MANILA — (UPDATED) Austin Reaves has quickly turned from being just the Los Angeles Lakers’ newest young standout to becoming a full-blown fan favorite among Filipino hoops fans.

The 6-foot-5, former 2021 undrafted rookie has become one of the fans’ most-hailed NBA players at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup because of his three-point shooting, facilitating, elite defensive smarts and intangibles, and just an overall hard-nosed style of play on both ends of the court — which Filipino basketball fans relate and pride themselves on, whether those who play competitively or just for leisure.

During every Team USA’s pre-game introductions, even from their first game on Philippine soil last August 26, Reaves elicited the loudest cheers from the fans, and the former Oklahoma Sooners standout said that this experience has been very special for him.

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“I really appreciate the way they appreciate me,” Reaves told ABS-CBN News after one of their practices at the end of the group stage.

“Shout out to them, shout out to all my fans, and I really do not take that stuff for granted.”

“I appreciate the way that they treat me here,” he added.

Since then, the Americans went on to win over Montenegro in the second round and have managed to score a huge bounce-back win over Italy, where Reaves was pivotal after putting up 12 points, four rebounds, and three assists, after suffering a setback against Lithuania.

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Their previous win allowed them to punch themselves a ticket to the semifinal stage of the World Cup, and a win on Friday night against Germany will mean another step closer to Team USA’s goal of reclaiming international basketball gold.

That is why for Reaves, who is in the middle of his first stint donning USA’s Red, White, and Blue on the international stage, having the once-in-a-lifetime chance of winning the World Cup will matter a lot for his young career in the NBA.

“It will mean the world to me,” he shared. “That’s why I signed up to do this, to win the gold. That’s everybody else’s goal as well.”

“Nobody else is thinking about anything other than winning gold, so it will mean the world to all of us.”

A teammate of Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and having grown up as a diehard Kobe Bryant fan, Reaves first got the attention of fans during his rookie year in LA after averaging decent numbers of 7.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per contest. It even included a huge 31-point, 16-rebound, 10-assist game in their last regular season game that same year against the Denver Nuggets.

Reaves then almost doubled his scoring outings in his second year to 13.0 points per game alongside 3.4 dimes and 3.0 boards, and he even turned it up a notch during their playoff run by putting up 16.9 points, 4.6 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and hitting 44% of his three-pointers in 16 games.

Despite all of these, together with his experience with Team USA this World Cup, Reaves, who recently signed an extension with the Lakers earlier this summer, just wants to continue his winning ways come the start of his third NBA season in Los Angeles.

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“[The] main thing is winning, that’s all that I care about,” he said when asked about how he hopes his current international play will translate when he dons the Lakers’ Purple and Gold this October.

“I have a lot of confidence in myself that I’ll play at a high level, but at the end of the day, it’s not about numbers for me. It’s about wins. That’s the main thing.”

For now, Reaves is focused on getting the win against former teammate Dennis Schroder and Germany, as they will be battling for a spot in the finals tonight at 8:40 p.m.

For more stories on the FIBA World Cup, click here.

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