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Jackson Shelstad and Mookie Cooke, two of Portland’s best prospects in years, took two very different paths to get to the same place.
EUGENE — Mookie Cook grew up playing youth ball with Oregon’s best, moved to Arizona to play his high school ball against the nation’s best and made his acting debut this summer playing this generation’s best — LeBron James — in the film “Shooting Stars.”
He’s got a megawatt smile. He speaks beyond his years. And, if you ask fellow Oregon freshman Jackson Shelstad, Cook will be quite the infusion of talent for the Ducks when he makes his return from an ankle injury.
“He’s a do-it-all type of guy,” Shelstad said. “We’re excited to have him back.”
Outside of a clean bill of health to start the season, there’s little that’s left the one-time Jefferson High School standout wanting. Still, it was a month before Shelstad’s storybook start to his own Oregon career that Cook admitted he was a little envious of the fairytale his former AAU teammate was penning.
How could you not be?
Shelstad played all four years of high school ball at West Linn. He was a two-time Oregon player of the year, tore through some of the nation’s best teams at the Les Schwab Invitational and came to Eugene as Oregon’s most-reveared in-state product since Payton Pritchard.
“He got to play at his hometown high school with the crowd and be the hometown hero,” Cook said. “Just playing in front of your friends and the people that have been seeing you play from first grade. It’s just amazing for him to have played in front of them and to have memories with them.”
Then Saturday in his first game as a starter, on the day after the school’s crushing loss to Washington in the Pac-12 football championship game, Shelstad announced his collegiate presence with 14 points in 28 minutes, the last three of which came five feet from beyond the arc with seconds remaining to down a Blue Blood at home.
Not a bad second chapter of the biography, right?
But if things go as Cook hopes, this Oregon season has the chance to become more than just a page turner.
This thing has Buddy Cop potential.
It’s not that Cook couldn’t remember his lines. That was the easy part. It was delivering with conviction while filming “Shooting Stars” in Akron, Ohio, that challenged the Portland native.
“You can get caught up in repeating the lines in the same way,” Cook said. “Great actors, they find a way to change the flow, change the cadence of what they’re saying.”
They can take advice. They can read the room. They can make adjustments.
For much of the last few years, Cook feels like there’s been a whole lot of adjustments. The first came when he moved from Portland to Arizona to play at Arizona Compass Prep. There, Cook blossomed into one of the nation’s best basketball recruits, heralded for his lengthy frame and smooth jump shot. Cook’s always been tall, even back when he and Shelstad were playing on the same youth teams in grade school. But it’s the combination of an all-around game that made Cook the No. 40 player in the 2023 class. And in Arizona, Cook got to routinely challenge himself against the few players out there with similar talent.
That’s what gets Shelstad a little jealous about the route he didn’t choose.
“Playing against the best competition in the country, it’s almost like you’re playing a college schedule because all those kids are going to play high major ball,” Shelstad said. “It just depends on who you are. For me, staying home benefitted me.”
The second adjustment for Cook was stardom. Certainly expectations were on Cook’s shoulders long before LeBron James approved Cook’s portrayal of his younger self. But being a top 50 recruit tabbed with playing the most recognizable athlete in North America brings a different sort of attention to it. It also brings a world of new experiences.
“It was the best thing ever,” Cook said. “When you talk about basketball, pretty much everyone looks at him. He’s the idol for most kids growing up. He carries himself in a great manner and a great way. Honestly, he’s a hero for everybody. Coming from Akron, having a single mom and proving everyone wrong. At 18, everyone was telling him he was the best basketball player ever and he’s lived up to that and surpassed that.”
People aren’t telling Cook he’s supposed to be the best basketball player ever. But people have been telling him he’s very good for a long time. Throw in the moves and the movie, and Cook said he’s thankful for some of the advice from his friend, Blazers rookie Scoot Henderson.
“He said be where your feet are,” Cook said. “If you forget where your feet are, you won’t cherish any of the moments.”
Oregon is 5-2.
Dana Altman’s Ducks have managed this despite all-Pac-12 center N’Faly Dante missing all but one game, No. 2 center Nate Bittle missing four games and starting point guard Jesse Zarzuela missing a pair.
It was his absence on Saturday that paved the wave for Shelstad — missing four of his own games this season due to a banged up knee — to make his first career start.
Playing Michigan undermanned could seem daunting, but the 6-foot Shelstad has already made a habit of climbing mountains. Shelstad was the one who scored 38 points in front of 3,500 fans at Liberty High School to lead West Linn past Bronny James’ Sierra Canyon a year ago in the Les Schwab Invitational semifinals. It was Shelstad who followed that up with 30 points the next night to down national No. 1 Duncanville in the championship game.
He’s got broad shoulders. Altman’s seen him carry a lot.
“He’s always wanted it,” Altman said of Shelstad. “He works really hard and guys respect him because of that work ethic. … I’ve watched him since he’s been an eighth grader, and watching him keep getting better and better. He’s going to be a really good player for us.”
But for Oregon, this yet-again hobbled Oregon, to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021, the Ducks may need Shelstad to be a really good player for them right now. And they may need the same from Cook, who was dressed at practice this week and doing light workouts but “still not ready to go,” according to Altman.
But when he is, there certainly is a place for a player with a 7-foot wingspan who can move like this and, despite his different route to becoming an Oregon Duck, is ready to start sharing some experiences with his longtime contemporary.
“That’s my brother,” Cook said. “I know him like the back of my hand.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
