It was 5:00pm EST, and as Josh Jackson hurries out of his Prius, he knows that he's late for his Lasik eye surgery. Although his eyes never really affected him in college nor his early years in the PBSL, he understood it was time to finally get his eyesight under control—especially after signing a lucrative 5-year, $160,049,655 contract. After experiencing a poor season the year before in which he averaged only 14.6 points in 34.6 minutes of play, he knew—he knew he had to get this out of control. As he rushes into the office, he's relieved to find that he arrived just in time and, after a short surgery, he came out as good as new. Of course, it goes without saying that there would be recovery time, but as a proven tough guy in PBSL, he knew he was up to the challenge—he always has been his entire life, anyway.
But there was once a time when basketball wasn't his main priority. There was once a time that his adoration of music almost took him out of the athletic world and brought him to the forefront of musical composition.
In 2020, the young athlete was at the forefront of attention: Students at Texas A&M were simply enamored with his abilities. But despite his accomplishments on the basketball court, he constantly felt that something—or somebody, rather—was holding him back from fulfilling his true aspirations in life: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
You see, when he wasn't on the court, he spent the majority of his time alone in his room, headphones on, listening to the tried and true compositions of Mozart. It was something that he felt lifted him up and gave him life; it gave him reason to continue fighting; it gave him the strength and the courage he needed to be the best man he could be. In fact, when practicing on the court late at night, he would listen to nothing but Mozart's Die Zauberflöte on repeat. It provided him with the strength to rise up, to rise above all the critics and play his game to the best of his ability. But did he have anything left to prove? Of course not, for he was already at the top of his game and a top prospect. But this music lifted him up like a 747 ascending into the heavenly skies above. Simply put: It not only made him a better player, it made him a better man.
"I can't explain it. I simply, honestly cannot explain it. There's just something about the flutes and the crescendoing violins that inspire me. They give me vitality. And I'm sure if my buddy Wolfgang were here today, he'd be sitting there courtside, playing a lovely tune whilst I conquered the opposition. Rather than a loud, banging drum, it would be the devastating, crashing sound of my dunks that would amplify and contribute to the composition. I can still see it now, in my dreams..." Jackson recalled as he dipped his head and a lone tear rolled down his cheek.
"Before basketball, all I ever wanted to be was a composer or a conductor," Jackson recollected. "I wanted to contribute to something beautiful like Mozart once did. As they say, 'some things are bigger than basketball.' And I can't help but feel that that is absolutely, positively, 100% correct."
But he didn't stop there. During his free time, he would spend hours reading about Mozart's life, particularly the biography The Life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written by Perry Keenlyside (1997).
"There—there was just something about that book that really touched me in a personal way; it touched my heart, it shook me to the core," Jackson suggested. "I even studied the language of German. I would approach my teammates when we were being blown out and tell them, 'alles ist vorbei; wir sind fertig." In other words: 'it's over; we're finished.' I'm pretty sure I got that correctly—but f*ck it if I didn't," Jackson added.
The more he listened and the more he read, the more he felt destined to become the next big composer. Unfortunately, one thing stood in the way of his dreams: The mere fact that he had absolutely no clue how to compose music, nor did he know how to conduct a full-fledged orchestra. After purchasing a violin of his own and attempting to take musical classes, he realized his efforts were in vain and, in his own words, it "shattered his feeble little heart."
There was only one thing left for him to do: To prove to himself that he was more than just a failure. He had to bring it all on the basketball court. And in 2020, he did just that: After an amazing offensive start to the season, he became more of a team player and finished with a +/- rating of +126—hardly something to shy away from. Despite averaging a mere 11.3 points during his freshman season, he did more than enough to help his teammates on the basketball court. Even though he had a high basketball IQ, he also had something else: The testicular fortitude to play with the grace and brilliance of a true team player. He wanted to bring the humble, timid beauty of Mozart's music and translate it onto the basketball court, much like the San Antonio Spurs.
By seasons end, he accomplished just that. He rapidly rose in rank and became one of the highest touted rookies in the nation, projected to go #2 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies. But at that time, Josh Jackson had absolutely no clue where he would end up; all that mattered to him was that he was selected by a team—any team, in fact—and that he'd be allowed to indulge in the greatest drug of all: Classical music. It was his vice.
Come draft night, Josh Jackson prepared himself and cooled his nerves by listening to Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C-major. It was everything he needed to calm his fever, to calm his nerves. As he sat timidly in his chair surrounded by other prospects, he couldn't help but be haunted by the intrusive thoughts of where he would be selected. Would it be 2nd? Would it be 3rd? By grace of God, hopefully it wasn't outside the top 10. But he'd soon learn enough.
"And with the 2nd overall pick of the PBSL Draft, the Memphis Grizzlies select... Josh Jackson out of Texas A&M."
Jumping with joy, his elation brought him to tears. In the back of his mind, he knew that if Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were here right now, he'd be utmost proud of him.
"He was like the father I always wanted," Jackson admitted. "My true father was garbage. But Mozart was the epitome of true, unadulterated brilliance."
And just like that, the rest was history.
