesque faster than the ones before it. It goes down, swishing through the net before the previous corralled miss can even hit the ground.

After finishing his shooting drills, Reaves chats with a member of the Lakers’ communications department while taking a slow walk across the court and to the news conference podium. Reaves takes a moment to rib members of the press over the Chicago White Sox being eliminated from the MLB postseason as he gets settled in front of the microphone.

He knows they’re fans.

Reaves wipes his head with a white Lakers-branded towel, answering questions about the still-to-be-decided starting lineup, increased muscle definition – former Lakers head strength and conditioning coach Ed Streit has joined Reaves as his dedicated trainer this season – and about the basketball shoes he’s wearing following the newfound freedom of being a shoe brand free agent.

Reaves, who signed with Chinese sportswear brand Rigorer in 2022 and launched his first signature shoe in August 2023, was wearing something a little more Southland.

“I’m a big Kobe fan,” he says. “So I just wear some Kobes.”

Reaves is accustomed to the media attention at this point.

Over the past three seasons with the Lakers, he first emerged as the third fiddle to LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Eventually, he became the third head of a star operation when Doncic arrived in Los Angeles in the shocking blockbuster trade with the Dallas Mavericks during the 2024-25 season.

This year, the expectations of Reaves’ role on the team have changed – whether that’s verbalized or not.

James, who was in L.A. for the first five seasons of Reaves’ career, joined the Philadelphia 76ers in June on a two-year deal that will likely see the 41-year-old end his career in the City of Brotherly Love.

“Some people in my family are like, ‘Wow, he’s like really good friends with LeBron,’” Spencer Reaves said.

In his final interview as a member of the Lakers in May, minutes after they were swept out of the second round of the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder, an SCNG reporter asked James about Reaves’ growth since he arrived as the underdog – an undrafted player who fought his way into playing time.

“Seeing AR grow over these five years has been nothing short of amazing,” James said. “He’s a hard worker. He loves the game. He wants to get better and he’s not afraid of constructive criticism. And I kind of knew that from the beginning. I saw the talent, but also saw that he was wanting to put the work in and willing to – he wasn’t afraid of the moment.”

The picture of the Lakers has dramatically changed.

Reaves is earning a star’s salary, second only to Doncic on the Lakers’ payroll. He’s now matched alongside the Slovenian star and center Walker Kessler as their marquee triad.

Lakers coach JJ Redick is clear – he expects each of his players to lead in their own ways.

Read more José Andrés Group to open restaurant at OCVibe

But no matter how Redick cuts it, Doncic and Reaves are the pairing atop the franchise.

They set the tone. They will have to lead.

Reaves knows he has to. But he’s going to do it in his own way.

“(Leading is) different for everybody,” Reaves said. “I’m not going to lead the same way Bron does. I’m not going to lead the same way Luka does. I like to do things a little differently … more one-on-one conversations. There will be times where I need to speak up in group settings and I’ll do that when the time comes, but I think you just have to be true to yourself and do what’s comfortable for you.”

‘SELFLESS’

The year is 2014: Spencer Reaves is a senior at Cedar Ridge High and Austin Reaves is a sophomore.

Two years apart by age, the season signaled their final competitive games together – forever.

In retellings that sound as much folklore as they were reality for the Reaves brothers, Spencer recalls his younger brother showing up to the gym in slings after repeatedly dislocating his shoulder.

“You’re just kind of looking at him like, ‘What are you going to do? What are you going to do?’” Spencer Reaves said. “And he’s not giving any answers – you know how he is – and then you go in the locker room, and he’s putting his jersey on in so much pain, ready to just go after it.”

In the middle of that season, Austin Reaves tore his labrum when he dove across the court for a loose ball.

The verdict? Surgery.

Spencer Reaves remembers the surgeon saying the procedure should occur sooner rather than later, with Austin’s prognosis set for a 6-to-7-month recovery.

“I just looked the doctor straight in the eyes, and I was like, ‘What’s the chance of permanent damage with this?’” Spencer Reaves recalled. “He looked at me and said, ‘2 to 3%.’ I looked Austin dead in the face, and I said, ‘You’re playing. You’re not getting surgery.’”

Austin Reaves played. Of course he did.

He had to, he said. One last ride with his brother.

“It could have been our last game together, so I was going to go play regardless of what my injury was,” Austin Reaves said. “If we didn’t win that game, that was it.”

Later in the season, battling through the discomfort and another dislocation during the regional tournament, Austin set out to play.

Sleeping in a hotel room ahead of the state tournament semifinal, Austin woke up in the middle of the night.

“Hey,” Austin said, turning to Spencer. “My shoulder is out of place.”

Spencer remembered knocking on doors until they could find Middlebrooks to help take Austin to the hospital.

“(Austin) comes back in the sling the next couple days, probably high off pain pills, because he’s in so much pain, and then plays and had an awesome semifinal,” Spencer said.

Spencer, he said, needed his point guard back.

A week later, with some rest for Austin, Cedar Ridge won the Class 2A state championship, 64-40, over future Lakers teammate Malik Monk and Clarendon High School in front of 3,891 fans at Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Spencer was named the MVP of the state tournament, scoring 23 points in the title game, while Austin helped Cedar Ridge pull away with a pair of baskets during an 8-0 run to close the first half. The brothers of Cedar Ridge finished 35-3 for the season.

“I think that’s just how my parents raised me,” Austin said, his parents both having played basketball at Arkansas State. “We were either really, really hurt or we were playing. I mean, my brother played baseball with a fractured elbow.”

Austin Reaves said that during his senior season, he and his teammates were just as battered on their way to another state title – helping Cedar Ridge win its third championship in four years. He averaged 32.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.1 assists en route to a 36-3 record, before playing a pair of seasons each at Wichita State and Oklahoma before entering the NBA draft.

“Austin stepped up and he took ownership (of the team),” Harrison said. “We followed him.”

Just last season, Reaves fought his way back from a Grade 2 oblique strain – an injury that ended his regular season a few weeks early – to return less than a month later, midway through their first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets, helping the Lakers advance in six games.

Reaves wants to compete.

Three days after Cedar Ridge’s title win in 2016, Reaves said he arrived at a friend’s house. Austin had had shoulder surgery. Two other teammates had just had knee surgery.

“We were all crippled on the couch, just sitting there talking,” Reaves said. “I looked around and I was like ‘We look horrible.’ If someone walked into this house right now and said, ‘Y’all won the state championship three days ago?’ They’d say, ‘I know y’all didn’t. Y’all look horrible.’ …”

Reaves continued: “It’s just those little things. Once you care deeply about people and the result that you want to get, you’ll do anything to get it.”

Middlebrooks, who concluded his run coaching the Reaves siblings, had one word inscribed on Cedar Ridge’s championship rings during Austin’s senior year. It was fitting of his star player’s efforts, he said.

Selfless.

“That described the whole team, and Austin, in a nutshell,” Middlebrooks said.

‘WINNING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING ELSE’

Reaves hasn’t been in Southern California for that long, though his stretch on the West Coast has included some of the most formative years of his life.

But he understands the geographic difficulty attached to playing in L.A. like an Angeleno.

Redick referenced it during a road trip last March, calling back to the days of when he played for the Orlando Magic and most of the team lived in Windermere, Florida, near the team facilities.

But when Redick joined the Clippers, his teammates were spread across L.A. The future Lakers coach lived in Manhattan Beach, for example, while former All-Star guard Chris Paul lived in Calabasas.

“Los Angeles is probably one of, if not the hardest markets for guys to connect,” Redick said. “Because guys are spread out, it takes an hour to get anywhere. (With the Magic), you live in Orlando, (and) play in Orlando.”

That’s why, Reaves said, the trip that Doncic assembled for Lakers players to his hometown of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in August was a peek back into the 24/7 togetherness he’d once known. It bled into the Lakers’ culture for the season ahead.

“If we didn’t have that trip, we would still be trying to learn more about one another,” Reaves said of the five days abroad with his teammates. “That was constantly time getting to know one another. And then when we were there, we were basically living together 95% of the time, always doing something, not even necessarily the basketball stuff.”

As far as learning what people like and don’t like, learning about each other’s families and creating the ease of teamwork, it all “trickles” into building a successful basketball team, Reaves said.

Reaves knows he’s now a veteran and that younger players look to him for advice.

He was once in their shoes. When he was a rookie, he incessantly turned to former NBA champion guard Rajon Rondo to ask questions.

Now, second-year wing Adou Thiero is doing the same to Reaves as he carves out a role for himself with the team.

That’s Reaves’ leadership – forged at Cedar Ridge High and over home-cooked meals, now hoping to build a foundation toward a Lakers championship run in 2026-27 – on display.

“People lead in their own ways,” former Lakers guard Marcus Smart told SCNG late last season. “Not everybody’s a vocal leader. Some people lead by example. And Austin is one of those guys. He comes in, he puts his hard hat on every day, and he just leads by example. We’re very proud of him.”

Leading, Reaves knows, is one thing. Winning is another.

“Winning is more important than anything else,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how you win. If you win, you win. …”

Read more Arizona woman’s 3-year wait for an intestine shows the US organ transplant system’s complexity

“If not,” Reaves said as the interview concluded, “everybody stinks.”