LAS VEGAS -- As Jameel McKay warmed up on the Thomas & Mack Center floor ahead of his first NBA summer league game, he tapped the black “BDJ” patch affixed to the left breast of his New Orleans Pelicans' jersey 13 times.
Bryce Dejean-Jones, who died of a gunshot wound May 28, wore No. 31 in his lone, abbreviated season with the Pelicans. But McKay still pictures his former Iowa State teammate alongside him in a No. 13 jersey.
“I looked up,” McKay said, “and just told him thanks and to have my back.”
Just three months earlier, McKay and Dejean-Jones envisioned playing together in that game. McKay, who spent last season at Iowa State after playing with Dejean-Jones for the Cyclones in 2014-15, said he had one of his best pre-draft workouts with the Pelicans and “liked the situation, liked the vibe” enough to favor a return there if he were to go undrafted. It also helped that Dejean-Jones -- a former undrafted free agent who signed a long-term deal with New Orleans in February after stints with the Pelicans in summer league, preseason and on 10-day contracts -- would be suiting up next to him.
“I knew if this opportunity came I would take it because I wanted to play with him,” said McKay, who ultimately went unselected in the 2016 NBA draft.
McKay and Dejean-Jones would talk once or twice a week, usually through FaceTime or while playing each other in NBA2K. But after a workout in Miami in late May, McKay received a FaceTime from one of the basketball managers at Iowa State alerting him of a distressing tweet from Dejean-Jones’ brother.
“No, I didn’t see it,” McKay told him, “but they probably [are] talking about a different Bryce because I just spoke to Bryce.”
The tweet was true. While in Dallas to celebrate the first birthday of his daughter, Dejean-Jones, 23, was fatally shot after breaking down the door to an apartment, according to a Dallas Police report. Several sources said Dejean-Jones mistook the apartment for that of his child’s mother, who lived in the same complex.
“Honestly, it didn’t sit well with me at first,” McKay said. “Because that’s like my brother, that’s one of my brothers. Once you’re my teammate and we get that bond, I consider you family. So it didn’t sit well with me at first. But then you’ve got to look at the bigger picture. You can’t react a certain way. You still have to be mature and live your life, because at the end of the day that’s what he would want from me.”
No arrests have been made, a Dallas Police Department official said last week. Under Texas law, a person is allowed to use deadly force to defend themselves in their home.
“It was such a tragedy,” said former Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg. “I talked to his brother that next day. It’s just hard to deal with because of how well Bryce was doing. To see his family at the funeral is tough. To lose a son, to lose a brother ... it’s such a hard thing to deal with. I was talking to his dad and he said there won’t be one day that goes by that I don’t think about Bryce. It’s tough, because you do build relationships with those kids. It was such a senseless act and a tough thing to deal with.”
McKay and Dejean-Jones were among the contingent of transfer students who passed through Ames, Iowa, during Hoiberg’s tenure. McKay played at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa before transferring to Marquette (where he never played a game) and then Iowa State. Dejean-Jones, a Los Angeles native, left USC during his freshman season amid reports he faced dismissal for allegedly striking a teammate. He spent two years at UNLV but transferred out after he said he was threatened with gun violence by a teammate. He was arrested and suspended one game at Iowa State for misdemeanor noise violations and gathering where marijuana was used, the latter charge being dropped soon after his arrest.
“Bryce is sometimes misunderstood, but I was one of the few people who understood him,” McKay said. “With some of the reps he had, I think if people really took the time ... I think he’s one of the top five best guys as far as teammates I’ve ever been around. And people don’t know that.
“I got to meet the real him.”
Pelicans staffers lament the fact that Dejean-Jones’ death came so soon after he found success and stability in New Orleans.
“He was doing so well,” said Hoiberg, now the head coach of the Chicago Bulls. “In just talking to people at the funeral and talking to people in the Pelicans’ organization, they say just how much they liked him and how well he was doing. For it to be such a fluke accident, the way that it happened, it just makes it tougher to deal with.”
McKay said he hasn’t fully moved on. But in his moments of grief, he finds himself thinking about what Dejean-Jones would say about it.
“The first thing he would tell me would be to move on,” McKay said. “Sort of like, ‘You’re being soft.’ [Laughs.] ‘Move on. I’m all right, bro.’ He never wanted anybody to feel bad for him. So I can’t catch myself feeling bad for him.”
Instead, McKay tries to spin the tragedy into empowerment.
“It makes me look at life a little different,” he said. “Just because you can be on top of the world one day and be gone from the world the next day. It definitely changed my perspective on that. I also value the things that I do and the places I’m at more. You’re not just living for yourself -- you’re living for the people around you. Not saying he was doing anything bad or something he shouldn’t have been, but one mistake can ruin your whole life. You’ve got to be smarter in the decisions that you make.”
In McKay’s profile photo on Twitter and Instagram, he and Dejean-Jones are teammates again. Dressed in crisp white Cyclones jerseys -- No. 1 for McKay, No. 13 for Dejean-Jones -- their outstretched arms are connected by grasping the same basketball.
In the game he and Dejean-Jones were supposed to play together once again, McKay, who has appeared in one of New Orleans’ three summer league games thus far in Las Vegas, had four points and six rebounds in 19 minutes.
Before the Pelicans’ next game, he received a text from Dejean-Jones’ brother.
“Do it for BDJ,” it read. “Family for life.”