Even as he watched Nikola Jokic carve the court docket with surgical passes and Bam Adebayo float in jumper after jumper, Jeff Van Gundy made a degree of speaking about Haywood Highsmith Jr.
“I like Highsmith,” stated the ESPN analyst and former NBA coach, not identified for dishing out empty reward. “I like his readiness. I like his ability to make shots. And defensively, he’s active and solid.”
If solely the NBA Finals viewers watching Game 1 between the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets knew how unbelievable it was that Highsmith, a Baltimore native, was raining buckets — 18 factors in 23 minutes — towards the most effective gamers on the earth.
“It gives me chills every time I think about it,” stated Danny Sancomb, Highsmith’s faculty coach. “Because I know his journey. It hasn’t been an easy path.”
“No one believed in me” ranks amongst our most hackneyed sports activities cliches. But it’s actually true that nobody watching Highsmith play out of place as a thin teenager at Archbishop Curley envisioned his basketball story climaxing on this stage.
Division I recruiters ignored him. So did the overwhelming majority of NBA scouts, at the same time as he received Division II Player of the Year honors at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia. He persevered via 4 stints with the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA’s G League, wrapped round a season with the Crailsheim Merlins of the German Bundesliga. Highsmith was 25 years previous — decrepit by NBA prospect requirements — when a 10-day contract lastly changed into a long-term job with the Heat.
Why did Highsmith make it whereas hundreds who nursed equally unlikely ambitions didn’t?
“Sometimes, people get told they’re not good enough or that they don’t have quite what it takes, and they quit right on that,” Sancomb stated. “I think Haywood is just one of those guys who says, ‘That doesn’t mean I can’t get better. I’ve got to work on this.’ That’s why he’s been able to not just make it but thrive.”
Highsmith, 26, noticed in himself qualities that others didn’t, and he wouldn’t hand over.
“I think he got that from both of us,” stated Highsmith’s father, Haywood Sr. “His mother [Brenda] is relentless at getting things done, and I’m kind of the same way.”
‘He just put the work in’
Haywood Sr. introduced dwelling a pet and a basketball for his 2-year-old son when the household was dwelling in Park Heights. “They tussled over the ball,” he recalled, laughing. “But Haywood actually grew into football first at Banneker Recreation Center and then the Park Heights Saints. It wasn’t until he hit a growth spurt at 11 or 12 that he decided he really wanted to play basketball completely.”
He was participant by the point he transferred to Curley as a sophomore, however his title was not ringing out throughout Baltimore.
“It was just a matter of him not giving in to people saying he couldn’t,” stated Brian Hubbard, who coached Highsmith over his ultimate two highschool seasons.
He had reached his full 6-foot-5 top, with arms that stretched beneath his kneecaps. But he had not constructed a lot muscle, and his soar shot wasn’t precisely pure. He was quiet, bordering on shy.
Even in these years of anonymity, nevertheless, teammates observed how he by no means missed a exercise or summer time league recreation.
“Always worked the hardest in every drill, always came to practice on time,” remembered his finest pal at Curley, Ricardo Johnson. “He just put the work in. … I was playing football, and we both had that championship mindset. That’s what made us close.”
Hubbard recalled the tough inside work Highsmith did in lieu of honing his perimeter recreation: “He was asked to do a lot as our best player, and he embraced that. He would lead us in scoring but also in rebounding, blocked shots, sometimes assists, steals.”
He was maybe the most effective participant within the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference, so why didn’t recruiters come calling? “A lot of it had to do with us as a school,” Hubbard stated. “If you’re outside looking in or you’re one of these Division I coaches, you’re not going to Archbishop Curley to recruit a kid. Guys just did not come out to watch us play.”
Haywood Sr. even tried pitching his alma mater, Fairmont State, the place he had been a star participant, to no avail.
Hubbard in the end reached out to Sancomb, whom he’d performed for in faculty, and Sancomb watched Highsmith in an AAU event in Atlantic City after his senior season at Curley.
“First time I ever saw him, I was like, ‘This is a no-brainer,’” Sancomb recalled. “He could shoot it, handle it, pass it. Always made the extra pass, always communicating. … But I think at the Division I level, they’re probably looking for a more finished project.”
Highsmith dedicated to Sancomb and Wheeling simply earlier than the beginning of the autumn semester in 2014, decided so as to add that end to his recreation.
Every night after apply, he’d return to the gymnasium for additional capturing. He ready for every recreation with an hourlong capturing exercise that left him drenched in sweat. He reached out to his father’s previous faculty pal, Warren Doles, to assist him bulk up with a summer time exercise program. As his physique crammed out and his jumpshots ripped the web extra often, his confidence ballooned.
Though Highsmith made a leap ahead each season in faculty, Sancomb was blown away when he confirmed up for preseason exercises his senior 12 months. “Some guys don’t get that much better in college,” he stated. “I remember from his sophomore year to his junior year, he made a big jump and I thought, ‘How much better can he really get?’ And then his senior year, I was like, ‘Oh my!’”
Wheeling had staff, however nobody on the roster had a prayer of stopping Highsmith in apply. When it was theoretically time to relaxation, he’d merely flip his jersey inside out and play for the ‘B’ staff. No one stated so explicitly, however Sancomb believes it was round this time that Highsmith started to treat an NBA profession as a severe risk.
“I thought to myself, ‘You could go professional with this,’ and it has always been a dream of mine, so it was nice to think like that,” Highsmith remembered in a 2022 interview with Wheeling’s athletics web site. “All the hard work was finally paying off.”
‘They like those guys that have the grind’
Highsmith went undrafted after his bonanza senior season, however his agent, Jerry Dianis, inspired him to maintain his eye on the largest prize.
Highsmith earned his first style of the NBA in 2019, when he signed a two-way cope with the Philadelphia 76ers and averaged 1.8 factors over 5 appearances. During that transient stint, he studied the habits and recreation day depth of teammate Jimmy Butler, submitting away all the things he noticed. Cool as these weeks have been, Highsmith wished to stay.
“We’re a religious family,” Haywood Sr. stated. “We prayed on it, and he didn’t give up. He worked harder and harder and harder.”
After Highsmith performed the 2020-21 season in Germany, he signed with an Italian staff for 2021-22 however withdrew when the 76ers dangled one other shot on the NBA. They waived him once more. Then, the Heat referred to as.
Those who love Highsmith say he couldn’t have discovered a greater NBA dwelling than Miami, the place the Heat have constructed a no-nonsense staff that showcases neglected gems. Even their finest participant, Butler, was discarded by a number of different franchises.
“They like those guys that have the grind,” Highsmith’s mom, Brenda, stated.
Highsmith finds time to take pleasure in his 1-year-old daughter, Hazel, and online game marathons — Johnson stated “Madden” is his specialty — with previous friends. His mom, who has transformed her co-workers at Northwest Hospital into ardent Heat followers, described him as “a hugger.” But he treats his profession as severe enterprise.
When he blocked a shot from his boyhood idol, Kevin Durant, his dad and mom assumed he’d be over the moon. Nope.
“He said, ‘At the end of the day, when we’re on the court, we’re all basketball players,’” Brenda recalled. “It’s like he blocked all that out.”
Sancomb dined with Highsmith in Miami earlier this 12 months. The Heat had come again from a visit to Washington at 3 a.m., however Highsmith was again on the apply court docket at 10 a.m., capturing for 2 hours.
“He’s telling me that at dinner, and I loved it,” Sancomb stated. “Same person as he always was.”
Highsmith averaged profession highs of 17.9 minutes and 4.4 factors in 54 video games this season. He has performed sparingly within the postseason, however his breakouts — 15 factors in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals towards the Boston Celtics, that 18-point outburst towards the Nuggets — grabbed the eye of nationwide analysts reminiscent of Van Gundy.
“He’s taking it all in, but his mindset is, ‘I’m here and I belong here,’” stated his highschool pal, Johnson, who nonetheless communicates with him weekly. “He’s one of those guys from Baltimore where barely anybody talked about him, barely anyone knew him, but man, Haywood earned it.”
NBA Finals, Game 4
Nuggets at Heat
Friday, 8:30 p.m.
TV: Chs. 2, 7
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Source: www.bostonherald.com