SAN ANTONIO — David Jones-Garcia takes his father everywhere. From the Dominican Republic to the G League to the NBA, his father has been right there for every step of his journey. But only in spirit.
David Apolinar Jones died from heart failure in February 2023 in the Dominican Republic, before his son ever reached the top of the basketball world. But he moved on from this world with a promise from his son that one day Jones-Garcia would play in the NBA.
Just because his father was gone didn’t mean he couldn’t be there for that dream to come true. So Jones-Garcia got a tattoo of his father on his arm. Every miss, every make, his father would be a part of it.
Though the elder David couldn’t witness his son’s first big NBA game Thursday, he was a part of it, every moment. His son could look down every time he dribbled the ball and see his father looking right back at him.
“I always think about him,” Jones-Garcia said. “He’s right here on my arm.”
He was thinking of his father when Spurs coach Mitch Johnson told him Thursday he’d be getting his first big minutes in the NBA in light of injuries to guards Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle and Jordan McLaughlin.
Jones-Garcia was nervous, but he was ready.
After seven minutes against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday, he earned Johnson’s trust enough to give him a shot. Even though the young guard was a bit anxious, his coach trusted his ability to break through.
“He has this way about him where the guys love him. He’s got tons of energy and personality, but he is also competitive and he’s also got some fearlessness,” Johnson said. “I think as long as he can continue to put the work in and hopefully keep buying what we’re selling, we can continue to see him grow. He was huge tonight.”
Jones-Garcia finished the Spurs’ 135-126 win over the Atlanta Hawks with 12 points (5-for-7 shooting), six assists, five rebounds and three steals. He pickpocketed Hawks star Jalen Johnson in the fourth quarter to set up a fast break, then did it again to regain control of the game in crunch time. Jones-Garcia was the exclamation point who gave a Victor Wembanyama-less Spurs team a defensive identity it sorely needed.
He played one more minute against the Hawks than he had in the entire season. He was a crucial part of the Spurs holding off Atlanta’s comeback to move to 11-4 and into second in the Western Conference, keeping them half a game back of the Denver Nuggets, who they visit the day after Thanksgiving. It marked San Antonio’s third win in a row since ruling out Wembanyama for the rest of November with a calf strain.
Johnson joked that after Jones-Garcia’s last game, the coach told his two-way rookie that he looked nervous. He wasn’t wrong. So Johnson made sure Jones-Garcia was emotionally prepared for an even bigger opportunity against the Hawks.
“I was nervous,” Jones-Garcia said. “Coach told me (I would play) this morning, and he just told me to be myself and bring my energy off the bench. I looked a little more loose today out there.”
This is what the fans, his teammates and the whole organization wanted to see. The fan base has been pining for Jones-Garcia. They have chants about a player who never plays. He’s just that exciting. Every flash of him in the summer league and the preseason made one wonder if Jones-Garcia had enough spark to make it in the NBA. Watching him affect every area of the floor on both ends of the court, it’s obvious the Spurs have yet another guard worthy of rotation minutes on their hands.
“I just look at it as an opportunity to help the team keep winning basketball games because we want to do something big here this year,” Jones-Garcia said. “Definitely build (your) confidence a little bit more. It just helps you (to) keep working every day harder and harder to get where you’re trying to get.”
Jones-Garcia lives in a precarious limbo with this team. As a two-way player, he’s only allotted 50 games at the NBA level. Otherwise, he’s up the road from San Antonio with the Austin Spurs in the G League.
His locker in San Antonio is situated right at the door. You have to step around him to enter the locker room after the game. He is closer to the exit than anyone, one foot in the door back to the G League, back to the fringes of the NBA from where many players never return.
But every time he’s at his locker, he’s there smiling and shouting at someone in the room. You never have to wonder if he’s in the locker room. You’ll know.
Jones-Garcia lives like he plays — full of energy, full of humility, full of hope.
Just a few days ago, he was playing in the G League. Now, with the Spurs depleted, he has his moment. It will fade away eventually, but he’ll go back to the G League at least knowing he’s proven what he can do. Eventually, the opportunity will come to play in the NBA again. It has to. Jones-Garcia is undeniably capable of it. And the fans unequivocally adore him.
After Thursday’s win, he was the player with the mic in his hand, yelling at the crowd in his native Spanish as fans showered him with cheers. He was the guy they all wanted to see, to hear, to know. They want more Jones-Garcia.
“The fans help a lot. We will never win without them,” Jones-Garcia said. “As loud as they get, how much love they show the team, it just gives us the extra that we need to get a W. … I love them too because they’ve (shown) me love since so many (sic).”
He said that it’s always good to talk to the fans so that somebody can hear his voice. He plays for the love of the people around him, for that energy you find on the basketball court and hardly anywhere else in this world. But even when that comes and goes, Jones-Garcia always knows he carries that love with him.
All he has to do is look down at the tattoo on his arm.
“I’m proud of myself,” Jones-Garcia said. “I hope my dad is proud of me as well.”