When Landry Shamet was drafted by the 76ers with the No. 26 pick in June, it wasn’t long before he was introduced to the passionate fan base of Philadelphia.
It first started when fans offered to buy him drinks when he was going out to eat around town.
“I’m like, I can’t do that!” Shamet said. “We’re in training camp! It was crazy, and kind of unexpected. I knew the fans here were super passionate, but I got a lot more recognition than I expected to.”
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And then, he was introduced to Philly fans on Twitter, after he casually referred to the city as “downtown Philly,” which led to some entertaining threads.
“Some of the funniest threads have come from tweets of mine and it has been great,” Shamet said before he let out a laugh. “Interesting people, they’ve been good though.”
But the 21-year-old has had a lot more than Twitter threads on his mind the past few weeks.
NBA
“My whole thing is I want to come in and contribute to winning,” Shamet said. “However that is, and if it’s five minutes a game, then it's going to be the best five minutes that I can give out, and if it’s 20, then I am going to do that to the best of my ability.”
That give-all mentality is something that has definitely been noticed by his teammates.
“What has impressed me the most about him is that he goes game speed on every rep, and very few players know how to do that,” JJ Redick said. “You see the product of that in a game. His reps before and after practice are as good as I’ve seen in a young player, in terms of speed and pace. It's impressive.”
Speaking of Redick, the relationship that Shamet has been building with him since he came to Philly has already started to go a long way.
Shamet, who can always be found shooting after practice with Redick, said the veteran has taken him under his wing.
“I learn a lot from him,” Shamet said. “Whether he knows it or not, I’m always watching him on the court and trying to replicate a lot of the things he does.”
Shamet was quick to point out that he doesn’t want to be Redick, but he does want to take things that Redick does really well and apply that to his own game.
“I think he’s a great vet for me, getting to learn from one of the best shooters in the NBA, and best guys playing off the ball, and he’s also really good in defending for his size, so he’s been great and teaching me a lot,” Shamet said.
Entering his 13th year in the league, Redick said he tries to think about things that he would’ve wanted to know as a younger player and pass them on to him.
“He’s a gamer,” Redick said. “He’s got some mojo to him.”
And as for Brett Brown, Shamet has shown the coach exactly what was witnessed during the guard’s time at Wichita State, which is a skill that he thinks translates best to the Sixers’ style of play.
“People that move off the ball, it’s a knack,” Brown said of what has stood out most about the rookie. “We move and I felt like when we scouted him, he would fit in from that perspective.”
Fitting in is exactly what Shamet plans to do this season.
“Coming in, my goal this whole time is to find my role and carve it out as fast as possible,” he said. “Whatever that is, just buy fully into it, and ultimately that means that I want to play, and I want to crack the rotation. To play, that’s my goal.”
Shamet cracked that rotation on opening night. His stat line might not have stuck out (one point in his 12 minutes), but the experience sure did.
“All throughout the day I was super amped for the game,” Shamet said. “I almost had to bring myself back down, but then getting subbed in, hearing the horn and running onto the parquet floor, that was really cool.”
And on making his debut in such a historic city?
“It was an incredible feeling.”
Shamet just wished it would've ended with a W.
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