At the start of the 2022-2023 NBA season, the basketball world expected little from either Fort Smith native Isaiah Joe or the Oklahoma City Thunder, which picked the guard out of free agency after two seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers.
No one, that is, except Isaiah and his fellow Thunder players, the youngest roster in the league. Yet there they were, in the NBA’s play-in mini tournament, where they’d fall just one game short of advancing. Not bad for a team many thought would be lucky to win twenty-five out of the eighty-two games that comprise an NBA regular season.
In the middle of this improbable run was Isaiah, whose contributions off the bench was key throughout the season. He played in seventy-three games, averaging just over nineteen minutes per, and scored fifteen points or more fourteen times. His high-water mark was a thirty-three-point explosion against the Charlotte Hornets, en route to averaging just under ten points per game for the year and forty-one percent accuracy from behind the arc.
But ask the soft-spoken sharpshooter about his recent rise, and he’s likely to describe his current success as the outcome of habits and mental toughness forged decades ago as just another undersized kid with a dream.
“I definitely had to work for the skill set I have now,” he says. “I wasn’t one of those kids born with God-gifted athleticism or extreme height, extreme size. Over the years, I had to work and build my skill and IQ. Everything I have now definitely wasn’t handed to me. I put in the hard work; the results are what they are.”
Isaiah has been an athlete for as long as he can remember, initially dividing his time among soccer, golf, and basketball. Growing up, he was coached by his father, Derrick, who guided his young son to play to his strengths and minimize the fact that for several years, he was the shortest player on his travel basketball team, the Arkansas Hawks.
“I’ve always been able to shoot the ball, but being undersized as a kid, I had to find a way to be effective on defense,” he says. “I had to focus on using my IQ and using [his opponent’s] strength and speed against them. I soon realized making shots isn’t always going to happen, so you better play both ends.”
Heeding this advice, Isaiah grew into one of the most celebrated ballers in recent Fort Smith memory. As a sophomore at Northside High School, his forty-one percent shooting percentage from three-point range caught the eye of several college coaches. He committed to the University of Arkansas heading into his junior year, a season where he’d lead the Grizzlies to the 7A state championship and land first-team All-State honors. As a senior, he was named Gatorade Arkansas Boys Basketball Player of the Year and State Player of the Year by USA Today.
The accolades continued on The Hill, where he was named to the SEC All-Freshman team and broke the Arkansas record for made three-pointers (113) previously held by Scotty Thurman, as well as tying the record for an SEC freshman and leading the conference in three-point percentage. As a sophomore, he was named preseason All-SEC and placed on the Jerry West Award watchlist. Then, Isaiah entered the NBA draft.
He was selected forty-ninth overall in the 2020 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, where he played for two seasons. In October 2022, he signed a deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Isaiah’s success has been predicated by a hallmark work ethic and toughness, which continues today. During countless hours of extra gym time, he’s been known to shoot as many as a thousand shots a day. On defense, he’s known for taking charges; a skill for which he was ranked seventh in the NBA this season for number of charges taken.
Isaiah is quick to credit his early days in the Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club, Arkansas Hawks, and Northside High School programs for these traits, and especially his father.
“I had help from others, but my dad was the guy that was getting me into the gym at a young age, helping me develop my shot,” he said. “A lot of people praise my shot nowadays, but he was the guy that kind of built that. He got me started, and he’s the guy I still look to for help whenever I need it.”
Shooters, the old saying goes, have to have bad memories, meaning they must quickly put a miss out of their mind and maintain their confidence that the next one will go in. Isaiah credits an unusual source for strengthening his mind to move him past a negative outcome in anticipation of the next positive opportunity.
“The mental part is probably the biggest key to success. You can have the skill, but you must have the mental capacity to go through the ups and downs, especially the downs,” he says.
“One thing that helped me a lot growing up is being a golfer, because being out on the golf course, you can’t let one bad shot or one bad hole ruin your entire day. Golf helped me build the mental strength to move on to the next swing, the next shot. I carried that over to basketball. Now, whenever I miss a few, I will still shoot the next one. I can go zero for ten and shoot number eleven with extreme confidence that it’s going in.”
The true benefit of such mental stamina was on full display during his first year with the Thunder. Not only was Oklahoma City a lot closer to Arkansas – meaning friends and family could more regularly attend games – but the move reunited him with Jaylin Williams, a friend and teammate dating back to when they were kids and who’ve played together in high school and college.
“Jaylin Williams and I, we’ve known each other for a large majority of our lives,” Isaiah says. “He played with me, played with my younger brother. Just the rarity of us being on the same NBA team is crazy to think about.”
Now in what he considers an ideal situation, Isaiah is free to relax and let the game come to him. As a result, he insists he doesn’t get nervous because he doesn’t let his mind freak out over playing in the pros as he’d always dreamed. His mental toughness also prevents him from getting intimidated, even as he respects the talent he’s up against night after night.
“I never really got starstruck when I got to the league,” he says. “Hey, I’m here playing the same game they’re playing, right? If I had to single out somebody, though, I’d probably say [Golden State’s] Steph Curry. They always talk about how much he moves without the ball in his hands and how hard he is to guard once he gives the ball up. It’s true; just seeing that was like, OK, what everybody’s saying is true. He’s a handful.”
Another aspect of his life that he’s constantly aware of and takes very seriously is his status as a role model for youth who idolize him as he once idolized the Arkansas Razorbacks, and later, the late Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant.
“I love giving back to the youth because I was once one of those kids looking up to somebody trying to figure out who I wanted to be,” he says. “What I would tell all the young guys out there is to be the best version of yourself. I think a lot of people can get caught up trying to be somebody else, something they’re not, and they lose focus on what they need to do to make it to the next level. Focusing on being your best self can take you a long way.”
Isaiah doesn’t just preach that message; he lives it every day in his training and drive to improve. Staying focused has meant limiting his off-court distractions to video games, an occasional round of golf, and Blu, his new puppy, all of which is a major sacrifice to most people his age. But it’s also part of the journey to the strata he wants to one day occupy among the greats of the game.
“When people see me, they’re like, ‘Dude, you made it; your dream has come true,’” he says. “I look at them like, I just got my foot in the door. This is just the beginning. I have so many more barriers I want to break through. Some of them are mountains I want to climb to see how great of a person and how great of a player I can be. I’m still dream chasing, you know?
“I want to be a well-established player in this league and look back and have great memories that were created throughout my career. I want to be known as one of the greatest. I’m sure every other player wants that too, but I will put the work in to make it happen, build a legacy, and build generational wealth while doing it.
“This is technically my job, but I’ve been playing basketball all my life. This is what I love. I’m doing this for fun because I want to. If I go through my career and I have fun while doing this, that’s success.”
