For A.J. Spencer, guard on the Long Beach State men’s basketball team, life is good.
He’s merely days away from leading the 49ers into a new season, the Kansas City Royals are World Series Champions and his knee feels normal again.
Spencer grew up in Shawnee, Kansas, a suburb just outside of Kansas City, and has been a Royal fan his entire life. He endured year after year of mediocrity, but now he gets to finally celebrate his favorite baseball team’s recent title, much like the 800,000 fans that invaded down town K.C. did during the Royals’ celebration parade on Nov. 3.
“I remember when Royals tickets were like two dollars,” Spencer joked. “I’m over-exaggerating, but they were cheap.”
That’s who A.J. Spencer is, almost always a good humored person in the face of hardship. The jokester in him came out during our interview when he was asked who his role models were. He pointed at his nearest teammate, senior guard Nick Faust, and indicated the Maryland transfer was his biggest role model.
“A.J. is a very social, outgoing person. He loves cracking jokes [and using] Snapchat – if you’re on social media that’s your guy right there,” said teammate, junior guard Branford Jones. “He’s always fun to be around.”
Even when you’re not around Spencer, Jones said No. 15 on the 49ers will find a way to make you laugh.
“He has this thing where he does ‘story time with A.J.’ on Snapchat,” Jones explained. “I’m talking about a good 400-500 seconds of him telling a story. And he does it about once a week. And he has theme music [the ‘Fresh Prince of Bell-Air’ theme] before he starts it and he’s like, ‘Coming up next, it’s story time with A.J.!’ And that’s when I know not to watch his story because I do not want to click through all that all day.”
Because he waited his entire life on the Royals, the six-foot-three guard is no stranger to waiting long stretches of time to get what he wants, which came in handy in the last year. On Saturday, Spencer will play his first official game with the 49ers in exactly one year and eight months. That’s because on one fateful day in late October last year, Spencer did some damage to his knee that kept him off the court his senior season.
Spencer was visiting potential recruits for the LBSU men’s basketball team. During a quick pickup game, with the prospective 49ers, Spencer awkwardly came down on his knee.
When he stops to remember the day his 2014-15 season ended, he points and gives a slight chuckle at the exact spot on the Walter Pyramid floor where the ligaments in his right knee gave out.
“It was right there. It was an open gym for some recruits that didn’t even [end up going] here, except Mason [Riggins],” Spencer corrected himself. “Mason was here… I went up for a rebound, and an ACL [tear] is a non-contact injury, so I planted on my knee and I heard a pop.”
Jones was at the gym that day and remembers the panicked atmosphere around the Walter Pyramid when Spencer tore his ACL.
“I just remember seeing him go down and holding his knee. There weren’t any coaches in [the gym], so everybody was kind of just freaking out,” Jones remembered. “We were kind of like, ‘Oh, s—,’ because whenever you see someone hold their knee it’s like, ‘Damn, I hope it’s not bad.’”
It was bad. Spencer, the man with the jokes and smiles, didn’t have either for some time.
“I’m not even going to lie, it took me a while [to get over the injury],” Spencer admitted. “I tore my meniscus too, so I wasn’t able to walk for four weeks. A regular ACL tear you can walk out of surgery and put pressure on it. For me I couldn’t do anything for four weeks. Not being able to get up and move around and stuff, it was just hard.”
Jones, who is also far from his hometown of Missouri City, Texas, remembered how Spencer and himself struggled with long-term injuries.
“[I told him] to stay prayed up. You’ve got to keep it positive, man,” Jones said. “Just take it one day at a time because when you’re like that, being far away from home, no one wants to go through that. Coming out here [to Long Beach] and hurting yourself it’s like, ‘Man, what do I do now? I came out here to play basketball and now I’m on crutches, I’ve got to do surgeries.’ It’s just tough.”
Spencer didn’t have to wait 30 years, like the Royals, for his knee to get better, but a year away from a basketball team in college feels like an eternity. It was disappointing for Spencer, and all of LBSU, after a great season where he averaged 9.1 points per game in 28 starts, but more importantly he brought a spark to the team by crashing the rims and diving for basketballs.
Despite all the struggles, Spencer’s smile eventually crawled back on his face.
“I don’t like to be sad,” Spencer said. “That’s not healthy.”
This season, he won’t lead in scoring, assists, rebounds or blocks, instead he’ll be the consistent guy making his teammates better. Spencer has one year left to make his mark and an impression on teams looking for a dynamic two-guard. He’s all jokes off the court, but on it he’s all business.
“[On the court] is not the time or place to be joking,” Spencer said. “This season is my senior season so I’m trying to do what I can to make a career for myself, and that’s nothing to laugh about.”