Carter Bryant’s fiery All-Star Weekend quote just revealed who he really is

The future is really about to belong to the San Antonio Spurs, and it's because of guys like Carter Bryant. Jeremy Sochan's recent departure was the final admission of a failed 2022 draft class, but every other first-rounder over the years (other than Primo) has had at least a little bit of that dawg in them. CB, however, seems to have a lot of it.

Bryant has the dunk contest in the bag

Bryant wowed fans with three acrobatic dunks, getting so much elevation that Simone Biles would have been proud. It almost felt like a foregone conclusion that he'd win it (and maybe he would have, if not for the heart-to-heart with Vince Carter in the middle of his final attempts).

All he had to do was finish his last dunk. When he was unable to, you could see the disappointment and frustration on his face. He couldn't and probably didn't even try to hide it.

These weren't the NBA Finals, though. It wasn't the first round of the playoffs. It wasn't even the Emirates NBA Cup. It was a dunk contest that half of the Association's fans have given up on, and this dude was absolutely sick about losing it. That's the kind of competitive drive I love to see in players, and it's very similar to another guy on the team you may have heard of.

Carter Bryant has a Wemby-like competitive drive

It makes sense when you think about what we've seen leading up to this point. This was a deep roster to start the season, and many thought Bryant should spend his fair share of time in the G League because of it. The team dealt with a bunch of injuries to start the year, but whether everyone was in the lineup or not, Carter had to ride the bench most of the time.

Now, he did play some G League ball, but only a lick of it. He's spent most of his time with the team that drafted him, and he's already forced Mitch Johnson to put him into the lineup with more consistency. He's getting important minutes in the first quarter of games that matter.

How did he break into the rotation so quickly? Working tirelessly. You can tell that he's put in a ton of work because his confidence level is night and day from where it was at the start of 82. He'll still make the occasional mistake, but generally, he's where he needs to be when he needs to be there.

At 20 years old, Bryant is already proving himself to be a dogged defender, and his three-ball has begun falling with consistency. He won't take long to establish himself as one of the best three-and-D players in the NBA. Just give him a year or two. He's already made leaps, and the competitive fire burning inside of him will power his game to an All-Star level. He's already called his shot on that.