There's a fine line between confidence and cockiness, but Izaiyah Nelson straddles it well. We witnessed that during his stellar basketball season with USF this past year, and it was on display again Thursday in a Zoom gathering with the media.
We were there to discuss his recent selection in the NBA draft by the Orlando Magic. As he talked about what lies ahead in his journey to professional basketball, Nelson showed awareness of what he has to do along with the belief in himself that it will be accomplished.
"I would say just literally staying confident in myself. That's a really big thing going into this next big league and it's just like being confident in yourself. If you don't have confidence, you can't play a game of basketball," he said.
"You have to also understand that there's going to be ups and downs with this process. There will be times where you're not playing or you're in the G League or have injuries, like anything. You just have to be ready for everything and really trust yourself and trust the work."
Nelson signed a 2-year, two-way contract with the Magic after they traded for his draft rights in the second round. A two-way deal means a player is on both the Magic's roster and the team's G League affiliate, the Osceola Magic in Kissimmee.
It comes with some restrictions. Nelson can only be on the Magic's NBA roster for a maximum of 50 games and is ineligible for post-season play if the team makes the playoffs. The contract also can be changed to a standard NBA contract at the team's discretion.
Nelson's not looking that far ahead, however. While the Magic praised his high motor and play around the rim, Nelson knows he has to work on other aspects of his game. While his defensive skills are not questioned, to be really effective in the NBA he'll need to become more of a scoring threat.
Putting in the work has never been a problem for him.
"If you know that you are putting into work every single day, that work is going to show," he said. "Even if other people don't see it, you're going to see it yourself and you've just got to continue to stack days and never, never get too low, never get too high. You just gotta keep it right there in the middle and keep going."
That was the mindset Nelson used to move from an afterthought as a sophomore when Bryan Hodgson took over as the head coach at Arkansas State into the player he is today.
“To be honest with you, when we got him, he stunk,” Hodgson said earlier this year. “I mean, he was awful."
That "awful" player became the backbone of USF's American Conference championship team. He swept three conference post-season awards -- Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, and Newcomer of the Year.
Oh, and Hodgson -- who has moved on to Providence -- was sitting at Nelson's side when the word came down that he was going to Orlando.
"He's a very tough coach. 
One thing he does is he runs his system like the NBA. So it's like you're going into college saying like, hey, I want to go to the NBA after this year. Nobody's going into college and like, hey, I just want to play basketball for four years and then I'll be good.," Nelson said.
"He's that coach that is going to push it out and if you are saying that you want to go somewhere, he knows, he knows what it takes to get there. if you drop your pride and actually be vulnerable with the person, like Coach B, he's going to push some, he sees something in you, and he's going to do everything he can to push it out of you. 
But one thing you have to know is you have to be true to yourself. So when he's pushing it out of you, you have to take that in and you have to understand that he's not harming you. He's trying to uplift you. 
He's trying to because he sees it in you and he knows what you want. "
Nelson will head to Las Vegas for the NBA's Summer League season that begins July 9. The game against Charlotte is at 7:30 p.m. EDT and is televised on Amazon Prime.
It's an abbreviated four-game schedule designed to introduce players to the NBA. And for Nelson, it's the first step in what he hopes will be a long journey.
"I'm very grateful and I'm just overly excited. I can't wait till basketball starts," he said. "I'm ready. I'm ready for everything. 
I'm ready for the trash talking. I'm ready for the social media bad talking. like I'm ready for it all."
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