Watching Arizona Basketball star Deandre Ayton live in person

This past weekend I had the opportunity to watch former Arizona Wildcat Deandre Ayton live in person. I wanted to share my experience.

Hyped. Excited. Proud. These are the emotions that ran through my body as I went to my first NBA game and watched Deandre Ayton. The Suns would go onto lose a close one 122-118, but that didn’t impact my experience. From beginning to end, watching No. 22 perform on the big stage against the Denver Nuggets was a moment I will soon not forget.

As I arrived at Talking Stick Resort Arena, the anticipation of seeing Ayton play was feeding my excitement by the minute. While he played for Arizona, I was lucky enough to see him play for the first time inside McKale Center during the Red and Blue game. I knew right away he was going to be something special, not only in college but in the NBA for many years to come. Watching someone of his size do what he does is simply incredible!

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I think Ayton will go down as the greatest to have played at Arizona. Yes, he only played one season, but what he accomplished was simply astonishing. Everyone knew he would be one and done, but that didn’t stop him from providing Wildcat fans something to cheer about night in and night out.

As the tip-off fast approached, I was trying to catch a glimpse of Ayton warming up, which isn’t hard to do because of size! He, of course, was having fun with his teammates prior to the game but also working on his post-up moves. After warm-ups, it was game time!

In the first quarter, Ayton only had one point, but he was making his presence known on the defensive end and on the boards. And then the 2nd quarter came. Wow. Just when you think you have seen it all in the NBA, nope! Ayton had one of the most amazing quarters in NBA basketball history, for a rookie that is.

He went on to score 24 points in the 2nd quarter, finishing the 1st half with 25 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals. To put that into further perspective, Ayton scored 24 of the 33 points in the quarter for the Suns. At the end of the first half though they were trailing the Nuggets to 62-49 due to poor shooting from three, turnovers and bad defense.

As the second half got underway, the Suns for whatever reason stopped getting the ball inside to Ayton, even though he was their leading scorer. Made no sense to me. Plus, the coach for the Suns decides to bench him. Weird?? If you have someone with such incredible hands and touch down low, why aren’t you getting the ball inside to him? The Nuggets did play good defense but just throw it up, he’ll get it! Wildcats fan know that.

Throughout the game, Ayton did have his hands full guarding Nikola “The Joker” Jokic. At 7 feet, 250 lbs, the versatility he has is incredible. Jokic is the second leading scorer on the team with 18 points per game and leads the team in rebounds with 9.8 per game. Ayton though was not intimated on the defensive end when he had to guard him down low. He is listed at 7-foot-1, 250 lbs and used all of that to try to stop the Joker, which wasn’t easy to do.

It’s very clear though he has put in a lot of work with his offensive moves. I was able to capture this move he had in the second half:

https://twitter.com/sciguyrosen/status/1079242683418177537

Ayton would go onto score eight more points and grab 5 more rebounds, finishing the game with 33 points, shooting 80% from the field and had14 rebounds. Another double-double performance for the Suns. He currently has 23 on the season and that number will surely increase as the season goes on. For the season, he is averaging 17 points per game, 10.9 rebounds per game, 2.2 assists per game and shooting 60.5% from the field!

In the end, the Suns would come close but would fall short by four. At one point in the game they were down by 25 points. This season is not going the way Suns fans would have hoped, but Ayton has provided them one thing to be proud about. NBA Rookie of the Year, All-Star, Hall of Famer. All of these are a realistic possibility for Ayton as he begins his NBA career.

The way Ayton performed was amazing to watch. How he carries himself up and down the floor is G.O.A.T. like. You can tell that not just his own teammates, but his opponents respect what he can do, which says a lot for only being an NBA rookie. I would highly recommend if you get the chance, to go and witness the greatness in person. Bear Down Ayton!