NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates
Dylan Cardwell isn’t supposed to be here.
It’s not just that he’s still in the visiting locker room minutes before the team bus is scheduled to Madison Square Garden while the cleaning crew vacuums around us. It’s not just that he stayed on the court with family long after other players had already showered and changed. It’s more fundamental than that. Basketball players who average just 15 minutes per game in their college careers and go undrafted simply don’t become key members of an NBA rotation. They don’t help hold All-Star centers to one of their worst shooting performances of the year, but here Cardwell is, and the impossibility of it is not lost on him.
Advertisement
“None of this is promised, and it can be taken away like that,” the 24-year-old says after a loss to the Knicks. “Philippians 4:11-12 says, ‘I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.’ That’s kind of how my life has really been.”
Growing up, Cardwell was a talented prospect and an imposing physical specimen, but he had to work for every opportunity. He was a ball boy at Peach Jam for three years before being able to play in the game. He transferred from Oak Hill Academy after his junior year of high school to play back home in Georgia at McEachern High School, only to be ruled ineligible by the Georgia High School Association. He had to sit out all year and hope to maintain his standing with colleges. Even when he got to Auburn, he was forced to earn his spot every season.
“After going to Auburn, I didn’t play right away. Then I played 15 minutes the next year, 12 minutes the next year, 14 minutes the next year. I never played 20 minutes until my fifth year. I never started until my fifth year. For me, it just showed me that, at the end of the day, whenever I get to my Promised Land, whenever I get to my harvest, to rejoice in that and be glad in it.”
Fortunately for him, finding joy in things has always been at the core of who Dylan Cardwell is. Even in college, people at Auburn knew him more for his personality than his athletic accolades.
Advertisement
“No one knew I was an athlete,” he laughs.”
In fact, Cardwell…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/old-school-effort-energy-propel-192426574.html
Author :
Publish date : 2026-01-30 19:24:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
