Jahlil Okafor’s younger relatives will text and call him, telling the 6-foot-11 freshman that they saw him on TV, in Sports Illustrated or that their friends are talking about him.

For Okafor, it’s not about the NBA mock drafts that project him to go No. 1 overall, the constant praise from national media or even those hailing the 19-year-old as the best player in the country.

“For me the best part is having little brothers and little cousins that look up to me and them being able to see that,” Okafor said to The Daily Orange via Duke Athletics. “It makes them happy and it makes me feel good about myself.”

This season, Okafor is averaging 18 points and 9.1 rebounds, among the best numbers in the Atlantic Coast Conference, for a No. 4 Duke (21-3, 8-3 ACC) team that will visit the Carrier Dome for a matchup with Syracuse (16-8, 7-4) at 6 p.m. on Saturday. But for the freshman phenom, there’s a lot more than what’s visible on the court.

Okafor’s unique experiences, which include the passing of his mother when he was 9 years old, have given him a different perspective on life, Duke associate head coach Jeff Capel said. Okafor is now not just a teenager who possesses a skill set uncanny for his age. He exudes a composure beyond his years, which not only makes him amicable off the hardwood, but an effective presence on it.

“He’s probably the happiest young person I’ve been around,” Capel said. “He’s a guy that gets fouled a lot and they’re not called. And he’s able to handle it the right way and without being demonstrative, without complaining, without being overt, he does that.”

A typical morning for Okafor is just like one for any other college basketball player. He’ll wake up, go to the team’s film session and then walk to class. He joked that he’ll even text center Marshall Plumlee to make sure Plumlee doesn’t sleep through his class.

Then it’s back to his room on Duke’s East Campus to hang out with suitemate and freshman point guard Tyus Jones. There’s nothing about Okafor’s routine that shows he’s the highest-touted freshman in the country.

“He’s funny, he’s nice, he’s a class act,” senior walk-on Sean Kelly said. “I guess a lot of people probably just see him on the court, but off the court he’s just as good as he is on.”

Kelly said that there’s no sense of secluded friend groups or cliques among the team and that Okafor’s lighthearted personality is one of the main catalysts for that.

In the locker room, Okafor will crack jokes all the time, Kelly said. He added that when Okafor puts on a song that he likes, the rest of the team often says, “Oh man, I really like that.”

And whenever Okafor is driving on the street and sees what he called a “beautiful“ dog, his soft side comes out and he stops just to look at the animal he said he plans on owning several of in the future.

“Jahlil Okafor is a fun-loving guy,” Okafor said.

Almost six minutes into Duke’s game on Monday, the Blue Devils had yet to score and trailed Florida State, 2-0. FSU’s Phil Cofer caught a swing pass just inside the 3-point arc, took one dribble and elevated to dunk right over Okafor for an and-one.

It happens so rarely that Okafor took to Twitter after the game to poke fun at himself. More times than not, it’s the freshman on the other end of a dunk, often followed by a finger point to acknowledge the teammate who passed him the ball.

And whether it’s the opponents he’s dunking on or his little brothers, people constantly look up to Okafor. The person he’s molded himself into has allowed him to be a 19-year-old superstar, but it’s what people don’t see that he prides himself on.

“He’s able to feel things and see things from a different lens in a different way than most young people,” Capel said. “Just a really, really special and unique young man.”

Published on February 13, 2015 at 12:50 am

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman