Fueled by family, Sullinger returns to Ohio roots in first playoff trip
CLEVELAND - That it ended up being in Cleveland made it easier -- a two-hour drive north for J.J., two hours east for Julian -- but there wasn't much chance Jared Sullinger's older brothers were going to miss their little brother's first game in the NBA Playoffs, regardless of where the game would have been.
That it ended up being in Cleveland made Jared Sullinger's phone battery steadily disappear late last week. It put a dent in his bank account, too, by the time everybody in and around Columbus who requested tickets through Sullinger for Sunday's Game One of the Boston Celtics-Cleveland Cavaliers series got theirs.
For Game Two and beyond, there are new rules.
"My family understands I'm not paying for all those tickets," Sullinger said. "We agreed on some terms. But my brothers (getting there), that was a must. When it comes to them, I don't mind the cost. They raised me practically. I have three dads: My dad, Satch, my dad James Jr. and my dad Julian.
"They raised me. They were definitely coming to the game, regardless of price."
James Sr., or Satch, spent his adult life coaching basketball in and around Columbus before retiring two years ago. James Jr., or J.J., played at Arkansas before transferring home and was a captain on Ohio State's 2006 Big Ten championship team. Julian played on three MAC title teams at Kent State and now coaches at Div. II Tiffin University in Northwest Ohio.
Long before he won two Ohio Mr. Basketball awards at Northland High -- only a guy on the other side of this series, LeBron James, has won three -- and before he starred at Ohio State for two seasons en route to being drafted by the Celtics in 2012, Jared Sullinger was raised in gyms, fed a steady diet of elbows on the neighborhood court and drilled on the fundamentals of the only game he ever loved.
He grew up idolizing his brothers to the point that when other kids would imitate NBA players, Jared would imitate J.J. or Julian. When Jared led Ohio State to the Final Four in 2012, Julian called it Jared's "biggest moment since the first time he beat me one-on-one," and nobody in the family laughed like he was exaggerating. When it comes to the compliments Jared paid his brothers before his first playoff game and his declaration that they were the only ones who wouldn't be ponying up for tickets, Julian said matter of factly, "I'd better be on that damn list."
It was J.J. who was first to recruit Jared for Ohio State, pushing Buckeyes coach Thad Matta by text message and e-mail when J.J. was playing professional ball internationally to be first to offer a scholarship. Matta knew the family well but thought J.J. had been talking about Julian, not Jared.
No, J.J. told him. He meant Jared, a middle-schooler at the time.
"Your fat little brother?" Matta asked.
Jared was growing up nicely. And with bruises.
The place where the Sullinger Boys spent most of their time in their South Columbus neighborhood was called Little Marvin's Court or just "The Court." It was all basketball, almost all the time -- the call-your-own-fouls and bloody-lips-are-normal kind of basketball. Those games at The Court are why J.J. said he now sees his brother "as one of the few guys in the NBA who doesn't give a pass to his friends" in the paint.
"Looking back, we're lucky no one got hurt," J.J. said. "We're probably luckier that we're still friends. It was brutal out there, but that's how we played."
Winners stayed at The Court, and the Sullingers often stayed, and young Jared watched in admiration when he wasn't playing.
"I always thought my older brothers were going to make the NBA," Jared said before Sunday's game. "It turns out the little short chubby kid made it."
Before he had the best butt in college basketball he lost at least some of the best gut on the Columbus travel basketball scene. Fat Little Jared, as Matta once called him, had an Ohio State offer by the end of his first year of high school.
"The pudgy kid with the big shoes," Julian said of his younger brother. "Jared, he always had the skill. He had an outside game because he had to score against us older guys. He had an inside game...kids his own age just had no chance against him on the block.
"He worked at it. Persistence is what I'd say is the biggest thing. There were ups and downs, but I always saw him getting here from the time he was in eighth or ninth grade and he got taller and started to thin out. He earned it."
There were no shortcuts. When Jared wasn't making the grade in his sophomore year of high school, he was benched by his father. He was meeting the school and Ohio High School Athletic Association academic standards, but he wasn't meeting Satch Sullinger's standards.
So Satch kept Jared on the sideline, and Northland High was bounced from the district tournament.
In the next academic quarter, and the quarters that followed, Jared made the honor roll.
The next year, Northland won the state championship.
"I always envisioned this for Jared," Julian said. "I saw it. I know the path he's taken. I'm just proud of him, man."
Julian Sullinger said he "played it cool" when he took his seat in Quicken Loans Arena for Sunday's Game One but thought J.J. "kind of had an out-of-body moment. It was so surreal to him" that Jared was playing on the NBA's biggest stage.
"I was fine on the drive there, fine before the game, but it all hit me when I saw Jared take the warmups off," J.J. said. "I just had chills. It's one of those moments I'll never forget, just knowing everything he's gone through to get to this point.
"I'm not going to act like Jared has had some terrible life or came from a terrible family. I don't know if anybody would ever even call him the underdog, but it hasn't been easy. He's worked so hard. He's battled his weight. He's battled injuries. I think a lot of people will say they always saw him getting to where he is now, but a lot of people think they're going to the NBA and not a whole lot do."
Though Jared said he's actually 15 pounds heavier now than he was in his final season at Ohio State, he said he's "carrying it differently. My lower half, that's not going anywhere." Jared lost around 40 pounds after between his freshman and sophomore seasons at Ohio State; when he suffered a foot injury last February that originally was reported as a season-ending injury, he vowed to lose weight to improve his career going forward.
That injury healed quicker than doctors thought it would -- "a lot of rehab and calcium pills," Jared said -- and he was able to return, at least in a limited role, for the Celtics' final seven regular-season games. In Sunday's playoff opener, he scored four points and had four rebounds in 14 minutes
Sullinger played in 58 regular-season games this season, starting 49, and averaged 13.3 points and 7.6 rebounds. In a stretch that started the day after Christmas, Sullinger scored in double figures and had at least eight rebounds in 19 of 25 games before the injury.
The Celtics appear to be a team headed in the right direction, and before the injury Sullinger was playing a major part in that. He's eligible for a new contract this summer or restricted free agency after next season, so interesting times lie ahead. Playing in the NBA Playoffs for the first time, though, is "most definitely a dream come true," Jared Sullinger said. "It's exciting. But we're hungry. We know it's not just about getting to the playoffs. It's about trying to win once we're there."
J.J. Sullinger might have been Ohio's Mr. Basketball in 2001 if it wasn't for LeBron James. The James Playoff Homecoming angle slightly overshadows Sullinger's first playoff berth coming in his home state.
All that is OK. Jared is here. His brothers are, too.
"Us being in Cleveland for the playoffs, it means more to my family than it means to me because they can be here pretty easily," Jared said. "It makes their day so it makes mine."
