Classic chip on Castle's shoulder only adds to an already competitive force

Manufacturing motivation in competitive sports is a tale as old as time. Whether it's Michael Jordan imagining slights from his opponent to give him the extra juice needed to crush them or NFL teams claiming bulletin material based on whatever they can call foul, players have been placing chips on their own shoulders forever.

The best players never stop doing this and take every perceived spurn as a challenge to prove their worth, so Stephon Castle is starting out on the right track if he wants to be one of the NBA's legends. It's a long road, but it starts with bringing your all from the beginning, and San Antonio Spurs fans can see that he's been doing that from his first Summer League action.

Castle has shown he belongs from the beginning in an obvious way

The Silver and Black are only two games into the season, but the drive is an intangible that doesn't take long to reveal itself, and you can hear that drive at today's shootaround before the Houston Rockets rematch.

Stephon Castle was at shootaround today when he was asked if it means anything to him to play someone else from his draft class. – “Yeah, for sure. The competitive edge that I have in me. I always want to play somebody in my draft class—especially knowing that he was drafted ahead of me. So, that just gives me another edge.”

Competitive edge is an overlooked intangible that all great players possess. They take it personally if you underrate or undervalue them, and various things will fall into that category. It's not Reed Sheppard's fault he was taken ahead of Castle, and Stephon landed in the right spot; however, the Rockets are going to get a turned-up Stephon Castle every time they play anyway.

He's giving fans more reason to get excited because you can already see the dog mentality that he plays with. It's a heavily desired mindset fans want from the players on their favorite team, and Victor Wembanyama and Jeremy Sochan already possess it. When the Spurs brought in Chris Paul, they added another pit bull to the roster, and the fortitude this mentality brings will help long-term.

Houston has already felt it once this season after going down 22 points to San Antonio's revamped crew, and Devin Vassell hasn't even played yet. The resolve you wanted when you brought in veterans showed when the Rockets came storming back, only to fall to the Spurs anyway.

They'll get another chance to show it again in just a few short hours when they host Houston at the Frost Bank Center once again in the second of three head-to-heads in a 12-day stretch.