Sykes father, James, died of a heart attack June 6, 2012. 'You don't know who this is?'". At Marshall, we were a basketball powerhouse, and it was a Chicago public school. Keifer, along with six of his siblings and half-siblings, took the red line train with mom and dad to City Hall. And life off the court has been pock-marked with losses and tragedies tied to the gun violence that has riddled the streets of Chicago for a century. When Sykes joined the Phoenix, Mitchell put him back at his natural position, point guard. He was on a trip for a basketball tournament, and that's when he called his mother at work. [24], On September 13, 2020, Sykes signed with Trk Telekom B.K. Lisa Sykes was asking her son's coach to tell Keifer his father was gone because she couldn't bear to do it. While Sykes soaked in the action, more youngsters filed into the gym and for nearly all of them Sykes had a greeting, Whats up, killa? he asked one kid. We both were really scared. Like I said, I feel like I have one of the better stories, one of the best stories ever, when you think about what I had to go through.". We had guys on our team trying to feed their kids fast food. [10] For the second time in his career, he was named to the Honorable Mention AP All-American team. No one taught Branden Dawson how to be a father. When was Keifer Sykes born? So this is gonna be my first time playing 2K.". You could be winning and they still try to nitpick at something. "I can finally say I made it," Sykes said. Lisa Sykes said she cried nonstop when she initially saw the video, and she cried again while sitting in a back room at Proviso East with Keifer across the hall speaking to dozens of children she had just handed pizza to. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. At the conclusion of the regular season, Sykes was again named first team all-conference, he was named an honorable mention AP All-American, and was named Horizon Player of the Year. However, they waived him on 21 October of the same year, after three preseason games. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'biographyhost_com-box-4','ezslot_3',131,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-biographyhost_com-box-4-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'biographyhost_com-box-4','ezslot_4',131,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-biographyhost_com-box-4-0_1');.box-4-multi-131{border:none!important;display:block!important;float:none!important;line-height:0;margin-bottom:7px!important;margin-left:auto!important;margin-right:auto!important;margin-top:7px!important;max-width:100%!important;min-height:250px;padding:0;text-align:center!important}. A lot of people don't see the world until college. Hed come so close in the past and inched even closer with a shot that turned him into an overnight sensation. So when you see a kid and he graduated (high school) in 2021 on back, and he comes up and he makes it to the league, youll be like, Man, hes so tough. Sykes, 21, just won his second straight Horizon League Player of the Year honor. Our dedicated Editorial team verifies each of the articles published on the Biographyhost. Johnson has two teammates, Markel Crawford and Trahson Burrell, who are fathers. At the start of the 201314 season, Sykes was named to the preseason All-Horizon League team and was a nominee for the Bob Cousy Award for top point guard in the country. Sykes, a Chicago native who starred at Marshall High School, was twice named the Horizon LeaguePlayer of the Year at Wisconsin-Green Bay but went undrafted in 2015. In that week, Sykes averaged 28.7 points, five rebounds, and four assists per game while shooting 53.6% from the field, 50% from three, and leading the Phoenix to a 30 record. My foundation is about mass incarcerationand gun violence. [30][31] He was waived on April 7, 2022. "She was really scared to tell me," Dawson said of his girlfriend's pregnancy. [28], On August 5, 2021, Sykes signed a contract with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). All rights reserved. So all of this has been more than me. (Without prompt, Sykes publicly defended his coach throughout the ordeal.). Sykes subsequently joined the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and averaged 16.3 points, 8 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game. We had nothing, man. After a game at Indiana in 2012, Dawson asked coach Tom Izzo if he could ride with his family from Bloomington to Indianapolis to escape and spend one night with his son. "Most four-year players have a teammate at some point who is either having a child or has had a child," Illinois state coach Dan Muller, who's coached a few dads, said. He is at Green Bay because that staff impressed his father. She ran back downstairs to get my brother, and he said he was trying to perform CPR and when they called the police and the police got there, they tried but they couldn't bring him back to life.". The coaching staff awoke to find out the player was more than a thousand miles away and quit the team without telling anyone. The contract became guaranteed. It was tough, but I knew that might be a part of my journey with me being at a mid-major, Sykes said. I just needed to be myself, so I went into the bathroom, but I couldnt really get back up, Sykes said. My'Shawn's been to almost every Spartans home game this season, sitting with Dawson's high school coach, Johnny Ryan, and a former teammate, Devonte Harris. Sykes could match upagainst his "best friend" for the first time in the NBA when Indiana hosts Chicago on Feb. 4. Sykes said he was in a state of denial, praying hed wake up and the nightmare would be over. His players have brought their children over for playdates with Ray's son, who was born in 2013. Dawson's first two years at Michigan State consisted of few visits with My'Shawn during the season. Dawson grew up with a mother who loved him dearly and worked at a local hospital -- the same one My'Shawn was born at -- but there was a wall of fear he couldn't mount. Sykes had done all he could at Wisconsin Green-Bay, ending his illustrious college career with 2,096 points, 522 assists and 467 rebounds. Sykes has seen his role grow over the years, shouldering more and more of the offensive workload for Green Bay, while rounding himself into a dynamic offensive option. I could never do that. Imagine sitting in a class, your leg jackhammering the tile, waiting for a phone call to come. He was named first team All-Horizon League.[6]. Back home in Chicago, one of Sykes former high school coaches, Shawn Shake Harrington, watched it all unfold in tears. This is my path, and thats just what it is. Chicago. Lisa runs an out-of-home daycare operation. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. I was really on my own and traveling in Chicago for an hour each way each day. She's been a tremendous help to our players and our players' girlfriends. His daughter Zarah has just turned six years old on 22 September 2021. She lives more than 250 miles away, in Iowa, with her mother. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. I was freaking out. Sykes is from the South Side of Chicago, so he was originally supposed to attend Hyde Park Academy, Simeon or St. Rita, which have all produced pro players. When I was like, Oh, Im small, he was like, Nah, you can go to the NBA. Like Sykes, Dawson's been a father since he was a junior in high school. Sykes studied at Marshall High School, where he started playing basketball. [27], On December 8, 2020, Sykes signed a one-year contract with the South East Melbourne Phoenix of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL). He does stuff in his community.' It's a dimension some critics didn't realize when they were all too eager to bemoan Dawson's performance in MSU's loss last Sunday at Wisconsin, wherein Dawson had four points and two rebounds. Keifer Sykes, Indiana Pacers As a small guard playing in a big city, Sykes was consistently underappreciated and underranked. The shoes were squeaking, the coaches were yelling and the kids were smiling. Buchanan, who leads URI in assists, played in Tuesday night's game against the Flyers, a vital one for Rhode Island's NCAA tourney at-large chances. written on it in white letters, didnt hesitate before handing the kid his phone and obliging. Sykes signed a non-guaranteed two-year deal with a team option for the second season with Indiana on Dec. 27, and the 5-11 guardfound out he'd been retained for his first seasonwhile at the team's practice facility Friday. I met with director Nick Budabin and star Keifer Sykes, of the new documentary Chi-Town (which I also reviewed), on Monday, March 12, at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival.The film, which follows Sykes from the end of his high-school basketball career through the end of college, and just beyond, is like a sequel, of sorts, to the great Steve James' 1994 Hoop Dreams. The two remain close, and Harrington said hes thankful the gun violence that changed his life didnt have the same effect on the player he nicknamed Special K., I just started calling him Special K because I knew that kid had something special about him, Harrington said. Moments after making the million-dollar shot, it was reported by multiple outlets that Sykes signed with the Pacers, bookending a truly remarkable day. Discover Keifer Sykes's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Four-year starter Gary Bell Jr. hopes to have his son, Gary Bell III, in the stands come the first weekend of theNCAA Tournamentin Seattle or Portland. "For me,itwas just me getting my first bucket. Keifer's parents met when fate played a chord. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Don't do what I did.'". "Those of us that know his story, (it's) very compelling, and this is a culmination of a lot of work and a big dream.". Since leaving the university after his senior year, Sykes has played in the NBA G-League, over seas, back to the G-League, and finally was presented an opportunity seven years after his college. But that nightmare hasn't ended, neither has the pain. Keifer Sykes would have used his share of the $2 million championship prize to help his Free 10 Foundation and his church. When James passed away, it was hard on everybody, but something definitely clicked in Keifer, Wardle said. You'd be amazed at what these guys don't know about parenting. "We were a stage for him to perform on. More than a decade later, and after making a name for himself overseas, the only box Sykes said he had left to check was to beat the odds his younger self foretold and finally play in an NBA game. Moreover, Sykes graduated from there with a degree in Communications. See, the basketball part, thats easy. Hes really popular in the community, and were just so proud of him. And these (five games) that he's played, he's played tremendously. These are the guys helping Dawson, watching the little one when he's away, driving My'Shawn to and from pre-K school sessions. Dozens of programs were contacted for this story and asked if they had a player on their roster who was a father or a father-to-be. He madehis firstNBA startat Cleveland onJan. 2, scoring 10 points. After taking a trip down memory lane at Marshall, Sykes headed to Proviso East, the alma mater of his friend and Mavericks guard Sterling Brown, to host a one-day basketball league and another coat drive the two pros organized together. Gathers, who's likely to return for his senior season, said his household of three is living off $15,000 per year. "I know she's probably gonna cry (when I talk to her) because it's bringing tears to my eyes right now," Sykes said, his voice cracking. Im doing what I do as a mom and thats to provide for my children and back them in everything they do, Lisa Sykes said. Simple things, like sleeping patterns. "When I got there, I was nervous, and it was kind of surreal," he said. The diminutive guard, who's averaging 5.7 points per game, said he never gets discouraged, though, because hes learned that nothing is guaranteed while hes on his heros journey.. He converted a traditional 3-point play when he drove, banked a shot and got a free throw, too. If he's in town, have him around practice, around the locker room. Milwaukee Bucks (22-9, first in the Eastern . GB3 -- Bell's nickname for his son -- came out crying on Jan. 10, 2014, at 10 o'clock in the morning, 19 inches long and weighing six pounds. Keifer Sykes scanned the gym at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois, watching as grade school children ran around playing basketball the game thats taken him around the world but never kept him away from home. 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