Everybody loves a good redemption arc. Whether it’s in a TV show, a movie series, in real life, or in sports (which are realer than real life), it’s hard for the common man not to root for the guy (or girl) who fell from grace and then clawed their way back up to prominence.
The Josh Jackson redemption arc is happening right now whether we’re aware of it or not. After making his toddler puff on a spliff while at Six Flags (I hope I’m getting the story right; that’s the general outline anyway) and getting the boot from Phoenix, he’s goofed off in the G-League for a while putting up insane-o stats and is now back on a regular NBA roster. And while the Grizzlies don’t seem to be in a rush to make him a franchise centerpiece (they already have one and his name is Kyle Anderson), they do seem willing to give him enough minutes for him to get in a rhythm and start hitting shots.
I was never the world’s biggest Josh Jackson fan, but I always feel bad when a highly-touted rookie just completely falls out of the league right as his rookie-scale contract is ending. Josh Jackson being out of the league made me feel bad. I knew, in some sense, that he deserved his fate, but there was another part of me that desired for him to prove the haters wrong, because somebody who scored as much as he did in his first few seasons in the league should be able to have a role SOMEWHERE doing SOMETHING.
Well, now he has his role, and he is doing some things. Let’s just hope that “some things” doesn’t include giving his kid a big fat joint to smoke on.