By: Kevin Chouinard
Kobe Bufkin saw a couple of friends eating popcorn, and he went over to grab a handful from them.
It was a perfectly normal occurrence, but for the circumstances. Trae Young and his son Tydus were sitting courtside for a College Park Skyhawks' home game versus the Ontario Clippers, and Bufkin only had a moment to grab popcorn during a dead ball before the resumption of play.
"It's too easy for him down there," Trae said later of Bufkin's 43-point performance in that game. "And, I mean, that's what it's supposed to be if you're a League Dude – and he's definitely a League Dude."
The same two teams had played two days earlier. Early in the fourth quarter, Ontario called timeout after a Skyhawks' layup put College Park up by 19 points with 10:30 left in the game.
Bufkin came over to the sideline, and before heading to the bench with the other players, he went to the group of coaches who were planning a few feet away and draped his arms around his unsuspecting head coach, Ryan Schmidt, to give him an impromptu hug.
Given the time and situation in the game, it was a mildly surprising moment for a hug, but perhaps less so for Bufkin, who takes an exuberant approach to the game.
As College Park forward Miles Norris put it, "Kobe plays with a lot of swag."
When asked about it postgame, Bufkin said dryly, "I don't know. I give a lot of hugs during games."
Then he added that he may have been acknowledging a defensive decision gone bad – and he was telling Schmidt that he already knew what it was.
Schmidt remembered the moment the same way.
"He basically said, 'My fault.' I can't remember what the play was, but he messed up on something prior. But to me, that goes back to the fact that he's so coachable and wants to be good. There's a level of accountability that he has that you don't see in most 20 year olds, hardly ever. He doesn't carry over (the mistake). He's able to bounce back from it, which is really impressive."
Bufkin's rookie season has had a lot of twists and turns. After the Hawks chose him with the 15th pick of the NBA Draft, he put together solid stints in Summer League and the preseason. Then he got into a pair of Hawks games in the waning moments when Quin Snyder cleared his bench late in wins before fracturing the thumb on his left hand, his shooting hand, Nov. 2.
When his thumb was healthy again, the Hawks assigned him to College Park, and Bufkin joined a Skyhawks team that had made it to the semifinals of the G League's Winter Showcase before losing to the top seed, Indiana, in overtime.
But when Bufkin arrived a week after that Winter Showcase loss, the Skyhawks were suddenly decimated by injuries, especially at the guard position, and they relied on Bufkin right away for heavy minutes and extensive offensive creation.
Kobe delivered with scoring outbursts of 34, 29, 33 and 27 points, respectively, in his first four games. His 23.6 points per game over all his Skyhawks games currently ranks fourth on the G League regular-season leaderboard.
Once the Skyhawks got a few players back and the workload got a bit more reasonable, Schmidt wanted more balance in Bufkin's game.
"He and I sat down, and we kind of refocused on the defensive end, and I really challenged him. That was a big, big reason that he was drafted where he was by us. As a 6-foot-4 point guard, he has the ability to get into the ball and impact the game defensively using his length."
It is not difficult to see that Bufkin took the conversation to heart. For all of the buoyant spirit he shows on offense or when celebrating the triumphs of a teammate, Bufkin can put his nose to the grind on defense and simply be a dog.
The knack that he has shown for staying in front of a ballhandler at the G League level has translated to the NBA level, too. It's a skillset that, if he continues to thrive, may be his fastest path to earning extensive NBA minutes.
"What he is doing down there (in College Park) is paying off for him, and ultimately, one day it is going to help him up here," Trae Young said.
Bufkin said that the long hours of his film sessions with Schmidt keep enough nuance to distinguish what will work on offense at the NBA level, where longer, faster, more decisive defenders await.
"The G League and the NBA, it's two different levels," he said. "Certain finishes against certain rotations might not be there."
Hawks' Head Coach Quin Snyder appreciates the level of development that Bufkin and other players have gotten in College Park.
"With the job that Ryan Schmidt is doing in the G League," Snyder said, "we have so much confidence that when our guys play there, they will get better."
Schmidt won championships in Canada's CEBL and Britain's BBL the past two years before coming to College Park. He counts Bufkin among the reasons that he made the switch.
"He was a big reason why I was excited about taking this job," Schmidt said.
Being a coach in the G League is one of those tricky professions where, if you do your job right, you lose your top pupil because they advance to the next level. With Trae Young's recent injury, the Hawks have a ready-made opportunity waiting for Bufkin to seize.
In his first game as the backup point guard, Bufkin delivered.
The box score says that he scored 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting in 11 minutes, but he contributed more than that. He had three assists. He set the table for the halfcourt offense. He played excellent defense on a night when the Hawks gave up a season-low 92 points. He had a steal and a block – and he forced Orlando into a turnover by making a timely defensive rotation.
Those 11 minutes gave Dejounte Murray a valuable breather on a night when his 25 points and 11 assists pushed the Hawks' offense across the finish line. When asked, Dejounte relayed the message that he has been giving Bufkin to prepare for this moment.
"'Grow up, but don't be afraid to make mistakes. Show why you belong. You work tremendously hard every day.' He is a great, great, great character guy, a high locker-room guy. He is always trying to work and be better, and they sent them up to the G League, and he was excited to go up there, handle business and just get reps and get better. So, you know, it's simple: just be solid and have fun and enjoy it – and just continue to get better defensively."
If he keeps doing those sorts of things, Kobe Bufkin will be a League Dude sooner rather than later.