Ja'Kobe Walter was taking driving lessons.

Sabrina Walter, his mother, was his driving instructor.

Not: She took her son driving so he could get some practice in.

But actually: She was a driving instructor, at Prosper Driving school in McKinney, Texas, and her then 16-year-old son was her student, practising for his license.

It was the ultimate test of coachability and the willingness to accept your role.

How did it go? Not bad, not bad at all. There were moments when Walter didn't want to hear exactly what his instructor wanted to say. And moments when the instructor wished the student would nod more and talk less. But they got through it — no small thing as anyone who has experienced the new driver-parent dynamic from either perspective

Even as a 16-year-old Walter recognized the situation, and made the right read:

“I did what I had to do because I didn’t want to be there any longer than I had to be. I felt like I could drive perfectly fine,” Walter said. “(But) I listened. I kept it simple; I did what I had to do to get out of there. She wasn’t going to let me go otherwise. Two hands on the wheel, speed limit, all that.”

His instructor’s version: “He was teachable. But he would listen sometimes, and then sometimes it was like he already knew everything,” said Sabrina Walter, who did a long list of jobs when her kids were growing up — driving instructor just one of them. “We would be on lesson three out of seven and it wasn’t going fast enough for him.”

But everyone persevered. Walter took his test with the owner of the school and his Mom insisted that he not show any leniency.

“I got 100 per cent on my driving test,” says Walter. “When your Mom is your driving instructor, you can't mess that up.”

The Raptors ShowSportsnet's Blake Murphy and two-time NBA champion Matt Bonner cover all things Raptors and the NBA. Airing every weekday live on Sportsnet 590 The FAN from 11 a.m.-noon ET.Latest episode

Sportsnet's Blake Murphy and two-time NBA champion Matt Bonner cover all things Raptors and the NBA. Airing every weekday live on Sportsnet 590 The FAN from 11 a.m.-noon ET.

As the Toronto Raptors get ready to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in their first playoff action since 2022, there is good reason the Cavaliers are heavy favourites.

They have the highest payroll in the NBA; Donovan Mitchell is one of the most lethal scorers in all of basketball, with multiple 50-point playoff explosions to his name; James Harden remains as skilled a half-court operator as ever; Evan Mobley is one of the league’s best defenders, and on and on.

But in addition to having a 3-0 regular season record against Cleveland to bolster their belief, the Raptors can gain confidence from the way their roster has developed over the course of the season. Sure, the Raptors fortunes will likely rise or fall on the performances of all-stars Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram, but the season-long progression of youngsters like rookie Collin Murray-Boyles and Walter, the second-year wing from just outside of Dallas, has the Raptors entering the playoffs as the deepest and most versatile version of themselves seen this season.

It’s a welcome development, if a tad unexpected. Murray-Boyles was an unproven commodity out of training camp without a defined position as the No. 9 pick in the draft. And Walter? He was third — if not fourth — among a crowded collection of wings the Raptors had set up to compete for minutes off the bench. He didn’t even start in the Raptors intrasquad scrimmage at the end of training camp in Calgary, and was DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in the second and third games of the season.

But coming into his first playoff series Walter has very definitively ‘figured it out.’ The 21-year-old who shot 34.1 per cent from the college three-point line during his one season at Baylor and 34.9 per cent from three in his first NBA season has turned himself into a lethal threat from distance. He led all Raptors regulars in three-point percentage on the season at 40.9 per cent, and from the all-star break on he shot a blistering 47.6 per cent from three, second in the NBA among all players with at least 100 makes.

He’s done it while establishing himself as a legitimately pesky on-ball defender, and a dangerous off-ball bandit. His 73 steals were fourth overall in the Raptors ball-hawking lineup,........

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