Cade Cunningham’s rise feels inevitable now, but the route here was anything but simple.
On The Boardroom with Kevin Durant, the Pistons star shared a stretch from his teens that nearly ended everything. Not because he lost skill, but because life piled on so fast it felt impossible to keep chasing a dream.
“I’ve never said this on any interview, but my first month, I moved away from all my family. I go through the first death ever. I’d never had anybody in my family, nobody around me die. That happened two more times. So it’s three of them, and then two weeks after all that, I find out my ex-girlfriend’s pregnant. I’m having my daughter.”
“And I’m away from my parents, away from everybody. I was stuck. My parents, I’m so thankful for them. They’ve been such a support system for me with my daughter. They were like, ‘You were begging us to go out there and do your thing hooping.’ I’m thinking, ‘I got to go back to the crib now and be a dad. Hoop is done for me.'”
“I thought it was done. Everybody I knew that had kids young was done hooping.”
For a kid that age, the pressure was crushing. He could have easily given up on his dream, and no one would have blamed him. But instead, his family became the reason he did not quit. His parents stepped in, took care of him and his daughter, Riley, and Cade was able to pursue his dream.
That choice shaped every major decision after. He picked Oklahoma State in part to be closer to his daughter. Every step forward carried her name somewhere in the background.
Today, Riley is nearly seven years old. She sits courtside at Pistons games and is part of the energy that pushes Detroit forward.
Cade Cunningham is playing the best basketball of his life, averaging 27.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 9.9 assists in the early part of the season. He is an MVP candidate, and the Pistons are on top of the East. They are 12-2 and are on a 10-game winning streak. Just two seasons ago, they were at the bottom of the NBA world.
Now, Cade and crew have stunned everyone and are a major threat to come out of the East.
That turnaround is not only about talent. It is about a player who kept going when everything told him to stop.
What matters most in this story is how small choices made the difference. Cade did not have an easy path. He trusted his family and leaned on them for support and reached his dream. And that shows when he leads his team in crunch time and how he runs an offense.
Cade did not just survive his worst month. He turned it into the foundation of the career he has now.
