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THE COME UP I van Rabb took a seat near the end of his bench half- way through the third quarter of the 2015 Cali- fornia Interscholastic Federation finals in Haas Pavilion. Sporting the Bishop O’Dowd black and gold, Ivan could only watch Ma- ter Dei rain fire on his Dragons as he sat hunched with cramps. That’s when his assistant coach came up to him, tilted an empty green Gatorade cup and squirted a stream of Heinz mustard into it. “For the cramps,” he said. Ivan peered into the cup and swished the mustard around like a glass of wine so it would slide down easier. He tilted his head back and downed it, chasing the goopy liquid with some Gato- rade. “Good to go,” he shouted in a nasally voice. Less than an hour after Ivan’s salty infusion, the Dragons found themselves deadlocked in a tie ball game with 10 sec- onds left in overtime. On the final possession, Ivan flashed to the left block as the Dragons reversed the ball to the top of the arc and back to lead guard Paris Austin, Ivan’s best friend. He dribbled around the three- point line, shielding the ball with his off-arm and stopped right in front of his bench as his man switched stances. That moment of relief from his defender was just enough for Paris to squeeze by and force Ivan’s man to ro- tate off him and protect the rim. A window opened up, and Paris shoveled a pass to Ivan, who was hacked on the arm with just 0.8 seconds left on the clock. The players assumed their po- sitions along the paint as Mater Dei’s bench sat with their backs slouched and heads fixed on the opposite side of the court. Ivan, a 75 percent free throw shooter, needed just one of his shots to fall for the Dragons to take home the title. He stepped up to the line, took the pass from the ref- eree and started a routine he re- hearsed thousands of times. He rose the ball above his head, took two hard dribbles and let it go. Airball. The crowd belched the sound that kids make when a class- mate is scolded. Haas Pavilion was packed that Saturday night — almost at capac- ity with 10,533 people — with most of the fans trying to catch a glimpse of their Oakland-grown hero and five-star recruit in his campaign to unseat the four-time defend- ing champion, the Monarchs. Their presence wouldn’t hurt Ivan’s chances at committing to Cal and staying in the Bay Area either. A high school state cham- pionship would be great, they thought. An NCAA champion- ship would be even better. Ivan didn’t move much while waiting for the second free throw. He says he wasn’t even nervous. The entire Mater Dei bench stood in anticipation this time around — each player adjusting his spot in the scrum to get a bet- ter angle at the free throw. Again, he handled the pass from the ref- eree and again, he started the same routine. He rose the ball above his head, took two hard dribbles and let it go, releasing the most important freethrow of his high school career. Bottom. Mater Dei hoisted one last heave at the basket as the en- tire Dragons roster cleared the bench. The crowd stormed the court. Fans, many from Oakland, shouted and cheered with the Bishop O’Dowd squad — simul- taneously celebrating landing on the right side of a state title classic and hoping that enough screaming and shouts of “Ivan” could convince him to stay in the Bay Area and commit to Cal. Ivan was lightheaded — from all the salt, he says — but he embraced the crowd and his teammates as his decision became that much clearer. Ivan committed to Cal in his mother’s restaurant in Oakland just two weeks after the state championship game. “I didn’t want to be just an- other player that came in and out of a program and not really be remembered because they had so many great players,” Ivan says. “Here at Cal, there are so many guys who are from here and from the area — California or what- ever it may be — but they come and then they leave and go other places.” I van’s decision, followed by the unexpected commitment from Georgia native Jaylen Brown, led to a huge rise in na- tional and local expectations for the historically mediocre Bears. And following Cal’s disap- pointing elimination in the first round of the NCAA tourna- ment last season, Brown, alongside t h e other five players ranked ahead of Ivan in the class of 2015, deserted the NCAA wastelands for greener pastures in the NBA. That group included Maryland’s Diamond Stone and Kansas’ Cheick Diallo — both players who struggled in their lone collegiate seasons and were drafted in the second round. Meanwhile, Ivan was simulta- neously excellent, underutilized and underrated throughout the year. He was an advanced analyt- ics darling in an underwhelming draft class and looked fantastic as the third option on a loaded team to boot, suggesting he’s nowhere near his ceiling. He averaged 12.5 points and 8.6 rebounds on nearly 64 percent true shooting. While none of those numbers may pop off the page, he was the most efficient and productive player on the floor regardless of lineup combination. He recorded a team-best 124.8 offensive rat- ing (Jaylen finished at 98.4, for reference) as he dished ample servings of shimmy and shake in addition to showing off a reliable 15-footer. The power forward shoul- dered 57 percent of Cal’s post touches and shot 80 percent at the rim, all while anchoring the No. 1 defense in the Pac-12. He displayed the split-second deci- sion-making that is intrinsic to the best rim protectors and built a reputation for always being at the right place at the right time off rotations. He stymied pick- and-rolls with uncharacteristic lateral foot speed and recognition for a 19-year-old yet to reach his athletic prime. His 95.3 defen- sive rating doesn’t speak enough to how integral he was on that end of the floor for the Bears. This is all to say that Ivan could be on an NBA roster right now if he chose to declare for the draft. He neither plummeted in mock drafts because of a gaping hole in his game nor was he in- jured for any extended portion of the season. He chose to return to Cal for a sophomore campaign. He preferred to stay. Ivan said the choice was hard but simple: The NBA will still be there in a year, but this sea- son would be his last chance to leave any sort of lasting legacy in Oakland as a Cal player; to be the face of the faceless Bears. “I just want to represent for Oakland,” Ivan says. “I think I can be a household name here.” C hoosing to return for a sophomore campaign was years in the making, back to the days Ivan would wait on 65th Avenue for the bus to school. Ivan lived on 73rd in East Oak- land. Paris, who lived just three blocks away on 76th, waited at a different stop but always ren- dezvoused with Ivan on the bus. They go way back. Paris recollects the time someone they knew got killed on Ivan’s block when they were in eighth grade. They would say hi and shake hands in pass- ing. He went to the high school a couple of blocks from where they lived. He got shot. “For someone that hasn’t grown up in Oakland all their life, it might be sketch to them,” Paris says. “For us, we grew up with shootings and bad stuff all the time. You kind of become accustomed to it and know to watch your back and be safe.” Ivan and Paris always sat to- gether, even when they went to Montera Middle School. Things were different back then. They would gather with a squad of their friends near the back of the bus, many of whom went to the nearby Skyline and Oakland Technical high schools. There was a lot of tomfoolery and she- nanigans. There were a lot of fights too. Sometimes the bus driver had to pull over so the stu- dents would stop. After starting at Bishop O’Dowd, Ivan and Paris were sud- denly the odd men out. The duo were among the few students at the school from what they liked to call the “bottom ground” — the portion of East Oakland below the hills. For the most part, bot- tom grounders couldn’t — and still can’t — afford to attend the prestigious private institution, where tuition reaches upward of $16,000 for some. “It definitely was a huge change of scenery,” Paris says. “Even though Montera was in the nice part of the hills, there were a lot of inner city kids that went there. It was a public school. There were a lot of fights and ac- tivities going on at school. High school, it was a lot different. Everything was all structured. There were different ethnicities and races at Bishop compared to Montera. In middle school, ev- eryone looked the same.” Damian Lillard, another Oakland-grown star who made it big in the NBA, happens to be Ivan’s former neighbor. He had a similar experience grow- ing up, but on a different side of the same coin. He wasn’t heavily recruited and attended Oakland High School, the oldest public school in the city. “I think the Oakland school system puts forth a great effort to help the students as best they can, but lack the resources nec- essary to match the level of some other school districts,” Lillard said in an email to The Daily Californian. Unlike Lillard, Ivan had a foot in both worlds, and his sta- tus as an outsider was not lost on him. Him being the pride of Bishop O’Dowd didn’t make it any easier or less complicated either. A predominantly white school suddenly boasted Oak- land’s most highly touted bas- ketball prospect since Jason Kidd. This world of new books, sturdy desks and counselors was new to him. “The difference between Montera and Bishop was defi- nitely noticeable,” Ivan says. “I got all the help I needed at Bishop. We had counselors. We had teacher’s assistants in class.” H ad Ivan and Paris not gone to Bishop O’Dowd, they say, they would have enrolled at Oakland Technical. Parents preferred to send their kids there instead of Skyline, de- spite Skyline being newer and WRITTEN BY WINSTON CHO PHOTOS BY PHILLIP DOWNEY RABB: PAGE 6
