Back in Duke, Grayson Allen was tagged as a villain — a player known for his aggressive, if not dirty plays. Now, he has made his way to the NBA as part of the Utah Jazz. He is aware of his past but is concentrating on the present.

As per Eric Woodyard of Deseret News, the 21st overall pick talked about shedding his ‘villain' role. He admitted to paying much attention to the criticism back in college. But now as part of the Jazz, he wants to represent them in a good way:

“I know I come from Duke and I want to continue to represent Duke in a good way, but now that I have a Utah Jazz uniform, I want to represent the Jazz in the right way,” Allen said. “Whether I’m polarizing, loved, hated, I don’t care. I admittingly did and I cared too much when I was at Duke but I’ve moved past it. The love for the game of basketball kind of gets rid of all that.”

Allen spent four years at Duke. The 6-foot-5 combo guard logged in 15.5 points. 4.6 assists and 3.3 boards per game as a senior.

Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey has confidence in Allen's intelligence. He's pretty sure that he won't let the past get in the way of the future:

“We’re very, very confident in who he is,” Lindsey said of Allen on draft night. “We’re confident in his intelligence, we’re confident that he was contrite with the mistakes that he’s made in the past.”