Matt Lane received two text messages, but he was so excited that he didn't read either one.
It was February 27, 2022, and Ryan was playing for the U.S. national team as an NBA G League player. Not the U.S. national team that won gold at the Olympics, as you've heard of or cared about, but the team that is working hard to qualify for the Men's Basketball World Cup in the Philippines through a series of obscure competitions. Once they do qualify, then Matt Lane can't go to Southeast Asia. When the NBA superstars in the United States take over, they get out of the way.
On that last Sunday in February, in a stadium on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in front of hundreds of fans, Ryan was thrilled to lead his team to a win over Mexico.
"He takes it very seriously and doesn't care about anything but the team." David Stockton recalled. David Stockton is the son of Naismith Hall of Famer John Stockton, who played for the U.S. team with Ryan.
It was the last day of the U.S. team of this lineup together. After the game, they take a bus back to the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown and then take another bus to Dulles International Airport to catch a flight home or to the destination of the corresponding G League match. Ryan bought a ticket to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he would reunite with the Nuggets, the Denver Nuggets' G-League team.
So he looked at his phone to see if there was any new news.
One text message came from his agent, Eric Fleisher. The other came from David Lewin, assistant general manager of the Boston Celtics. Ryan saw the text message, and they all said the same. "Good week done. When you hear the message, please call me back as soon as possible. ”
Ryan put down the phone and went back to the locker room to continue shaking hands and hugging. Sean Ford, who has long served as the chief operating officer of the U.S. men's basketball team, walked into the locker room to look for Ryan, and Ford asked, "Have you talked to your agent?" When Ryan said he hadn't done it yet, he urged Ryan to hurry up and get it done.
The bus drove towards the hotel, and on the way Lane received a call on his mobile phone, which was an unfamiliar number, so he simply did not answer. Anyway, the car is too noisy to hear clearly. When the bus stopped in front of the Marriott Hotel, Ryan stepped out of the car, and he could see his breath in the winter air. Not far from the door, he stopped and took out his phone. He heard a voice message from Celtics president Brad Stevens.
At this time, Ryan's parents, grandparents and brothers, who had come from New York to watch the game, gathered in the hall. He told them all the text messages and phone calls, and then walked to the side and called back. Stevens told him: "You're already an NBA player. "Celtic immediately signed him a two-way contract.
The destination he was flying to that night was Boston, not Michigan.
"I talked to Stevens for about five minutes, then hung up and started crying." "My family was in tears, and then Coach (Jim) Boylan came to me and saw me crying, and then he started crying," Ryan said. ”
Ryan was 24 at the time, and it was his first season in the Development League. He played for the University of Notre Dame, Vanderbilt University and the University of Chattanooga and shot a combined 36 percent from three-point range before being interrupted in his final year due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the 2021 NBA Draft, he was undrafted, so he did not make it to the G League campus to play. Just a year before he got Stevens' call, he was delivering food at DoorDash and working at a cemetery in Yonkers (a suburb of New York City) close to his childhood home.
After all the hard work, he spends hours alone in Yonkers' gym. The whole world was extinguished, and he didn't have a team. The shovel left calluses on his hands. He had to swim in the local pool to stay in shape. After playing more than a dozen G-League games, he shot a whopping 38 percent from three-point range. He's going to move toward the NBA.
When Ryan arrived in Washington a week ago to play under Boyland, he hadn't been offered by the Celtics, but Stevens sent a scout to watch the U.S. practice and game and was shocked by the reports. Ryan's shot tore the net to pieces.
In two World Cup qualifiers against Puerto Rico and Mexico, the 2.01m tall Ryan made all 18 three-pointers. He threw in 9. Then Stevens' call came.
Ryan broke into the NBA on his own terms.
"I was alone at home, one in the gym, playing basketball for hours a day, and I seemed to be convincing myself that I was the best shooter in the world." Ryan said, "Now I'm here and playing with the best players in the world. ”
The team he came to was the Los Angeles Lakers. In the Lakers' game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night, Ryan hit a parish three-point shot to drag the game into overtime and ultimately help the Lakers win. And "the best player in the world" refers to LeBron James.
Let's fast forward from February on the day of fate in the capital to the present. Ryan played in the summer league for the Celtics in the summer, then was invited to join the Lakers training camp and played for the Lakers who were not very good at shooting in the preseason, shooting 36% of the three-point range. He earned a place in the rotation.
When I spoke to Ryan last week, his position with the Lakers was delicate. Ryan played 18 minutes on the night of the opener, and on Sunday night against the Nuggets for his first win of the season, Ryan came on and made two three-pointers. But he has had a few games in the Lakers, which have a younger roster and a terrible performance this season. The Lakers' uniform team took a cautious approach to see if Lane's form improved. He scored a career-high 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting against the Pelicans. It all came at just the right time.
He will get more and more opportunities.
In the opener against the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers' Troy Brown and Dennis Schroder were both sidelined due to injury, so head coach Darwin Hamm let Ryan play. He shot 1-of-3 from beyond the three-point line, while the Lakers lost to the Warriors on 10-of-40 three-pointers. James said after the game: "I'll be honest, our team's shooting ability is not great. ”
At least until Ryan hit a parish three-pointer, in terms of how well James knew Ryan, it could be said that he barely realized what Ryan was able to do in the league.
But James will pass the ball to almost anyone. Once the unknown cemetery repairman was able to score a goal, James would give him a second chance.
"Every day when I come to the gym, I have to prove that I am the best goalscorer in the training gym." "The biggest difference between my current experience in the NBA and my previous experience with other teams is the trust between my teammates. Now that I'm on the Lakers, playing with these prestigious players, I find myself in an open position and can't get the ball because there's no trust in the team. ”
"James has achieved so much in his career and has worked with a number of goalscorers to achieve success. Playing with him, I felt like my opportunity had come. He can really look at me like he did with the great goalscorers he's had before. That's the least I think, and I wish I could do it. ”
If Ryan can establish himself on the Lakers and officially enter Hamm's rotation through his shooting ability, it will be a good story for the Lakers locker room this season, which has been plagued by Russell Westbrook's embarrassing incompatibility and Anthony Davis' various injuries.
Yet his story has long been a shining example on Team USA. It's just that you rarely hear about it.
In each Olympic event, you can see Kevin Durant's U.S. team against France, or James's U.S. team beating a host of opponents at the London Olympics. But beyond that, the U.S. team has two or three games. Wearing national team uniforms in these games are young players you've never heard of or have long forgotten. Most of these games are played during the NBA season, and 99.99% of the basketball world does not pay attention to FIBA qualifiers. Even if the qualifying tournaments are held in the summer, the superstars of Team USA automatically ignore these matches. They will only play in the Olympics, maybe the World Cup and so on.
The U.S. team in qualifiers plays in sweltering stadiums in Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. Even if they don't get attention or benefits, they have to win enough games for the U.S. team to qualify for the World Cup (and then finish high in the World Cup to qualify for the Olympics). If they lose, the price to pay could be to cost Team USA the honor of world number one.
When accepting an invitation to fight for your country, there is always a sense of pride. But in many cases, players have the best chance to enter the NBA after making the decision to play for their country.
Two players on the current U.S. qualifying roster have made it to the NBA. Ryan is one of them. The Celtics left their final rotation seat to Justin Jackson, the player who made a big contribution to the U.S. team throughout the summer.
"Every player on the national team has the quality to play in the NBA." Stockton, who played briefly in the NBA and is about to start a new season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the G League, said, "Getting into the NBA is just a matter of luck." ”
With most NBA players declining invitations or unable to play, Ford tried to build a national team roster that included G League player Ryan, former NBA player Stockton, John Jenkins, who became a U.S. superstar in the summer and returned to the G League to ignite the new season, and Langston Galloway, who was playing the Finals with the Suns two seasons ago and now has no professional games to play. Galloway will compete in Team USA's next World Cup qualifier in Washington this month. Joe Johnson and Jordan Bell are also in Ryan's national team lineup.
"Ryan is a great example. The players in our team are able to show well in the game and may be given a chance afterwards. "For us, it's helping their careers, like 'I'm going to play for the U.S. team, and I'm going to benefit from that.'" ”
Ford first noticed Ryan in December, when Ford hurried through the airport in Las Vegas to catch the tail of the annual G-League player show. Ford bumped into Scott Howard, who runs the Grand Rapids Nuggets, who told Ford that a tall, skinny man named Ryan trained hard and shot hundreds of three-pointers a day. He could be a suitable addition to Team USA.
The next month, Ford was watching his son's hockey game when news was taken that a player who had promised to join the national team was now leaving. Ford immediately called Ryan, who accepted the invitation almost immediately.
"Some players will say in this situation, let me talk to the agent." "He was very excited to play for us and he said to me, 'Coach, I'll take whatever assignment you give me'. Then he shot 9-of-18 from the field, and then that's what you know, he joined the Celtics and so on. This child has a simple heart. The players who come to play with us continue to learn and grow. ”
After a brief national team experience, Stockton and Ryan became good friends. Ryan swore to Boylen that he would definitely fight to play for the latter again.
After beating Mexico in February, that's all Lane had on his mind. The reason why he didn't look at his phone to read the message in time was because of the two of them.
Ryan took a bus from Marriott to Dulles International Airport and then to Boston. Sitting next to him in the bus was Galloway. Galloway played more than 450 NBA games and averaged 10 points per game with the Pistons four seasons ago.
Like Ryan, Galloway was also undrafted. He knows what it's like to be called to an NBA team, and he texted Ryan after Team USA won and Ryan got his contract with the Celtics.
As the bus leaves the capital for the surrounding airports and crosses the lush Virginia highway, Galloway sits tightly beside Ryan, teaching him his experience as he parts.
"He was like, 'Wow, this is coming so fast.'" And I said to him 'hey, don't worry about anything else, just mind your own business.' "Just have fun and enjoy the process." Let's look at where he is now, it's crazy. ”
After hitting that shot on Wednesday, we wish Ryan could read the message on his phone in time.