Former NBA star James Posey understands what a difficult role Davion Mintz has at UK

Davion Mintz has gone from starter to sixth man but seems fine with his role. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Davion Mintz was a starter for Kentucky during the 2020-21 season when he led the Wildcats in scoring. He returned for an extra season at Kentucky obviously anticipating he would be a starter again. Instead, he’s become the first guard off the bench to relieve Sahvir Wheeler, TyTy Washington or Kellan Grady.

No one understands how difficult that transition can be better than James Posey, a former NBA player who won championships with Miami in 2006 and Boston in 2008. He is Xavier’s 16th all-time leading scorer with 1,455 points and 10th all-time rebounder with 801. He was the Atlantic 10’s defensive player of the year in 1999. He did all that while almost always coming off the bench rather than starting. He still was the 18th overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft.

“My stats were better than some starters at Xavier. It was tough at first not to start. I didn’t want to buy in but Coach kept telling me I was more valuable coming off the bench because nobody else could do what I could,” Posey said. “I didn’t believe it but I did what he wanted and he was right.

“If I had swapped spots with a starter, he might not have given the team what I did coming off the bench. Once I bought in, I had fun with it.”

Posey was a high school basketball teammate of former UK running back Anthony White in Twinsburg, Ohio, and recently was on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports to talk about a sixth-man role and how hard it can be.

“I wanted to be on the floor at the end of the game but before I bought in I wanted to play the whole game,” Posey said. “Our starters did their things but I was the second leading rebounder and scorer coming off the bench even though I was playing less minutes. But in my mind I knew I could lead the team in scoring and rebounding if I played more minutes before I bought in.”

Posey said he learned coming off bench allowed him to see what the team was not doing and that enabled him to provide energy and hustle along with his scoring much like Mintz has done most of this season (Mintz had 21 points in UK’s win over Vanderbilt Wednesday).

“The biggest thing was just learning to buy into the role. If not, it makes for a long season but if you buy in, it can become a fun role,” Posey said.