PHOENIX — Once Jordan Goodwin sees his Phoenix Suns teammates square up to shoot, he starts making his way to the rim, watching the ball, reading angles. Rebounding is a Goodwin specialty, as is all the dirty work. It stems from his earliest days on a basketball court.
Twenty or so years ago, in the suburbs of St. Louis, Tim Goodwin would return home from his job at the post office. There, he would find young Jordan holding a basketball near the front door, ready to hoop. The Goodwins called this “Game Night.” It was how Tim bonded with his three sons.
Goodwin was the youngest. And in the family driveway, he got bullied. His brothers pretty much told him, “You want to shoot? Find a way to get the ball.” In those earliest days, Goodwin would start crying. Tim Goodwin had no sympathy.
He told his son, “Just because you’re the baby doesn’t mean we’re going to treat you like a baby.”
Soon, Goodwin began out-smarting his family. A shot would bounce off the rim, Goodwin would beat everybody to the ball and someone would ask a familiar question — “How’d you get that rebound?” Even today, as the Suns battle the Oklahoma City Thunder in a Western Conference first-round series, the 6-foot-3 Goodwin is among the league’s bigger pests, grabbing rebounds, hounding shooters, stealing possessions.
Goodwin, who has played only five minutes in the series because of left calf soreness, is questionable for Saturday’s Game 3. The Suns need his energy.
A couple of days ago, Goodwin, 27, recalled those days in the family driveway.
“They never let me get the rebound unless I dove on concrete to get it,” Goodwin said. “That kind of was built in me like in second grade and stayed with me my whole life.”
He plays basketball like a football player, which is interesting for two reasons.
1. During games, Goodwin actually looks like a football player. He wears a black protective mask, something he initially did after suffering an injury to his nose in college. It was not a one-time thing. After Goodwin kept hurting his nose, his mother finally told him, “Just keep it on. The way you play, sticking your nose in with all those big men, you’re going to keep getting hit.” And so he did.
2. Goodwin played high school football and was really good.
Informed of this, Phoenix forward Royce O’Neale kind of rolled his eyes. Every baller loves to reminisce about their football days, he said. O’Neale even used the opportunity to inform a group of reporters that he once was a pretty good quarterback, adding that if any teammate disagreed, a 7-on-7 flag game could always be arranged.
O’Neale was asked if he could guess Goodwin’s position.
“High school?” he said. “Either a running back — I might give him a wide receiver — or probably a safety.”
Answer: A tight end who sometimes flexed outside.
“I could definitely see that,” O’Neale said.
Jordan Goodwin scored 19 points in the Suns’ Play-In Tournament win over Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, clinching the West’s No. 8 seed. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
Ken Turner was Goodwin’s football coach at Althoff Catholic in Belleville, Ill. All those things you see from Goodwin on the basketball court? He was the same force on the football field, Turner said. Iowa, New Mexico State and Jacksonville State were among the schools that offered scholarships.
“He has great hands — great hands,” Turner said. “But the physical part would have taken him a long way (had he stuck with football.) He loved blocking. Loved putting guys on their back.”
For a while, Goodwin considered playing both sports in college. His father talked him out of it. Told him he needed to pick one.
Goodwin accepted a basketball scholarship at Saint Louis University. As a freshman, he started 26 games and averaged a team-high 7.5 rebounds. As a junior, he averaged 10.4 rebounds, which ranked 23rd in the nation. Everyone ranked above him stood at least three inches taller.
“We saw it every night, and we’d be like, ‘How does he do this?’” said Travis Ford, then the head coach at Saint Louis. “Probably half of those rebounds were offensive rebounds, which are the hardest to get. We used to use him as an example all the time in the locker room, like, ‘Guys, you’re 6-9, 6-10 and getting seven rebounds. He’s 6-3 and getting 10, 11 and 12 rebounds. You have the same opportunities!”
The knock on Goodwin’s game was his outside shooting. Ford said they used to tease him about it. We give you the green light, but you keep missing. Goodwin responded with repetition, getting to the gym before 6 a.m., working on his shot until it was time for class.
“My son, when someone tells him that he can’t do something — you’re not a good shooter, you only can score under the basket — the next game he’s probably going to hit like five or six 3s,” Tim Goodwin said. “Like, ‘OK, that’s how you feel about me?’”
“People would ask, ‘Can he play in the NBA?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know,’” Ford said. “The only thing I would tell you is I would never bet against Jordan Goodwin. Don’t open the door because if you open the door, he’s going to figure it out.”
It took a while. In 2021, Goodwin went undrafted. He played in the G-League, signed 10-day contracts, suited up for the Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies, Suns and Los Angeles Lakers, cracked rotations and showed promise. But he could never find a permanent spot.
The Suns claimed Goodwin off waivers last summer, offering him a second stint in the desert. After a slow start, he has become one of Phoenix’s more valuable players, an on-ball defender worthy of all-league recognition. He averaged 8.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists in the regular season, hitting 37.1 percent of his 302 3s.
“Where he started this season to now speaks volumes about who he is and what he’s becoming as a basketball player,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said.
On April 17, Goodwin had 19 points, 9 rebounds and 6 steals in a win over the Golden State Warriors that clinched the Western Conference’s eighth playoff seed. Goodwin said it wasn’t his best game, but his biggest. Win or go home. He rose to the moment.
After the win, Goodwin talked to his parents, who had made the trip to Arizona. Tim Goodwin assigns a letter grade to Goodwin after every performance. Usually, he simply texts his son from back home in Illinois. But this time, Tim Goodwin said he delivered the evaluation in person.
At Mortgage Matchup Center, Tim Goodwin told his son that he had left 8 points on the floor, at least 3 rebounds and another 2 steals.
Final grade: B-plus.
“He never gets no ‘A,’” said Tim Goodwin, pastor of a Baptist church in Mount Vernon, Ill. “Because once you get an ‘A,’ you’d be like, ‘OK, I’ve made it.’ No, you have not made it yet.”
Goodwin is OK with that. He’s an unrestricted free agent after the season. He has put himself in a good position. But he’s far from finished.
“I feel like the work is starting to pay off a little bit now, but I wouldn’t say I’m comfortable because there’s still some things I want to reach,” Goodwin said. “I’m still hungry.”