Nah’Shon “Bizzy Bones” Hyland stood at a podium erected on the gym floor where he first became familiar to Delaware high school sports followers Friday night.
Unlike previous ventures on the St. Georges basketball court, Hyland was unsure which direction to go. He made the rare confession of being at a loss for words.
But, really, with humility and pride showing, he’d already uttered the perfect account of a night set aside to honor him.
“This is bigger than basketball,” Hyland told the packed gym, where his St. Georges’ jersey number 5 had just been retired not quite four years after his final game in it.
Favorite son
The Denver Nuggets, with whom Hyland is a second-year guard, visit the Philadelphia 76ers Saturday afternoon in an NBA game, so Hyland was in the neighborhood.
And since he is a product of his neighborhoods – those in Wilmington where he grew up and learned to play basketball and the one south of the C&D Canal where he attended high school and honed those skills – Hyland was thrilled to pay a visit.
“I was trying to think who the most famous Wilmingtonian is and I think it’s a tie between Joe Biden and Bones,” city mayor Mike Purzycki told the crowd before St. Georges played Havre de Grace from Maryland.
“But Biden moved here from Pennsylvania and now lives in Greenville, so Bones you’re it!”
While Aubrey Plaza may want to have a word with the mayor, Hyland’s popularity was certainly on display.
In introducing him Friday, St. Georges assistant principal James Connor reminded Hyland “Everybody loves you because you love everybody back.”
Proud alum
Hyland planned to sit on the bench with St. Georges at the start of Friday’s game, a place, Hawks coach Rod Griffin confessed earlier, he’d never been.
Attending high school 30 minutes and in a much different environment was an initial challenge for Hyland. Griffin recalled kicking him out of the gym once for not listening during practice. But Hyland’s diligence and desire to hone his skills prevailed.
“The rest is history,” Griffin said. “I’m so proud of him.”
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Hyland scored a school record 1,857 career points at St. Georges and was Delaware Player of the Year as a senior in 2019, when he was first-team All-State for the second time.
Just as importantly, he stayed.
“I’m so thankful for the support and the love that they showed me throughout my whole four years,” Hyland said. “I had so many schools my junior and senior year that wanted me to come [as a transfer]. I was like, no, I’m staying at St. Georges. My love and loyalty, it runs deep.”
“Grit and faith and family”
It’ll be tough for Hyland to surpass his previous visit to the Wells Fargo Center last March. His four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter keyed Denver’s rally for a 114-110 win and Hyland finished with 21 points.
With several hundred family and friends on hand to see him, Hyland had also been moved to receive a Wilmington Firefighters jacket in a pregame presentation.
Hyland carried a profound emotional burden that senior season at St. Georges. On March 25, 2018, Hyland had jumped out his second-floor bedroom window as fire was sweeping through his home on the 400 block of West 23rd Street in Wilmington.
His grandmother, Fay Hyland, 59, and 11-month-old cousin Maurice “M.J.” Williams Jr. died in the blaze. In his leap, which came after thick black smoke prevented him from reaching other family members, Hyland tore the patellar tendon in his knee and had to have surgery. He didn’t play basketball for six months.
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That experience has strengthened his ties to the city and fueled Hyland’s determination to be a role model.
“It takes a village to get here,” his mother, Marshay, said Friday. Connor said Hyland’s success was built “on grit and faith and family.”
“Wilmington is like everything to me, honestly,” Hyland said, “because that’s where I grew up, that’s what groomed me since I was a little boy . . . I wanted to show the kids in Wilmington, Delaware, this could be you in this position if you keep striving, keep working hard, keep God first.”
Living the dream
Hyland starred collegiately at VCU, where he was Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2020-21 after leading the league with 19.5 points per game and 2.9 3-pointers per game.
He became just the third Delaware native taken in the first round of the NBA Draft when the Nuggets chose him 26th overall in 2021. Newark’s Terrence Stansbury, picked 15th from Temple in 1984 by Dallas, and Salesianum’s Donte DiVincenzo, selected 17th by Milwaukee from NCAA champ Villanova in 2018, are the others.
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Former St. Georges principal Shanta Reynolds recalled pressing Hyland, when he was in high school, for what his Plan B might be if he didn’t reach his goals of playing pro basketball while providing financial security for his family and pride for his community.
There was no Plan B, he was repeatedly told, because Hyland was so confident in his Plan A.
Complimenting that “steadiness and single-mindedness,” Reynolds said, Hyland “beat the odds stacked against him” to achieve those ambitions.
Big contributions for West leaders
Hyland, 22, is averaging 12.4 points per game while shooting 40-percent overall from the field and 38.5 percent on 3-pointers in 40 games as a key reserve this season for the Nuggets.
Those are slight improvements from his rookie average of 10.1 ppg with 36.6-percent aim on 3-pointers.
The 6-foot-3 guard missed the Nuggets game at New Orleans Tuesday with a sprained finger but returned to score 15 points in Wednesday’s loss at Milwaukee.
The Nuggets have the best record in the NBA’s Western Conference at 34-15 heading into Saturday’s 3 p.m. tip against the Sixers, whose 31-16 mark is No. 2 in the Eastern Conference.
“I feel like it’s going good for me,” Hyland said. “We’re the number one seed right now in the West so we’re playing really good. For myself, I feel like I’m playing good as well. I took my game to another level from last year.”
Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.
