Journey To Jadwin - Devin Cannady

6/25/2020

1,515 career points. An Ivy League Championship. An NBA contract with the Brooklyn Nets.

Devin Cannady’s basketball accomplishments speak for themselves, but his Journey To Jadwin shows that the kid from Mishawaka with the sweet jump shot has often been overlooked and has had to prove the doubters wrong throughout his career.

Cannady was introduced to the game of basketball by his father Tony, who played himself at a small school in Mishawaka called Bethel College.

“He’d put in Michael Jordan tapes when I was three in the VHS, we’d sit down and he’d tell me this is the greatest basketball player of all-time,” said Cannady. “The greatest basketball player ever."

Because he had the passion for it, because it was something he had such a love for, I immediately picked up on that.

Devin Cannady

Along with Cannady’s early introduction to the game via tapes of Michael Jordan, his father was active on the 3-on-3 circuit and Devin would regularly attend his games.

Cannady also credits his first coach, Coach Anthony, as being highly influential in the early part of his career. Playing against six-year-olds at the YMCA, a five-year old Devin Cannady would learn valuable lessons from Coach Anthony that have stayed with him to this day.

“Everyone is out there just messing around and having fun,” explained Cannady. “He’d ask ‘what does this line represent?’ It was basically an outline of the court and the answer he was looking for was discipline. You can’t just run out of the lines, there’s a confinement of the court, the geometric shape of the court, but within that you also have to be disciplined."

You have be disciplined with the way you shoot, you have to be disciplined with the way you pass. That struck a cord in a five-year old me, the concept of discipline within the game of basketball.

Devin Cannady

A year later, a six-year-old Devin Cannady would learn another powerful lesson; how to deal with adversity. Kids were instructed to first dribble down and back with their right hand, followed by down and back with their left hand. Cannady was at the front of the pack when dribbling with his right hand, but it was a different story when he switched to his left.

“I remember kids being at the end of the court heading back, but I was only at half court, so they were all done and I was the only one left on the court so I immediately started crying,” proclaimed Cannady. “The coach took me to the side and my mom (Jessica) asked what happened, I told her the ball hit my eye because I was so embarrassed I couldn’t dribble with my left hand.”

This occasion parlayed into the role Cannady’s father had.

“He said ‘you can’t be ashamed or upset you aren’t as good as them but it’s something you have to work on.’ It’s going to take time…That next year, my dad had footage of me being able to do left-handed layups and being much more capable of dribbling with my left hand.”

As Cannady’s love of the game continued to develop, so did the impact he was making on the court. At age 12, he made the trip to the Wide World of Sports facility in Orlando with his local AAU Team, MBA Select.

I was making threes for a third-grader, and-ones and getting steals. We ended up placing 12th in the nation as a small team filled with small, Indiana kids.

Devin Cannady

“Indiana is known for its basketball, but we weren’t extremely athletic or talented but we knew how to play,” said Cannady. "At that time, I really showed myself that I played against all these kids who are doing the same thing as me across the nation, and I showed I could play really well. That’s where I started getting the confidence in myself I could play this game at a much higher level, but the fact I loved it made it so much better.”

Playing with his MBA Select squad and the Indiana Thunder, Cannady’s AAU career would go from strength-to-strength.

“There was a game going into my junior year and we played against Indiana Elite, a team that consisted of all high-major guys and I scored 41 points,” explained Cannady. “We beat them…that was the game in AAU my name jumped up the charts.”

Seeking the opportunity to regularly play against the best players in the country, Cannady would move on to play for the Spiece Indy Heat, a Nike team that played on the EYBL circuit.

“My first tournament I played against Malik Monk and Jason Tatum, you’re 16-17 years old and are playing against guys who are NBA All-Stars now,” said Cannady. “I chose to leave my small team to play on that for the experience of playing against the best guys."

I didn’t want to weigh myself up against guys in my town, I wanted to weigh myself up against guys on a national scale…I had to leave to affirm that to myself, because it wasn’t being affirmed to me by outside sources.

Devin Cannady

As Cannady’s AAU career was successful, so to was his high school career. He attended Marian High School in Mishawaka and cites being named to the Indiana All-Star Team his senior year as one of his proudest accomplishments. Known as a shooter, Cannady was originally told by those picking the team they were unsure if they had a spot for him as they doubted his ability to play point guard; he would ended up making the team and proving them wrong.

“By the end of that week, we beat the Kentucky All-Stars in Louisville and Indianapolis, and I was the MVP of the game in Indianapolis,” explained Cannady.

“The guys who won it in the past went on to have really, really good NBA careers, it was a sign for me that that was the level I was at,” said Cannady. "It was something people around the state of Indiana respect.”

Cannady wanted to make his college decision before the start of basketball season his senior year. He played football all four years in high school and was an all-state quarterback his junior and senior years.

“Brett (MacConnell) said ‘it looks like we’re not going to basketball practices, we’re going to football practices.’ I played quarterback and at some practices, quarterbacks wouldn’t do much. It was raining, Brett was standing off to the sideline in his jacket, it’s pouring rain on him and I’m literally punting the football, messing around."

I really appreciated that moment, it showed he really cared to recruit me. Brett’s one of the best recruiters in the nation, he makes you feel like family. He is family to me and my family.

Devin Cannady

Along with the bond he formed with MacConnell, Cannady also formed a special bond with Franklin C. Cappon-Edward C. Green '40 Head Coach Mitch Henderson.

We had a different kind of connection, both mentally and physically, what we meant to our communities in Indiana.

Devin Cannady

“Mitch was the star at Culver Academy, he got drafted to play for the Yankees, I was a star in football and also in basketball. In those communities where basketball is so important he could have easily gone to an Indiana or a Purdue, that’s obviously what I thought my path would be growing up. Hearing his experience from leaving Indiana, going to Princeton, and everything that did for his family but also for himself in growing and getting out of that Indiana context, it resonated with me 100 percent.”

Once at Princeton, Cannady would etch his name into the record book in multiple categories. Along with sitting fifth in points, he is the program’s leading free throw shooter by percentage, among those with at least 100 attempts, at .896. His 268 three-pointers rank third all-time in school history and he collected a pair of All-Ivy League and All-District honors during his time as a Tiger.

Despite the individual honors, it is the team success Cannady holds most dearly.

Winning that Ivy League Championship, it’s hard to beat that.

Devin Cannady

“As a team, we were really close," explained Cannady. "In December, we lost to Monmouth and there were a couple games earlier in the season we lost. We were getting a little frustrated, tensions were rising, there were definitely some peaks and valleys in that season but once we got on that winning streak, we were unstoppable. We got to the NCAA Tournament, it was such a memorable moment.”

Off the court at Princeton, Cannady had the opportunity to study abroad in Tanzania the summer after his freshman year.

“I spent two months over there…I always said I’m ‘Just a Kid From Mishawaka’ and then I stretched my comfort zone and went to Princeton, then stretched my comfort zone and went to out to Tanzania. That experience has opened my world view ever since.”

Since leaving Princeton, Cannady played for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s summer league team in 2019 then signed a contract with the Brooklyn Nets.

He has since played for Brooklyn’s G-League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, and had an impressive first season averaging 14.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

Along with his impressive first professional season, Cannady simultaneously finished his degree at Princeton, an accomplishment he is most proud of.

Along with the bonds he has made through the game of basketball, it is the bond with his family that he holds dearest to his heart.

“At times it can look like ‘you’re leaving your family’, but in reality I’m leaving so I can come back and build a stronger foundation for us,” said Cannady. "I love my siblings (Delaina, Dylan and Deric) to death, my sister just got acceptance and is going to Ball State University. She’s going to be the second one in our family hopefully. My two younger brothers look up to me, I do everything for them. I keep family really, really close to my heart… We’re all unique and different, my youngest brother is most likely going to be a four or five-star recruit in basketball. He’s extremely talented, he’s taken my path more so than my other siblings.”

With a hopeful future in the NBA, Cannady is thankful for the role Princeton has played, and will continue to play, in his life.

I’m just thankful for the person it has made me. The opportunities that it has provided me with so far, as a Princeton student I can only imagine the opportunities it will present me, my family and my future family.

Devin Cannady

Along with the institution itself, he is most appreciative of the people he met there.

“From my coaches, to my classmates, to my professors, to my man Howard, he’s at all the games. He took care of me when I was at Mathey, made me my omelets. He was like family to me, is still like family to me"

Princeton is like a family, it was difficult for me to leave home and leave that nest, that core group, but I acquired and will have a new family the rest of my life.

Devin Cannady