About Timme: Drew Timme's Shot in Los Angeles

Opportunity doesn’t knock. It barges right in—and never on time. Drew Timme knows this. The former Gonzaga All-American with the meanest stache in college basketball has most recently, on his journey, joined the Los Angeles Lakers on a two-way contract.

His first few weeks with the pros on the West Coast were pretty standard. “I ask a lot of questions,” he said, and “I like to be put into the fire.”

“I think I just told someone, tell me what to do,” Timme says. “Yeah. And I forgot what movie it’s from, but it’s like, ‘Good soldiers follow orders.’ Yeah. Whatever y’all need me to do, I’ll do it.”

To fans, Timme is often preserved as a Gonzaga snapshot: the footwork, the mustache, the celebrations, the joy that radiated off the screen. That player is still there.

"I would say I’m still the same person. I’m still gonna bring energy, bring fire. I’m a competitor,” he said. The difference now is he understands the business of basketball.

“You obviously get a little more mature with time,” he explained.

After Gonzaga, upon his transition into the pros, the eager, effervescent Timme was met with criticism. “Everyone’s always said, I’m not good enough to make the League and my game doesn’t translate and all these things. Yeah. Slow, white, unathletic.”

And for Timme, that’s perfectly fine. “I love it,” he said. “I love that fire.”

That lesson hit hardest when he didn’t receive any NBA offers after working his way up from the Long Island Nets to the Brooklyn Nets last March and then getting waived this October.

“I didn’t really get anything after I got cut, and I was pretty shocked, honestly. I’ve just been working super hard,” he shared. “Had a great opportunity with Long Island and Brooklyn. I did some good things that I thought I should be able to get a two-way or something.”

It didn’t happen. So he went back to the start.

Off the court, Timme keeps things quiet. Lift. Hoop. Nap. Watch anime. He’s making his way through The Sopranos for the first time and finds himself drawn to Tony Soprano—not because he’s perfect, but because of how he leads.

“I f---k with him,” Timme says. “You know, he’s a good leader. He might be doing some dicey things, but pretty reasonable man, I’d say.”

Mostly, though, Timme stays grounded. Because chasing a pro career teaches you how little is guaranteed. “I think a lot of the time it’s not about how good or bad you are,” he says. “It’s about what you do when you don’t have the opportunity. The opportunity’s not always there. You think it’s gonna be there—it’s not. So you just have to keep working, and you never know when the opportunity’s gonna come, but you have to be ready.”

“I mean, even coming here, I didn’t know I was gonna get an opportunity this quickly. I really had no idea. But I was like, I’m gonna work so damn hard so when this opportunity comes, I’m ready.”

It takes a different type of relentless to work that hard for something that isn’t guaranteed. Timme explained that you have to love the game because it takes so much time, energy, and mental toughness.

“I’m glad I love the game,” he said. “If I didn’t—if I lost that passion—I’d probably be done. It’s such a big part of my life. I love it. I don’t want to give it up.”

The love started with his dad.

“My dad was my hero growing up,” Timme said. His dad, Matt, played at Southern Methodist University. “I wanted to be just like him,” Timme said.

“I used to get a buzz cut all the time. I was like, I’m gonna ball like my dad.”

His parents encouraged him to play all sports. They never forced him into basketball, Timme explained, but that’s the sport he gravitated to. The more he was around it, the more he loved it.

He discovered his love of the game from his dad, and he inherited his determination from his mom, Megan.

“My mom, she always holds me accountable,” Timme said. “She’s the toughest one on me. Every time, if I wasn’t playing hard or listening, she goes, ‘You wanna stop? We can stop right now.’ She has that fire. I think I got my passion from her. That intensity was definitely passed on to me. … My mom’s like, if you want something, make this s--t happen.

That balance built the competitor Timme is today: blithe, intense, unapologetic.

It’s why he connects with coaches like JJ Redick.

“That’s what I love in a coach, someone who really cares. Smart guy. Eats, sleeps basketball. It’s fun to play for someone like that,” he said of his head coach.

Joining the Lakers also meant sharing space with LeBron James, something that still feels surreal. “Obviously growing up watching LeBron, it’s crazy to say he’s my teammate. It’s wild.”

What surprised him most about the legend wasn’t his aura; something simpler.

“It’s what he does,” Timme explained. “I came in this morning at like 7:50, one of the first ones in, wiping my eyes, tired—and he’s on the massage table singing, like he’s been up for a while. He’s always working. It’s insane. People say no one outworks LeBron; you see it. It motivates you.”

“He leads without having to lead. Leads by example.”

The example matters. Timme’s setting an example himself, for anyone chasing a dream. It’s an example of integrity and resolve.

“It’s obviously great to get the two-way, it’s awesome. But that’s not my end goal. I want to be on the roster. I want to play. I want to do all these things here,” he said.