Lucas: For Kaminsky, ‘Basketball’s in my DNA’
June 29, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
Big Ten names former Badger as Player of the Decade (2010-2019)
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Frank Kaminsky III doesn't play basketball for the personal awards or recognition. Never has, he says. Instead, the former Wisconsin All-American and consensus 2015 College Player of the Year has been fueled by his love of the game, a passion stoked at a young age.
"I can remember following my dad around small gyms all across Chicago where he was playing in leagues," said Kaminsky, whose father, Frank, Jr., was barnstorming with AAU teams like Marathon Oil long after his college playing days at Lewis University where he's a member of the school's Hall of Fame.
"My dad still tries to play and he's 65."
That trigged a guffaw.
"He thinks he can still beat me one-on-one."
Another guffaw.
"I hope to be that kind of father one day."
Given this backdrop, tagging along with his 6-foot-10 pops (a stretch-5, no less) from gym to gym, he said. "I was always the little kid with one of the jerseys on. I was going through the layup lines or sitting there keeping stats or running the clock. I was always doing something like that.
"That was my childhood. That was what I grew up with. I didn't have the most friends in the world. I didn't enjoy doing things that normal little kids enjoyed doing. I enjoyed playing basketball. And that's what I always wanted to do. I just wanted to play.
"I remember back in grade school, I'd tell people, 'I want to be in the NBA one day.' Everybody used to laugh at me. But I always wanted to achieve great things in basketball. I always had that in mind at every stage I was told I was not good enough, not tall enough, not strong enough, not fast enough.
"I never let that phase me. I never let that bother me because basketball was in my DNA."
His roundball upbringing has paid off impressively. Most recently, Kaminsky was singled out as the Big Ten's Player of the Decade (2010-2019). Joining him on the All-Decade first-team were Michigan State's Draymond Green and Denzel Valentine, Michigan's Trey Burke and Ohio State's Evan Turner.
Wisconsin's Ethan Happ was selected to the second team.
The All-Decade voting panel consisted of 24 members, including two ex-UW players (Brian Butch and Ben Brust) and four former college head coaches (John Beilein, Steve Lavin, Tim Miles and Bob Wenzel). The Big Ten Network officially released the results last week.
"But they actually told me about it a couple of weeks ago and I didn't tell anyone in my family," sheepishly admitted the 27-year-old Kaminsky. "Some of the interviews (with BTN) were done while my family was here in Phoenix and I just didn't tell them anything.
"Awards always make me uncomfortable. I don't know why. Awards are weird for me. I never started playing basketball for any awards or recognition or accolades or anything like that. I just played the game because I loved it. Obviously, the awards and everything came with it. And that's great.
"That's an achievement and that's a sign that I did something really good … and it's good to be able to represent your family, your teammates, your friends, and your university in such a great way. But I'm only one person. There are a lot of people that go into me winning awards."
Mary Kaminsky has been the family curator of her son's achievements, all things "Frank the Tank." She has set up a room in Lisle, Illinois to showcase the trophies, Sports Illustrated covers and Final Four memorabilia. "My retirement house one day will have a special place for it," Frank allowed.
The only thing missing, he added wistfully, is that national championship trophy.
Kaminsky volunteered this story for perspective. On the eve of the Badgers facing undefeated and No. 1 ranked Kentucky in the 2015 Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, he was honored as the Oscar Robertson Trophy winner and the Associated Press National Player of the Year.
"And to be completely honest with you, I didn't want to go to either one of those award ceremonies because I was so focused on trying to win a national championship," he said. "Winning basketball games has always been the number one most important thing to me.
"When I have dreams at night, I don't dream about winning MVP or winning Most Outstanding Player. I dream about winning championships. And that's how I want it to stand."
It's why he states, "I have a lot of mixed emotions and mixed feelings on a lot of the things that I've achieved" because he didn't win a state high school championship at Benet Academy or a national championship at Wisconsin. And he has yet to win an NBA championship in Charlotte or Phoenix.
The Badgers came close to winning it all during Kaminsky's senior year. After stunning Kentucky in the semifinals, avenging a loss to the Wildcats the year before in the Final Four, they held a nine-point lead with 13 minutes left in the national title game, but they weren't able to hold off a late Duke rally.
Kaminsky had 21 points and 11 rebounds in his final UW outing.
Sharing his overview on the Badger program, he said, "We had sustained success by finishing in the Top Four of the Big Ten every year, by going to a certain amount of Sweet 16s in a row, by going to a certain amount of NCAA tournaments in a row. But we had never really taken that next step forward.
"We talked about changing the culture and going further and further into the tournament. And that's what we did. We went to back-to-back Final Fours. We were consistently considered one of the top teams in the country for two straight years. That's something I'll always be most proud of.
"There are a lot of awards that I won as well as my teammates won along the way."
One not being mutually exclusive of the other. Kaminsky conceded being cited as the Player of the Decade was humbling and overwhelming — leaving him almost speechless — because of all the great players that competed in the Big Ten during that span.
He was especially happy for Happ's recognition on the All-Decade list.
"Ethan was one of the best players in the Big Ten for four straight years," he said. "And that's extremely hard to do — to have that sustained level of success, to win as many games as he won, to score as many points (2,130) and get as many rebounds (1,217) as he did.
"You can go down the list of things that he accomplished. I'm just happy that I got to play with him for a year (Happ's redshirt year) and teach him some things. That means a lot to me; a guy who studied under me and kind of learned from me and used it very successfully. It's a gratifying feeling."
Kaminsky wishes another UW teammate — Sam Dekker — would have been recognized.
"I definitely think Sam is deserving," he said. "We don't have the careers that we had — Sam and me — if we didn't play together … I couldn't be who I was without Sam … his importance to how good we were as a team can't be defined by any stats, any measurements, any metrics."
If Kaminsky had a vote for the Player of the Decade, he would have given it to Burke.
"He was amazing," he said. "When you really think about it, Michigan hadn't been a perennial powerhouse in a long time and he made them national championship contenders in kind of the same way that we did. He made everyone around him a better basketball player."
It was a common trait for everyone on All-Decade first team, Kaminsky suggested.
On Valentine, he said, "He made everyone else around him better. He was like a thorn in my side there for a little while. He was like a bigger point guard and he could shoot. Especially against us my senior year, he made some big plays and hit some big shots and also led his team to a Final Four."
On Green, he said, "He was a senior my freshman year and I remember having to guard him a little bit and thinking, 'Wow, this guy is really good.' He dominated at both ends. It's no wonder he's as good as he is in the NBA because of his motor, skill and the way he can affect a game without scoring."
Kaminsky also felt Turner was deserving of Player of the Decade honors.
"Evan played in the same high school conference as me," he said. "Him and Derrick Rose were the two biggest names in our area. He was the guy that our AAU coach talked about all the time, how he went from a skinny kid that nobody really wanted to the National Player of the Year."
(Not unlike Kaminsky, who was once cut from the AAU travel roster.)
"Evan was someone I always looked up to. And I still look up to him. He's a great guy. I've played a lot with him in the summer. I can still remember how good he was at Ohio State. His skill for his size was kind of unmatched in college. He has carved out a good NBA career."
Kaminsky is still in the process of doing so. After playing four seasons with the Charlotte Hornets — he was the ninth overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft — he signed a two-year contract with the Suns. He started 13 of 32 games before going to the sidelines with a patella stress fracture in late December.
Kaminsky was able to rehab the injury while the league was shut down from COVID-19. There's a funny video posted on his Twitter account detailing his training at various workstations in the backyard of his Phoenix home. It's why BTN's Mike Hall playfully labeled him as the "Goofball of the Decade."
Justifying the video, Kaminsky said, "You've got to do something to keep yourself interested."
Actually, he has done quite a bit physically to get prepared for the NBA's restart.
"I have a whole garage gym setup," he said. "Obviously, I didn't do a lot for the three and half months that I was out (He missed 33 games). But when March 11 hit, when the quarantine started, I got on a workout program from the team and I did a lot of lifting on my own.
"I was working out a couple times a day. It gets your mind off other things and makes the time go a lot faster. Plus, I enjoyed doing it. I'd like to say I'm in really good shape right now. But I tell people, you can do as much as you want, but nothing you do can get you into basketball five-on-five shape …
"Other than playing five-on-five basketball."
The Suns (26-39) are one of 22 teams that will begin play July 31 in Orlando, Florida. They will have eight regular-season games to earn a playoff spot, though they are looking at steep odds to do so. Phoenix hasn't appeared in a post-season game over the last decade. Kaminsky has his own motivation.
"I haven't played in a game since December 28," he said. "Realistically, I haven't played in a game at 100 percent probably since three weeks before that. So, this is all very meaningful for me that we're included (in Orlando), even if it's just for eight games, even if that's all we get.
"I'm going to try and play eight of the best games that I've ever played because it just means a lot to me personally. Obviously, 2020 hasn't gone as expected for anyone. It's just an unfortunate situation that we're all in (because of the coronavirus pandemic).
"I rely so much on basketball for a lot of things outside of just a career. It's so much more than that to me. I just want to play again. That's what it's really all about. You can put me in a bubble, and I'll be absolutely fine. I see people making a fuss about the bubble and not being able to do this and that.
"I just want to go play basketball and I don't care what it entails."
Kaminsky is still playing for the love of the game. And that love has never waned, he insisted.
"No, never," he asserted. "Basketball has always been part of my identity.
"It's not part of who I am … it is who I am."
Acknowledging it may sound cliché, the Big Ten's Player of the Decade stressed that it was true.
"It's how I grew up. And it's how I plan to live the rest of my life."
