INDEPENDENCE It’s been said adversity reveals who an individual is as a person.
The same can be said for players of most sports. That includes the Cavaliers’ first-round draft choice Collin Sexton.
Though he only played one season for the University of Alabama as its point guard, he and his teammates received a heaping dose of adversity on Nov. 25 of last year in a game against Minnesota at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Through a series of convoluted circumstances involving players jawing at one another, technical fouls, ejections and injuries, the Crimson Tide found themselves playing 3-on-5 for approximately the last 11 minutes of the game.
Even more wild: Despite trailing by 11 points, Alabama nearly came back for the upset. The Tide cut the Gophers’ lead to three points with a little over a minute to go. In the midst of the comeback, the Tide, led by Sexton, outscored Minnesota 30-22.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Sexton said he never expected to find himself in such a situation.
“Growing up you’ll have like AAU games where people will be running late or something,” he said Friday afternoon, “so that’s when you need to do it. Other than that, I never expected it.”
What did he learn about himself?
“I fought to the end and we had an opportunity to win,” he said.
The box score revealed a player who rose to meet the moment. Sexton scored 40 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out five assists in the losing effort and he was upset the Tide lost 89-84, despite the disadvantage.
“He was unbelievably upset,” Alabama coach and former NBA point guard Avery Johnson said. “He was almost brought to tears in the locker room. One, because obviously his teammates weren’t there to support him and he was so disappointed that our guys got ejected from the game.”
However, that game displayed and amplified strengths coaches tend to crave and love in their players.
“On the other side, he was basically in tears because he thought we were going to win the game,” Johnson said. “He had a shot there inside of a minute where we could have either went up by one or tied the game with a shot he had on the right baseline and he missed it.
“He was like, ‘Coach, I should have made that shot.’ I just think because of the competitive nature he really thought we were going to win the game and he tried to will us to win that game. That’s part of him, though, that’s part of his DNA. It’s real. That’s what I really appreciate about him.”
Championship-caliber players usually possess something extra to put them over the hump. Call it heart. Call it drive. Perhaps it’s something else. However, considering this and the fact reports had Sexton working out until 11 p.m. the night before the draft, it would appear he has it.
Cavs General Manager Koby Altman wasn’t at that game, but one of the team’s scouts made him aware of it and they watched it. During his post-draft press availability it’s not hyperbole to suggest Altman was enamored of the possibilities involving Sexton.
“I was shocked. He actually almost had a chance to bring them back. He’s a competitor. He’s a competitor,” Altman said. “And how do you overachieve, to your question, how do you overachieve? How do we get there? We’ve got to find overachievers. We’ve got to find workers.
“That’s the only way to do it. That’s really the only way to do it because that’s an all-time great team (Golden State Warriors) out there and we need to find every inch that we can and that sort of substance, that sort of character, that’s going to help us.”
Is Sexton the one to help with that? Should Cavs fans dare to dream about the possible? LeBron James, who is currently contemplating his future and whether to remain with the team, mentioned when Kyrie Irving was lighting it up here that he envisioned a day when the team would transition from James’ team to Irving’s. Needless to say, Irving, who is in Boston now, had other ideas.
Sexton has just a year of college under his belt, but if he does indeed possess that inner drive, that heart, who better to help him realize his potential than James? It would be interesting to see. However, it’s evident those involved in this process have confidence in Sexton regardless.
“The bigger the stage, the better. He’s not afraid of the big stage, the big lights,” Johnson said. “When you’re playing against all these elite point guards in the NBA, he’s not going to ask anybody for their autographs, OK. He’s obviously going to give them a healthy dose of respect, but he’s going to think that he belongs on the floor. It’s not fabricated, it’s just who he is.”