2023-08-19 04:48:00
Pablo Cormick Aug 19, 2023, 00:48 ETRead: 8 min.
Buddy Hield, decisive with 23 points in the victory of the Bahamas over Argentina in the qualifying for the Pre-Olympic.FIBA
The Bahamas basketball team has never played in a World Cup. He also did not compete in the Olympics.. He only participated once in the Tournament of the Americas, in 1995, precisely in Argentina, where Now he is looking for the only spot for the Pre-Olympic offered by the qualifier that takes place in Santiago del Estero.
In their second match in the tournament, following beating Cuba in their debut, Bahamas beat Argentinaa team with many more scrolls: they were champions of the first World Cup, they got a couple of runners-up in the world, they won the Olympic gold medal in Athens 2004 and the bronze medal in Beijing 2008. However, Buddy Hield, one of the three NBA players that make up the Bahamian team, considered that this was not the most important triumph in its history. “That’s going to be the one for the final on Sunday, if we make it,” she said at the start of an exclusive interview with ESPN. And he added: “That win doesn’t matter because if we don’t win on Sunday we’ll be out of the Olympic qualifying round and we’ll have to start all over once more. So for now it’s just a confidence booster. Also, we beat a different team than the one we’ve been in for years. Argentina, it’s another era, another time. Likewise, we know that they are a good team and we have to respect them”.
Hield knows some Argentines who were part of the Golden Generation. “I remember Luis Scola, Andrés Nocioni and I admire Manu Ginóbili. I told my teammates that I played once morest Manu when he was in San Antonio Spurs, in my first years in the NBA, and Manu was a great player. He generated a basketball culture in his country and players like Facundo Campazzo followed his example, they incorporated all that work that he did before them. So when they go out to work they take it very seriously.
With a black scarf covering his hair, Hield settles into the armchair of the hotel far from the center of Santiago del Estero where Bahamas is staying and responds relaxed. Every so often, like when he received the greetings from the fans on the streets of the city or in the stadiums or like when he went to learn to dance chacarera in Plaza Libertad, Buddy shows the white teeth of her huge smile.
In seven seasons in the NBA, Buddy Hield barely missed 6 games: he played 548 of a possible 554 since his debut in New Orleans Pelicans on October 26, 2016, the team that chose him at position number 6 in the Draft. He then went on to Sacramento Kingswhere he spent five seasons and since the middle of 2021-2022 he has been in Indiana Pacers. The last tournament in which she had represented the Bahamas was the 2014 Centrobasket, but later she participated in the World Cup qualifying windows in which the calendar allowed her to travel. And now he’s back to a championship with his national team. Whenever he can, Buddy plays. And this is how he explained it: “I love playing, basketball is a fun sport. I love doing it, it’s my hobby. I love playing, I take it very seriously. It’s something that helps feed my family, so whenever I have the opportunity to play, I do it because it makes me feel at peace”.
Buddy Hield, one of the three NBA players with whom the Bahamas appeared in Santiago del Estero.FIBA
Since this Olympic pre-qualifier was added to the calendar, Hield was willing to participate. What’s more, he had already expressed his desire to play as much as possible with the Bahamas on previous occasions. “I like to be committed to the team and it’s fun for me to be there. We want to show the whole world that we want the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games, the chance to play for a medal, to try to compete, to be on the world stage. I think the pride of the country is more important than playing in the NBA and bragging regarding it. It’s always good to play for your country, it means a lot,” he explained.
His commitment encouraged Deandre Ayton to return to the national team with which he had played his last tournament at Centrobasket 2016 and Eric Gordon to request special permission to represent the country where his mother was born despite having played in the 2010 World Cup for the United States. Hield told how her relationship is with the two members of Phoenix Suns: “Having come here unites us, we understand each other better. It has been great. They are excellent people and together we try to compete for something great.”
The feeling for the flag of his country is in his heart and he shows it off in the shoes he plays with, not only in the National Team games but also in the NBA. “I’m a Nike sponsored athlete, so every time the Kobe line comes out I try to get the Kobes in the colors of the Bahamas so I can represent my country. Everyone wants a pair, but they’re hard to come by,” Hield explained.
Ever since he was studying in the United States and regarding to take the big leap to become a professional athlete, each summer Hield returned to the Bahamas to provide free basketball clinics for the boys in his homeland. The first times he performed in Freeport, his city. “I love giving these clinics because I feel like I’m giving back something of everything I got as a kid. And I know how important it is to them,” he said.
After the tournament in Santiago del Estero, Hield will travel to the Bahamas to give a clinic in Nassau. But he wants to return to the south of the continent: “I would love to go back to Argentina and teach the kids here. I like going to different countries, working with them in the camps. Because for the kids, in countries like those in this part of the world, Sometimes it’s a bit complicated because it’s only one generation that stands out, but it might be more. Argentina has a lot of quality basketball players. I think what Campazzo is doing is inspiring all those guys so that they too will take the leap when their moment. We must continue to promote this sport among the youngest in the countries of our region. In the Bahamas my goal has been to inspire young people and take basketball everywhere. So it doesn’t just have to be me, DeAndre or Eric Gordon , there may be another player who emerges following us.”
The Bahamian boy who said he would make it to the NBA
Chavano Rainier Hield, as listed on his ID, was born in Freeport, Bahamas on December 17, 1992. Ever since he discovered basketball, it has become a passion. And in an obsession. At the age of 11 he said that he was going to make it to the NBA. From that projection, they looked at him as if he were a Martian. “When I was a kid, I knew that it was not normal to think regarding playing in the NBA, that it was not an everyday thing for someone from the Bahamas, it did not seem possible. But when you focus on one goal, it is possible. Many thought that I was crazy, but I know my motivation, my passion for the game. And everything started happening”.
Hield lived with her mother Jackie, recently divorced from her father, her six brothers and sisters, and her grandmother in a humble home. The seven boys and girls shared a large bed and someone always ended up sleeping on the floor. When reproaches or annoyances arose, Buddy was the one who relaxed the atmosphere with a song or a laughing situation. “We did not have money, we have had to face many difficulties, and you cannot always be bad or depressed, you have to help others to get up, give hope that they will be able to overcome it. Laughter is something that energizes everyone, it’s the best thing you can give them, make sure that everyone is united. Because there are days when things don’t go well, but you have to put attitude to it, think that life is fun, you have to make it fun, you have to enjoy it “said the escort. Obviously, Hield always had a lot of love to give, which is why of the nicknames he has the one he likes the most is Buddy Love.
He would set an alarm clock half an hour before everyone else so he might wake up first so he might watch the recaps of the NBA games from the previous night on the only television in the house. Whenever he might, Buddy would go shooting hoops at a nearby court. He gave sweets to his sisters so they would do his homework so he might spend more time playing. When he saw Jackie coming back to the house, he’d run and be just in time to go inside and pretend she hadn’t left. Of course his mother sometimes found out and scolded him vehemently. “She was yelling at me because I ran away from home to go to the basketball court. Now she’s not angry anymore because this has become a means to have a good life. She was always a protective mother, like many mothers, but I I was very stubborn, I didn’t listen to him and that’s why I am who I am today. I always try to improve, I always take risks and what I want is to experience life to the fullest, “Hield opened up.
“The way I was raised helped me to be a better person, to understand what life is like. It’s a fun and unique story that helped shape me and also prepared me to compete,” added Buddy.
The road to the NBA was made thanks to the talent and fighting ability that he had forged in Eight Mile Rock, the Freeport region in which he grew up. He first attended Sunrise Christian Academy High School, in Wichita, Kansas, and then the University of Oklahoma, where he excelled for the Sooners.
Since his arrival in the best league in the world, Hield has shown that he is a relentless three-point shooter. Last season he posted 42.5% shooting from long range and is 40.2% shooting in his entire career. “I know I’m one of the best, I work really hard to be one of the best. Is there anyone who can beat me in that field? Steph Curry is the best, the greatest of all, there is no other like him. If you look the percentages, his numbers, nobody comes close to him, he is an elite player, but then I come.
What Buddy Hield doesn’t lack is confidence. To shoot hoops and to anticipate the immediate future of the Bahamas National Team: “I want to go to the Olympic Games, I want us to take the next step.”
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