The LA D-Fenders didn’t skip a beat in their first game of the season Friday night, beating the Iowa Energy 127-98. Three big reasons for the win were new names on the roster.
The Lake Show Life wanted to introduce Lakers fans to a few of their new affiliate D-Fenders team members: forward Travis Wear (UCLA), center David Foster (Utah) and guard Julian Jacobs (USC).
What do they have in common? They all made the D-Fenders 10-man roster, were groomed in the competitive Pac-12 Conference, and all showed up last night to help their new team convincingly beat the Iowa Energy by 29 points, 127-98.
If you were watching their first game of the season, it would go a little bit like this: Jacobs flies through the air, slam dunk! Wear shoots a sweet three and the ball swooshes through the basket, then blocks the ball on the other end. Foster pulls up for a three and that goes in. These three bring excitement and speed to their new team.
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A 2009 McDonald’s All-American, Wear transferred to UCLA along with his brother David in 2010 after a year playing for the University of North Carolina. After redshirting, he played for two coaches: Ben Howland first and then Steve Alford. Wear was a major factor in UCLA’s winning seasons 11-7, 13-5, 12-6 while wear was on the team.
An exciting, versatile player, Wear has been working on his perfecting his 3-pointer. Wear scored 1,052 points, grabbed 453 rebounds, stole the ball 77 ties and blocked 94 shots in his college career in 128 games played. On top of that, he made about 80% of his free throws.
Wear played his rookie season for Phil Jackson’s New York Knicks. Then he went overseas to play in Spain for the San Sebastián Gipuzkoa Basket Club. He came back to the States and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers for preseason ball in 2016.
Julian ‘JuJu’ Jacobs, 6-foot-3 and 188-pound guard, left USC in his junior year for the NBA Draft. Although he wasn’t drafted, he did sign with the Los Angeles Lakers for pre-season. He also played for the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Summer League.
Remember the quadruple overtime game against a highly ranked Arizona last season with the Trojans ending up on top? Yeah, Julian played in that game, we are sure it’s a game he will never forget.
Jacobs helped take his Trojans to the big dance, the first time in five years. He has an exciting slam dunk which he put on display against the Energy. When asking Coach Karl what the most exciting play of the game was, he agreed, “Julian’s dunk!”
David Foster, a 7-foot-3 and 250-pound center who shoots and makes 3-pointers, and has a nice slam dunk style, is one of the fastest big men you’ve seen play the game recently.
David played for Utah when they were in the Mountain West Conference, and they eventually would join the Pac-12. That said, he did play for Utah’s current head coach Steve Wozniak.
Foster Signed with Al Sadd Sports Club Doha in Qatar in February 2014. After leaving, he was picked up by the D-League’s Delaware 87ers before the 2015-16 season for their training camp roster. Foster tried out for the D-Fenders and worked his way onto the roster.
Now that you know a little about how they got to this point in their career and made Coby Karl‘s team, it’s time to get to know them a bit more as players. Here is our exclusive interview from the D-Fenders Media Day:
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They may be a subdued bunch when talking to them, but they play nothing but the opposite on the court. We have a feeling this team is of Championship caliber with six returning players and these three newbies from the Pac-12. We predict many more wins!