On the first day of the 2022 NBA All-Star Weekend, Champion Coach Cade Cunningham led the youth storm and led the Rick Barry team to win the Rookie Challenge championship with his outstanding performance, and was elected MVP!
How did the 20-year-old NBA rising star get to where he is today? Behind his success, what are the different stories?
The four-point shift is a tall point guard
Cunningham, who is 6 feet 6 inches tall, was born as a front guard swinger material, but his real role on the court was the core of the organization responsible for command and dispatch, which had a lot to do with his upbringing.
Cunningham was born in Arlington, Texas, where his father, Keith Cunningham, was a football player who worked as a quarter-pointer at Texas Tech. Influenced by his father, Cunningham also loved rugby from an early age and played mainly in the quarter position, which had an important impact on his future basketball career.
"The quarterback has to lead the team, so I think it's going to be a big help to my leadership and passing skills." Cunningham once said in an interview, "I have a very good vision, which is definitely due to the experience of playing quarterback. ”
Cunningham focused on rugby until junior high school graduation, but then under the influence of his older brother (Cade's older brother Canin was a Southern Methodist University men's basketball player and later an assistant coach at Tulane University), he began to shift his energy to basketball. Cunningham has repeatedly stressed that he can have today's success, and his brother is the greatest.
"He helped me a lot, he always motivated me to move forward and let me know what was wrong with me. He doesn't whitewash the peace, and if I don't perform well, he'll tell me straight and let me know how to succeed. ”
LeBron James was another man who influenced Cunningham's style of play and made him finally determined to go the high point guard route:
"I often watch games at all levels and I like LeBron and he's the best, so I think if I can play like him, I'll be great too. I like to study the way those tall defenders play because that's my ultimate direction. I'll study the way defenders who are similar to me play, learn from them how to play, how to create shooting opportunities. ”
Cunningham has a well-rounded offensive skill, averaging 20.1 points per game in Oklahoma last season and a 40 percent shooting percentage from beyond the three-point line. But what really makes him the perfect choice in this recognized draft year is his ability to read games and pass the organization.
In the first game of today's rookie game, he alone contributed 13 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists in a 50-point game. In the final, against Isaiah Thomas, although he scored only five points, he handled the ball several times and helped Barry laugh 25-20 to the end. These included a crucial three-point shot to give the team a 24-20 lead, as well as a final-minute assist to Wagnerbo's free throw opportunity to kill the game.
"Everything is for the win, I believe our team has the strength and it is very happy that we have done it." In an interview after the game, Cunningham was full of team and victory, and did not confess himself by half a point.
His daughter is the driving force behind his endeavor
At the NBA draft on July 30 last year, "quasi-champion" Cunningham appeared in the little green house with his little daughter in his arms, and compared with the group of green-faced students of the same level next to him, he looked particularly calm and calm.
Some people say that children make a man really mature, because only as a parent, you will deeply understand and understand what responsibility is. According to this account, Cunningham has been a "mature man" since he was 17 years old.
Cunningham's youngest daughter, Riley, was born in 2018, when Cunningham was a high school student at Montverde College. When she learned that Cunningham had a child, his mother, Carly, panicked, but her brother, Carnin, believed cunningham could handle it all: "Wait and see Mom, Cade will be a good father." ”
Because she is busy with training and competitions on weekdays, Cunningham can't take care of her daughter all the time, and can only give her to her parents, but every weekend he will rush home to visit her, and he often video-connects with her daughter.
After graduating from high school, the reason why he refused to be called up by famous schools such as Duke, Kentucky, and North Carolina, and resolutely chose Oklahoma University, is also because it is closer to his daughter.
"Yes, of course," he admitted as he explained his school choice decision, "I had to leave Montverde when she was born, so it would certainly be better to have the chance to be closer to her." The four-hour drive wasn't too bad and I was lucky enough to get her the chance to watch some of my races. ”
Oklahoma coach Mike Boynton also said: "Riley is a very important part of his life because of her presence, which gives him a completely different sense of urgency and responsibility, and I think he has done a very good job. ”
Cunningham's personality was already more mature than his peers, and the birth of his daughter made him more mature. Because the world has changed, he is no longer the only protagonist, and basketball has more meaning.
"I have to succeed," Cunningham said, "and I have to do my best for her, and I have to do everything I can." My daughter changed the way I looked at life and made me more focused. Everything I did was for her. ”
First suppressed and then raised, tomorrow's superstar
Before the start of the 2021 draft, almost all teams in the lotto district are hoping to get a draw for an upward trade, because only then can they take down Cunningham.
But the Pistons are also well aware of the value of this signing, since the disintegration of the championship team at the beginning of the century, they have not won any playoffs in 13 years, and it is difficult to find a cornerstone of reconstruction, how to easily let go.
Cunningham thus became the new head of the family, but his NBA career had just begun, and he suffered a small setback. Because of an accidental sprained ankle, he missed the entire preseason game, and the debut date was delayed until the fifth game after the start of the regular season.
Because he did not "warm up" enough, Cunningham's debut was very bad, only hitting 1 goal in 8 shots in the whole game, and 5 shots outside the three-point line were completely lost. In fact, not only this game, Cunningham only shot 28.4% from the field and 22.2% from three-point range in the first 5 games of his career, averaging 2.8 assists per game and 3.4 turnovers! He also became the first player in NBA history to shoot more than eight times in the first two games of his career, but his shooting percentage was less than 15%.
However, as the season progressed, Cunningham gradually adapted, according to his own explanation: "At the beginning I was a little too hard, too much to adapt but difficult to adapt. Now I'm really relaxing and trying to have fun from the game, so I'm getting more comfortable playing. ”
Cunningham, who is becoming more and more comfortable, has created the following achievements before the arrival of the first All-Star Weekend of his career:
The first rookie in Pistons history to have at least 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and three three-pointers in a single game;
The youngest Mr. Triple-Double in Pistons history (20 years and 57 days);
Seventh player in NBA history to have at least 240 points, 100 rebounds, 75 assists, 20 steals and 10 blocks in the first 17 games of his career;
The youngest player in NBA history to have at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a single game and hit at least five three-pointers;
He scored 25+5+5 four times in his first 36 games, equaling the all-time record held by Isaiah Thomas and Grant Hill;
The first player in NBA history to have at least 34 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 4 blocks, and 6 three-pointers in a single game;
The second rookie in NBA history to have at least 34 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four blocks in a single game (the other is Michael Jordan);
The youngest player in Pistons history to have at least 30 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a single game, and the first player in this rookie to play a similar number, etc. and so on.
In the past January, Cunningham averaged 17.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game, and was named the rookie of the East. Although he may temporarily lag behind Evan Mobley in the competition for the best rookie due to the team's overall record, it is clear that his future has a broader imagination.
It was the 27th time the NBA held a rookie game on All-Star Weekend, and in 1994, when the league first introduced the tournament, "Penny" Hardaway was elected MVP for its outstanding performances.
Interestingly, Cunningham and Penny's technical types are quite similar, the two are equally tall, smart, equally capable of scoring and better at creating opportunities for teammates. In time, I believe he will also become a superstar who can affect the pattern of the league!