Kings’ Buddy Hield rises from poverty to stardom to reach NBA 3-Point Contest
Millions visit the Bahamas each year, most of them tourists who soak up the warm sun on white-sand beaches while gazing out over crystal-clear water during dream getaways.
Most never see the poverty and hardship Kings guard Buddy Hield experienced as a kid because few dare to enter the Pinedale neighborhood in Eight Mile Rock, a coastal region west of Freeport. Hield’s mother always made sure he had something to eat, but he didn’t have much else.
Hield knew his own dreams would never come true unless he found a way to escape the islands.
“Where I’m from, it’s not like the resorts,” he said. “People just look at the resort parts and they don’t really go inland to see daily life. It’s tough, man, but I wouldn’t trade it for nothing because that’s what made me who I am today. That’s a good resemblance of me.”
Hield was one of seven children raised by a single mother who worked 14-hour days as a housekeeper to provide for her kids after their father threw them out. Hield was 11 years old when he started playing basketball. At the time, his mother wouldn’t let him go to the park to play because of gang and drug activity in the area, so he found another way to hone his skills.
Hield cut the bottom out of a plastic crate. He created a backboard using an old piece of plywood. Then, he borrowed a hammer and nails from his uncle so he could put up his hoop on a wooden lamppost in front of his grandmother’s three-bedroom home, where he lived with nine other relatives.
“The crate court was so fragile, so to make a basket you really had to shoot the ball in the crate, which was tough,” Hield said. “It took good mental focus, but it was fun.”
That makeshift hoop is where Hield learned to shoot. Now, he’s here, at the Spectrum Center, where he will be one of the favorites in the NBA 3-Point Contest on All-Star Saturday Night. According to the Bovada online sportsbook, Hield has the second-best odds of winning behind Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, a Charlotte native who grew up in NBA arenas during his father’s 16-year pro career.
Hield, 26, reflected on his remarkable journey in a wide-ranging interview with The Bee, discussing his childhood, fatherhood, his status as a role model in the Bahamas and where he might be if he hadn’t traversed this unlikely path to NBA All-Star Weekend.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t pursue basketball,” he said. “The drugs are the attraction for young guys in the Bahamas. If you make it in the drug game, you get your fast money, you’re poppin’ on the islands, but I wanted good money. I wanted money that wouldn’t make me go to jail or put me in danger. I wanted to make a living for me and my family and do what I love doing, something that would let me take care of my family for years and generations.”
Kyle Lindsted, an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, was coaching high school basketball at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kan., when he discovered Hield at a youth showcase in Freeport. He quickly noticed how people gravitated to Hield.
“He just had a magnetic personality,” Lindsted said. “When he wasn’t on the court, literally the whole gym would be gathered around him. He’s got that charisma that people want to be around.”
Lindsted also thought Hield could be a pretty good player.
“He wasn’t one of the main prospects there at all, but he was a winner,” Lindsted said. “He wasn’t flashy. He wasn’t very athletic. He was barely dunking it. He had never lifted weights and he didn’t have the greatest body from the nutrition he had, but he could shoot the ball.”
Lindsted recruited Hield to attend his school but first spent time getting to know his family in Eight Mile Rock, including his mother, Jackie Braylen. The house didn’t have electricity and the neighborhood was rough, but there was an unmistakable sense of community.
“I can’t compare it to anything I’ve seen here in the United States,” Lindsted said. “I don’t know if it’s a third-world country, but in certain areas it is. It’s poverty. There’s no nice way to say it, but I tell you what — it’s a wonderful house to be in. His mom’s spirit is beautiful. She’s grateful, she’s thankful, she knows right and wrong. She is why Buddy is what he is. She is a special human being.”
Hield left home to join Lindsted at Sunrise Christian Academy, where he became a coveted college recruit. He chose Oklahoma over Kansas, fulfilled his dream of playing in the NCAA Tournament and was named National Player of the Year, establishing himself as a top NBA prospect.
“From Day 1, when I talked to him, he was like, ‘Coach, I’m going to make it to the NBA and I’m going to take care of my mom and my family,’” Lindsted said. “A lot of kids say stuff like that, but I’ve never seen a dude who just willed it the way he did. He’s the hardest worker I’ve ever seen.”
The New Orleans Pelicans drafted Hield with the sixth pick in the 2016 draft, but they traded him to the Kings eight months later as part of the deal that sent DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans. Hield began to blossom as soon as he arrived in Sacramento, averaging 15.1 points over the final 25 games of the season.
He scored a team-high 29 points in last year’s Rising Stars game and emerged as an All-Star candidate this season. Hield is averaging career highs of 20.5 points and 5.1 rebounds. He’s fourth in the NBA in 3-point shooting at 44.9 percent.
“He can get hot at any second,” Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox said. “He can score 15 in a row by himself. It’s always great to have a guy who can just go off like that.”
Hield shot 53.4 percent from 3-point range over 15 games in January, astonishing even his teammates.
“He is one of the best shooters in the league right now,” Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic said. “The shots he is making, it’s unbelievable.”
Hield scored 32 points against the Warriors, 34 against the Philadelphia 76ers, 35 against the Detroit Pistons and 37 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“He scares everybody,” San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He moves without the ball. He’s tough-minded. He’s confident. He’s somebody to be dealt with every game.”
Hield has been instrumental in the Kings’ success as they try to reach the playoffs after 12 losing seasons.
“You watch him and you just smile because he loves to play and he loves to make a play, and it’s not selfish or greedy in any way, shape or form,” Kings coach Dave Joerger said. “... You just have to love his spirit and what he brings to our team.”
Hield is smiling a lot these days, too. He has a 14-month-old daughter who frequently greets him outside the locker room after games at Golden 1 Center.
“She’s beautiful and she’s full of joy,” he said. “Every day, I get to wake up and see her in the morning, and she calls me ‘dadada.’ It’s one of the best feelings ever.”
If Hield could see his reflection in those crystal-clear waters back in the Bahamas now, he would see a man whose dreams are coming true. He’ll fulfill another one when he steps on the court for the 3-point Contest on Saturday night.
“I want to go out there and win it, not for me but for all the guys I grew up with, all the people in the Bahamas who have been with me through my struggles, all the people who know how hard I worked and how much I wanted it,” Hield said. “If you’re a shooter, you want to be in the 3-point shootout. This is one of my ultimate dreams and now it’s about to happen, so I want to show everyone back home that, if you work hard, if you put your mind to it, if believe in your faith and believe in yourself, anything is possible.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 7:05 PM.
