Most improved? Nothing new there along Charlotte Hornet Graham’s path to NBA
At Brewster Academy, Devonte Graham was the smiler: The relentlessly positive point guard and near-straight A student.
Except at night, when fear of the unknown consumed his thoughts.
“There were nights when I was just crying because I didn’t know if I was ever going to college,” now-Charlotte Hornet Graham recalled.
Graham was betting on himself, with his whole future at stake. Not just whether he’d play basketball, but whether he’d get a college education. He had signed with Appalachian State back when he was a 5-foot-6 runt in Raleigh. Then, he grew to 6-1 as his basketball profile soared.
Appalachian State declined to release him from his letter of intent, so Graham chose prep school at Brewster in New Hampshire, rather than lose a year of college eligibility. It was a major gamble, in that college coaches were barred from interacting with him throughout the winter of 2014.
Five years later, Graham is a Hornets starter, and arguably the most improved player in the NBA, averaging 18.7 points and 7.8 assists. Teammates describe him as an old soul: Persistent, patient, humble-yet-confident. A lot of that’s just naturally Graham. The rest is what he learned from being the guy not on every coach’s “must-sign” list.
‘No you’re not!’
Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., is a boarding school with 16 current or former NBA players among its alumni. Among them — former N.C. State player T.J. Warren, who grew up in Durham. Graham’s connection to the same AAU team as Warren’s opened the door for Graham to play post-grad at Brewster once he finished at Raleigh’s Broughton High.
Except Graham’s mom, Dewanna King, found the idea preposterous; she had Devonte when she was 14 and the notion of him shipping off to New Hampshire for an extra year of high school?
“No you’re not!’ she recalls shouting.
Brewster coach Jason Smith sold her on the idea over a couple of weeks. When Graham got to Brewster, he was surrounded by elite prospects, including future lottery pick Donovan Mitchell, now with the Utah Jazz.
Strangely enough, playing with recruits headed to Louisville, Syracuse, Georgetown and Oklahoma State, Graham often stuck out as the most dynamic player on Brewster’s roster.
That’s sure how Kansas assistant Norm Roberts remembers it.
“I go to Brewster to see Donovan (who later signed with Louisville) and some big guy. And I couldn’t take my eyes off Devonte,” Roberts said. “I see Jason Smith in the coaches office and say, ‘Hey, man, that’s your best player! What’s the deal?’”
Smith explained that Appalachian State declined to release Graham from the letter of intent, so he’s now in limbo as far as recruiting. Which evoked this promise from Roberts:
“As soon as he gets out of that letter, I’m coming back here!’
Phone blew up
Roberts might have been the most emphatic recruiter, but plenty of other schools noticed, including Virginia, Nebraska and hometown N.C. State. Under NCAA rules, college coaches could only communicate with Smith and not Graham. So Smith acted constantly as an intermediary.
Meanwhile, King was back in Raleigh, concerned enough about the stress of all this that she asked Smith if Graham should get counseling. Smith continuously reminded Graham he wasn’t being ignored.
“They couldn’t talk to me. They’d call Coach Smith and he’d hit me with, ‘Kansas called today’ or “N.C. State called today.’” Graham recalled.
“Then, I would go and look up (a program’s) roster to see how many point guards they had and who was committed (for the following season). I had to do all my own research since I couldn’t really communicate with them. That’s how I crossed some teams out.”
In the spring of 2014, Appalachian State made a coaching change, hiring former Davidson assistant Jim Fox to replace Jason Capel. One of the first things Fox did was release Graham from his letter of intent.
Within hours, Graham’s phone lit up with coaches. Kansas’ Roberts was all-in. The Jayhawks eventually beat out finalist N.C. State to sign Graham.
‘Battle every day’
Kansas coach Bill Self told Graham not to come to Lawrence with assumptions of playing time.
“You are going to have to battle every day to play,” Self told him.
“Good,” Roberts recalls Graham replying. “I want that.”
He stayed all four years, starting 111 consecutive games.
Roberts tells a story about a practice after a Kansas loss when Graham was so upset he threw a ball the length of the court into a wall at the far end of the gym. Roberts suggested Self sub out Graham for a minute to collect himself, reminding his boss that the outburst symbolized how much Graham cares.
“I said, ‘He cares about Kansas and himself, but he cares about his teammates more than anything,” Roberts described. “He’s extremely humble, but he’s also hungry... Everybody likes him, everybody trusts him.
“There is nothing phony about him.”
A different path
Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak traded two future second-round picks on draft night 2018 to acquire Graham four picks into the second round. He spent most of last season learning from an All-NBA point guard (Kemba Walker) backed up by a future Hall-of-Famer (Tony Parker).
Graham showed glimpses of belonging as a rookie, including a 4:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, but nothing resembling this explosive improvement: The highest season-to-season scoring jump in the NBA this season (from 4.7 average to 18.7). Second-most 3s made (82, behind Houston’s James Harden’s 98 as of Friday). Seventh in the NBA in assists at 7.7 per game.
Graham isn’t anything like an elite athlete by NBA standards, and doesn’t overpower anyone at 6-1. But he was so in charge once coach James Borrego inserted him into the starting lineup 10 games into the season.
“He’s such a confident kid,” Borrego said after Graham tied a team record with 10 3s made against the Golden State Warriors. “I love his mentality.”
Graham’s mom constantly hears how Devonte should have gone first round. As only a parent might, she disagrees.
“He had a different path. there’s a beauty in that,” King said.
“Second round? That’s OK. That is why he is who he is.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 7:22 PM.
