Former Los Angeles Lakers player Nigel Hayes-Davis has been plying his trade in Europe since 2018 and hasn’t had a lot of joy on the court in all that time. Hayes-Davis appeared on the latest episode of Off The RECourt with Shane Larkin where he spoke about rediscovering his joy during his time with USA Basketball’s Select Team.
“The times that were the most unbelievable were being on the bench,” Hayes-Davis said. “I was texting my mom or my family or my guys. These last years in Europe every time you on the bench, it’s just like anger.
“You sitting next to somebody, and somebody’s yelling because somebody scored or you didn’t score and everyone’s mad,” Hayes-Davis continued. “The coaches turns around like, ‘What is he doing? You didn’t see Shane just do that? Why would you go there?’ And everything is just like this.
“And then I’m sitting on the bench next to (Kevin Durant),” Hayes-Davis stated. “And we’re just sitting there and he’s like, ‘S***, what up Ni bruh?’ We looking at some s*** and then (LeBron James) does his little dunk and then does this (flexes) and everybody’s like ‘Aaah.’ We sit back down, he said, ‘They need to put that s*** on 2K, bro.’ That needs to be his thing.
“I rediscovered and discovered a level of joy for basketball that I didn’t know I had or I hadn’t seen in a while since being in Europe,” Hayes-Davis added. “Because there is no joy playing basketball in Europe… There is no moment where if something happens, there’s a little break of joy. It’s never any of that.”
Co-host and former NBA player Shane Larkin stated that it is high stress all the time and Hayes-Davis agreed. The 29-year-old, who plays for Fenerbahce, would like to have some fun every now and then, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. It’s just a different culture over there in Europe.
In an ideal world, Hayes-Davis would be playing in the NBA today, but he wasn’t deemed good enough. He went undrafted in 2017 after a solid but unspectacular four-year college career at Wisconsin.
Hayes-Davis would be signed by the New York Knicks after the draft but was later waived and assigned to their G League Team, the Westchester Knicks. He would finally get a chance to play in the NBA when the Lakers gave him a 10-day contract in Jan. 2018 but they decided against giving him another once it expired.
Hayes-Davis would then have some brief stints in the G League and with the Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings. He was waived by the Kings in July 2018 and just over a month later, headed overseas to play for Galatasaray in Turkey.
Hayes-Davis also suited up for Zalgiris Kaunas and Barcelona in the years that followed and is now with Fenerbahce. He helped them get to the Final Four in the EuroLeague last season and also set the record for most points scored in a single game in the league with 50.
In this current EuroLeague season, Hayes-Davis is averaging 16.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game. He has helped Fenerbahce win six of their first eight games and they are currently second in the standings. While he’d be delighted by that, he does look back fondly on his time with the Select Team.
Hayes-Davis got to rub shoulders with NBA stars like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant as they prepared for the 2024 Paris Olympics. He and the rest of the Select Team were with Team USA from training camp to the exhibition games and it was an experience he’ll never forget.
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