“The Swagger of Rickie and the Precision of Robin”

“It started as a joke,” laughs Justise Winslow when talking about his unique name. “My older brother, Josh, kept trying to say ‘Justin’ but it kept coming out like ‘Justise’ and my mom, she wanted to be different and it just stuck.”

The youngest of five siblings, his name would not be the only part of his being that he can accredit to Josh. “I remember being in the second or third grade and playing at the YMCA,” Winslow recalls. “I was playing with Josh, so I was playing (with the older kids) and it was the championship game. There was no overtime, and we tied.”

“...And I threw the BIGGEST tantrum.”

That same tenacity that a seven year old Justise Winslow played with, the doggedness passed down from his older brother, is as evident today as it was twenty years ago. It’s in the ferociousness he displays when driving through the lane, his first game back since an injury suffered nearly a year earlier. It’s in the way he taunts his opponents despite the scoreboard, and the uncontainable excitement he expresses during his first post-game interview with Raptors 905.

Despite entering the ninth season of his professional career, the 6’6 swingman still approaches every game like it’s the YMCA championship. He’s grown, of course, matured and made mistakes, but the intense love of the game, and his confidence in what he brings to it, remain the same. 

After being traded partway through his sixth season with the Miami Heat, Winslow admits that there are things he wishes he could have done differently, but recognizes that even his darkest, most vulnerable moments held value. Without them, his relationship with his former head coach may never have blossomed into one that he holds in the highest of regards. “I have learned so much from Erik Spoelstra,” Winslow acquiesces of the longtime Miami Heat coach. “He is probably one of the top five most influential people in my life, especially in  hindsight.” 

Like his older brother, the lessons instilled upon Justise by Spoelstra held as much weight on the court as they did off of it. Though the decision to trade him stung at the time, Winslow reflects on it fondly, with every high and every low serving its purpose. Had he not been traded to the Memphis Grizzlies he may never have had the opportunity to reunite with former Duke teammate Tyus Jones who was a fellow member of the 2015 NBA draft class, or Grayson Allen, whom Winslow credits with teaching him to celebrate the success of others. 

The same confidence that had seven year old Winslow certain he should have won the championship game could also be the reason he sat in the seat beside Dwyane Wade on a team flight, a taboo act amongst the Miami Heat. “I was the last person to get on the plane,” Winslow recalls “and it was training camp so there were more guys (than usual) and no extra seats. Nobody was going to sit beside him because he’s the big dog and he gets that extra seat. But I sat beside him, and even after training camp when we didn’t have as many guys, I still kept that seat.”

Those talks became as sacred to Winslow as the game of basketball itself. Speaking at an event in which Wade was being honoured, Winslow referred to the three-time NBA champion as a chandelier, whose light may shine the brightest and from the highest, but shines light on everything around it.

“The talks we would have, the way he would explain the game, but honestly (it was) his leadership. His ability to lead is very special.” As he transitions into a leadership role of his own with the 905, Winslow turns to the memories of those mile high talks with the Hall of Famer. 

When he became a father, he did the same. “The way he leads his family, the way he leads by example and teaches others how to lead that’s something I try to emulate.”

Niko Tosoani, a name as unique as the one given to his father by Josh years ago. Dream maker, or dream weaver, Tosoani’s meaning encompasses everything that Winslow feels for his son, whose arrival pulled his father from his life’s darkest corners, giving him the opportunity to be the chandelier. 

“Sometimes, like in Miami, I can get in my own way,” admits Winslow “But kids, they see the world in such a pure, authentic way that I learn so much just from watching him.” 

Whether from watching his young son simply exist, playing in the driveway as adults with his brother Josh, or listening to the wisdom imparted on him by Erik Spoelstra, Justise Winslow absorbs the very best parts of those close to him like contact at the rim. An ever-evolving work in process, he is an amalgamation of everyone he has met, and everyone he has yet to meet.