Austin Reaves’ Underdog Story And Lifestyle!

It’s not often you see a no star recruit out of high school

outshining the likes of Anthony Davis on the court.

But that’s exactly the type of underdog story that has made fans fall in love with

Austin Reaves.

Starting from the bottom, Reaves has balled his way into basketball stardom and has even

earned one of the most unique nicknames in Basketball history.

So, let’s take a look at Austin Reaves’ Underdog story, lifestyle and net worth.

Starting with who gave him his game.

Number 8.

Austin Reaves’ Early Life Reaves has been a godsend to the lakers’

dismal season this year.

With all the turmoil and injuries, Reaves has proven to be a steady point guard and

scorer and it seems like he was gifted both of these attributes by his mom and dad.

Born in Newark, Arkansas, both of Reaves’ parents were basketball fanatics.

His mom, Nicole played college basketball for Arkansas State and averaged 21 points

per game.

She even earned all-conference honours.

While Reaves’ dad also played for Arkansas State but was more of a playmaker as he tallied

up the 3rd most assists in the program’s history.

It seems like Reaves is the perfect mix of his parents.

He gets buckets like his mom and sets up his teammates like his dad.

But despite having a couple of ballers as his parents, his brother actually got him

interested in playing basketball.

Number 7.

How He Started Basketball Reaves had to contend with his mom and dad

when it came to driveway basketball, and he had to get past his older brother, Spencer.

It was his brother who actually got him interested in playing basketball.

In fact, his brother practically forced Reaves to join his freshman basketball team and would

drag him to practice every day because he wanted a practice buddy around.

Overtime, Reaves started to see all that extra work pay off and putting in the extra hours

would become a hallmark of Reaves’ career later on as he had one of the more unique

journeys to the NBA.

The two of them were competitive about everything from backyard football with their dad to one

on ones on the court.

That competitive nature would help Reaves propel his basketball career moving forward

and he even credits his brother for being an example of hard work and dedication, without

whom he might not have ever made it as a professional player.

But before we get to his NBA highlights, Reaves still had a long way to go as he navigated

the college basketball scene.

Number 6.

College Years When most NBA players graduate their high

school, they are considered one of the best players in their state but that wasn’t the

case for Reaves.

He was actually a no-star recruit coming out of Cedar Ridge High School.

That’s one of the reasons why he spent two years at mid-major Wichita State.

First of those two years was very painful to say the least.

Reaves dislocated his shoulder 3 times that year because he had been playing through a

shoulder injury since his junior year in High School.

Talk about toughness.

But after the dislocations, he needed a labrum surgery that forced him to miss a significant

chunk of the season.

It was in his Sophomore year with Witcha when he showed flashes of what was to come as he

posted season highs in scoring and even broke the programs record for the most 3s in a half

with 7.

After those 2 years, Reaves transferred to Oklahoma.

Here he found a lot more success as he even dropped his career high of 41 points and hit

a game winner in a different game.

He would be named to the Big 12 All-newcomer team in 2020 and the next year would earn

himself First-Team All-Big 12 honours.

He averaged 18-5-4 going into the 2021 NBA draft.

But despite his success in college, he ultimately went undrafted but the Los Angeles Lakers

gave him a two-way contract in August 2021 which they eventually turned into a standard

NBA contract.

And lucky for LA, they had just found a diamond in the rough.

Number 5.

Career Achievements Unfortunately for Reaves, the Lakers have

been in turmoil or riddled with injuries since he joined the team.

So, he hasn’t had the stability that would help him transition from college to the NBA.

However, he still managed to show glimpses of his elite talent in his first year as he

proved to be the ultimate hustle-and-glue type of player.

This included a game winner against the Dallas Mavericks.

His real breakout season would come in his 2nd year with the lakers as his workload and

responsibility grew along with which he averaged career highs across the board.

This included his career high in points as he dropped 35 points in a must-win game against

the Orlando Magic to keep the Lakers’ season afloat.

That must have felt unreal as Reaves grew up a Lakers fan and now is one of the most

beloved players by the Laker Nation.

And if you don’t believe that Reaves grew up a Laker fan, just check out some of his

old tweets which weren’t too friendly toward his current teammate LeBron James.

But the way LeBron shows support after every time Reaves makes a bucket or a hustle play,

it seems the two have patched things up.

Speaking of Twitter, a perk of being on the Lakers is that you get a massive amount of

loyal followers.

So, let’s take a look at how that’s translated to his social media.

Number 4.

Social Media Presence Reaves has over 400 thousand followers on

Instagram, which is his preferred social media app.

On it, you can see Reaves celebrating his success as a Laker while being supported by

all of his teammates.

That seems to be the key to the Lakers’ recent success as they genuinely like and

care for each other.

He even has a post up with LeBron James celebrating a Dlo 3 pointer with the caption “immaculate

vibes”.

That seems to be the M.O. of Reaves as whenever he does something on the court, it energizes

the lakers and the fans in the Crypto arena.

Reaves also posts one of his sponsors on his feed.

Rigorer is a basketball brand that sponsors Reaves but soon enough, we reckon that he’ll

have a whole bunch more sponsors to promote on his Instagram.

Especially if he keeps balling the way he has been.

But if he keeps that up, sponsors will be the last thing he’d have to worry about

as he could find himself signing a pretty lofty deal in the coming years.

Number 3.

NBA Contract Currently, Reaves is on a 2 year 2.4 million

dollar contract that will be up after this season.

His deal guarantees the entirety of the 2.4 million and comes with an average annual salary

of 1.2 million.

However, once this deal is up, there has been a ton of talk between the Lakers and Reaves’

camp about a potential 50 million dollar deal.

So, it looks like Reaves will ball his way into becoming one of the best basketball stories

as he would go from a no star recruit out of high school to signing a lucrative 50 million

dollar deal with the biggest franchise in basketball.

Talk about dreams coming true.

But all of this should have been expected after he earned a nickname that includes the

great Kobe Bryant.

Number 2.

Origins Of His Nickname Those who are new to Reaves might refer to

him as his AR15, which is pretty cool but doesn’t come close to his original nickname,

HillBilly Kobe.

Yup, you heard us right.

Reaves was first famous for his hilarious nickname Hillbilly Kobe.

The nickname started well before he put on the Laker purple and gold.

In fact, while he was in Oklahoma, a teammate of his suggested the nickname and once his

other teammates heard it, it became a no-brainer to call Reaves Hillbilly Kobe.

The Kobe part of the nickname comes from his incredible high school play where he averaged

32 points a game which included a Kobe like game where he scored 33 of his 57 points in

the 4th quarter.

He even had a 70 point game in high school, so at least he lived up to the Kobe nickname.

Number 1.

His Net Worth With all that being said, when it comes to

Reaves’ net worth, we have to take into consideration all the cost that goes into

being a professional basketball player, along with things like Uncle Sam.

So with his current deal, we’d say that his net worth is around 500 to 700 thousand.

But clearly when he signs that potential 50 million deal with the Lakers in the off-season,

his net worth will explode.

And hopefully, for the Lakers sake, Reaves continues to surpass his expectations and

stays balling.

If you enjoyed this video, then please give it a like and don’t forget to subscribe

to the channel.

Hit the little bell beside it so you’re notified the next time we upload a new video.

With that being said, you just watched the lifestyle

and net worth of Austin Reaves.

See you next time!