He didn’t need to be out there. He knows that. Wednesday against Air Force is Senior Night at Viejas Arena, and he may or may not get in one final game in his SDSU career, depending on how closely his teammates listen to the game plan and not get back cut by the pesky Falcons, depending on, well, how close the game is.
But there he was. After practice. Empty arena. Getting his shots up.
“I mean, I’m not going to get any more playing time if I shoot 500 shots, but I just really love basketball,” Castleberry says. “I really like going out there and shooting 500 jump shots. I like doing that.”
Which helps explain why he is best friends with Kawhi Leonard.
They have been close since playing together on an Inland Empire AAU club as 14-year-olds and then for two seasons at Martin Luther King High in Riverside, and Castleberry regularly travels to San Antonio during school breaks to see Leonard play with NBA’s Spurs. But their friendship is rooted in more than familiarity and circumstance; they are basketball junkies, both of them.
“Two people who really, really love basketball,” Castleberry says.