It was an impatience born out of love. He could’ve waited the few minutes in his house, but time spent waiting was not time spent playing.

To maximize his minutes on the basketball court, middle schooler Myles Jones taught himself how to make breakfast. During summer, after his mom left for work at 7:30 a.m. and his dad around 8 a.m. – but before his grandma arrived near 8:30 a.m. – Jones cooked scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage. He’d eat swiftly and leave to go practice.

The system was simple: “Get up, get out and have fun,” Jones said.

Basketball was the first sport Jones ever tried, and the first he fell in love with. He grew to 6-foot-3 by middle school and yearned to one day don an NBA jersey. In sixth grade, though, Jones tried lacrosse, and it soon overtook the future he thought he wanted for himself.

Jones understood the chances were small and sacrifices were great to become a professional basketball player, so he started working on a scholarship on turf instead of hardwood. And he got one.

“I always tell people I’m a basketball player in a football player’s body, playing lacrosse,” Jones said.

Jones, a 6-5 midfielder by then, committed to Duke lacrosse as a junior at Walt Whitman (N.Y.) High School before spending the last year of high school at the Salisbury School, a boarding school in Connecticut, when the basketball letters started flooding in.

One letter was from Bryant University. After the basketball program expressed interest, “Coach [Mike] Pressler put his foot on the gas pedal to recruit me, too,” Jones said.

Pressler, Jones’ current coach on the New York Atlas, coached the Bulldogs from 2007 until his retirement from the college game in 2022. Before that, he coached 16 seasons at Duke.

Pressler pitched the two-sport lifestyle to Jones, who was willing to listen to any offer despite knowing he was likely to still end up in royal blue the following year.

“We almost made that happen, but our relationship began then,” Pressler said. 

Jones indeed set off to Durham, N.C., for college and graduated a three-time All-American, two-time Tewaaraton Award finalist and with the program record for career points (231) and single-season points (77) by a midfielder. He was then the No. 1 pick in the 2016 Major League Lacrosse Draft.

All the while, Pressler and Jones remained close.

Jones joined the PLL in its inaugural year in 2019 as a member of the Redwoods. A need for new scenery saw the Atlas and Redwoods swap Jones and Romar Dennis in a mid-season trade last August, and two former Blue Devils reunited in a new shade of blue.

“As a kid, I got a lot of enjoyment from showing up to practice every day,” Jones said. “I was very grateful for the opportunity to get to play lacrosse. That was revitalized with my trade to the Atlas. I’m grateful for the opportunity and each and every game, and playing in the moment has definitely bode well for my performance this season.”

That’s a nasty pump fake @mylesjones!

Had the defender spinning and the keeper lost. 😧😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/Bqk5Rom0PB

— New York Atlas (@PLLAtlas) August 13, 2024

Whether it’s the 18 points this season, hard hits on the field or suggestions to Pressler as a quasi-assistant general manager in the offseason, the ninth-year veteran’s impact on the Atlas has been “all-encompassing,” Pressler said.

“That trade a year ago when we brought Myles over to the Atlas has been incredible for him, it’s certainly incredible for us too,” Pressler said.

In Jones’ first full season with the Atlas, the team finished the regular season with the No. 1 overall seed, the most efficient midfield within the 32-second shot clock and the league’s highest-scoring offense. 

After earning a bye through first round of the Cash App Playoffs, the Atlas will take on the Maryland Whipsnakes in the semifinals Sept. 7 near Jones’ hometown on Long Island.

“Unfortunately I've never been in a championship game, but I see a lot of potential in this team,” he said.