PHILADELPHIA – Maybe now we know why this game against the 76ers meant so much to Bones Hyland.
It wasn’t so much the four 3-point shots Hyland hit in the fourth quarter, including three in a row during a span of about a minute midway through that brought the Denver Nuggets from a two-point deficit into a six-point lead over the 76ers.
And it wasn’t so much the hundreds of friends and family members who drove up from Wilmington, or his teachers and coaches from Thomas Edison Charter School, or classmates and friends from St. Georges.
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All of them serenaded Hyland after the game as he walked off the court in euphoria after leading the Nuggets to a 114-110 over the Sixers. Hyland waved back, pumping his arms.
“I’m made for them lights,” Hyland told Delawareonline/The Delaware News Journal before the game about pressure moments.
Hyland scored 21 points in 31 minutes Monday night while serving as the Nuggets backup point guard. He played the entire fourth quarter and upstaged what was billed as a battle of MVP candidates in the Sixers’ Joel Embiid and Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
In the end, it was Hyland, all 6-foot-3 and 173 pounds of him, who shined the brightest, earning the admiration of Sixers guard James Harden.
“Some big-time shots from the youngin’,” Harden said. “But he’s been playing aggressive, and he’s been good for them the entire year.”
But it was more than that, too.
Hyland said there were “600 or 700” fans of his in attendance. That included the firefighters and first responders who saved Hyland and his brother from a fire on March 25, 2018 that destroyed their Wilmington home.
They presented Hyland with an honorary Wilmington Fire Department jacket before the game.
Hyland escaped the fire by jumping out of a second-story window. He tore his patellar tendon while doing so. Hyland’s grandmother and 11-month old cousin died in the fire.
Hyland was told by the doctors that he wouldn’t play basketball again. Look at him now.
It’s no wonder Nuggets coach Mike Malone said of Hyland: “For a young kid in this atmosphere, he’s fearless. That’s the one word I would use to describe Bones Hyland.”
“Just to put on a show here, that’s a dream come true for me,” Hyland said. “I always say I’m the kid who wants to show the next kid in the city (of Wilmington) that this can be you in my position. Growing up, I never had someone who can show me the ropes and that guidance, so I want to be that guidance for the youth and keep leading them.”
All of that caught up to Hyland after the game
When asked about his relationship with the first responders after the game, Hyland responded, “next question.” Then he broke down and cried for a few minutes before resuming his press conference.
“I always say every tattoo on my body is something that I play for and what I stand for,” Hyland said. “Literally, on my left shoulder are my (cousin) and my grandmother. So I play for them every time.
“I check (the tattoo) in the game. I do a cross on my chest, just to be thankful that I’m still in this position and just to play basketball because the doctors told me, ‘No’ four years ago.”
Hyland is only the third Delawarean to be drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. The Nuggets chose him 26th overall in the first round.
It has taken time for Hyland to grow into this role. He is averaging 8.9 points in 17.7 minutes per game. But as the season has gone along, Hyland’s role and production have increased.
He recently played in the NBA’s Rising Stars game during All-Star weekend, featuring the best rookies and second-year players in the NBA.
And Hyland is looking forward to the postseason as the Nuggets improved to 41-28, good for sixth place in the Western Conference.
“For a player who was taken at the end of the first round, I think he’s had a hell of a rookie season,” Malone said. “Like all rookies, there are peaks and valleys, and those valleys are just learning and growing opportunities. And Bones has grown throughout the season. That’s the most important thing for us.
“I’m very excited about his future.”
None of this surprised those who came to the game from Wilmington. There was Salome Thomas-El, who taught Hyland at Thomas Edison Charter School during Hyland’s elementary and middle school years.
“It was amazing sitting here with all his former teachers and staff members and coaches, and knowing what he’s gone through,” Thomas-El said. “This is what you want to see for young people, how they can overcome and persevere.
“He’s a good kid, a hell of a ballplayer even then, and with all that he’s gone through in his life, it has made him resilient and ready to make big shots in games like this.”
Added John Shelton, who coached Hyland from 6th-8th grade at Thomas Edison: “He always had the heart of a lion. He was never afraid. He was always working, one of the hardest workers I ever met.
“And this is where he is now. He earned it. And he put on a show for us.”
For Hyland, this is what he always imagined, even after escaping the fire when doctors told him that he wouldn’t play again.
It was no wonder that when it was over, Hyland took several minutes and reflected on his journey – not only for him, but for those from Delaware who now have an example to follow of someone who overcame so much in order to succeed.
Hyland talked about seeing stuff growing up that “you don’t want to imagine,” and how much it meant to him to move his mother, Marshay Hyland, his brother and grandfather out to Denver, buying them a house so they could live near them.
All of them came back, too, to watch Hyland play the 76ers on Monday.
This was something Hyland had looked forward to for months through the rigors of a long NBA season. Not so much for himself, as for those who look up to him.
“It’s like a 0.000001% chance that anyone from my ‘hood will make it to the league,” Hyland said. “So just to be out there, for them to see me on an NBA floor, it’s fantastic, a dream come true.”
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
