At 8:50 p.m. on Wednesday night, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum stepped to the podium in New York and announced Ryan Conwell’s name into the television camera as the 37th pick of the NBA Draft.
That news made it to the ballroom of the Speedway Event Center, where Conwell was surrounded by family and friends for his draft party, though Tatum could only be heard saying “Ryan Co …” before he was drowned out by cheers and shouts. Conwell, the former Pike High School star, was selected by Miami Heat through a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It was a “this is your life moment” for Conwell, whose emotions spilled out even before his name was announced.
“It was funny, I was on the couch way before my name got called,” Conwell said. “I was telling my mom I was doing all this crying, and I was starting to get a little drowsy from all the emotions. But once I heard my name get called, I got all my energy back.”
Conwell was surrounded by people on Wednesday who supported him along the way on his journey to the NBA – even at times when he did not always believe in himself. Davion Bailey, a senior guard at Pike when Conwell was a sophomore, jumped into the air when he heard Conwell’s name announced.
Bailey, who went on to an outstanding college career of his own at Ball State and Incarnate Word (he averaged 18.6 points per game last season), saw something special in Conwell when he was an underclassman at Pike.
“I knew how much he loved basketball, and he was always a worker,” Bailey said. “I could go back to a game we played against Carmel. It wasn’t one of his best games, but he played so hard. He wanted to win and walking off the floor, I remember telling him, ‘You are going to be great one day. This game doesn’t define you as a basketball player. You are going to be great.”
The 6-4 Conwell, who turned 22 on June 15, became a great high school player, a left-handed offensive machine who averaged 22.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.0 steals as a senior in 2021-22 to earn Marion County Player of the Year honors and finishing with 1,083 career points. He was named to the Indiana All-Star team in a year when Mr. Basketball was Westfield’s Braden Smith, who was selected one spot behind Conwell on Wednesday.
It was not as linear of a path for Conwell as Smith, the latter who became the all-time NCAA assist king during his four-year career at Purdue. Conwell started out at South Florida, where he averaged 5.1 points in 21 starts as a freshman. He took off the next year after transferring to Indiana State, where he was named Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year, averaging 16.6 points and shooting 40.7% from the 3-point line for a 32-7 team.
That was the Conwell that coach Bill Zych remembered from high school.
“Unfortunately, he played in the pandemic years (in high school) where people did really get to see him,” Zych said. “I had to call the colleges to come and look at him because he didn’t play through the AAU summer until that summer before his senior year. That kind of hurt his recruiting in a sense, but he ended up being in four places that really helped him improve his game all the way through.”
Conwell ended up transferring from Indiana State to Xavier, where he was third-team All-Big East Conference as a junior. He was one of the most highly sought transfer portal players after that season and landed at Louisville, where he averaged a team-high 18.8 points and was named second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference.
Pat Kelsey, Conwell’s coach at Louisville, made the trip up I-65 for Conwell’s draft party.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Kelsey said. “He’s one of the finest human beings that I ever coached. Every coach I talked to before we signed him at Louisville said the exact same thing. Such a wonderful family, so it’s no wonder that he has become the person that he is.”
Conwell will join a Heat franchise that is going through a major overhaul after trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks to pair with Bam Adebayo. While more moves are expected for Miami, it appears to be a good landing spot for a player like Conwell, whose biggest strength is his ability to play in space and shoot from the perimeter.
“It’s going to be fire,” he said. “I’ll do whatever needs to be done to help the team. Wherever they see me fit, that’s what I’m going to do.”
But those thoughts were far from Conwell’s mind in the moments after he was selected and was not yet donning a Heat hat.
“I closed my eyes and just started thanking Jesus,” Conwell said. “I hugged my mom and hugged all my family. I was better than I can even imagine.”
Conwell said he would walk the hallways at Pike and look at names like Jeff Teague, Marquis Teague, R.J. Hunter and Courtney Lee – all Pike grads who played in the NBA – and wonder if he could make it there some day.
That day came on Wednesday.
“This is the most I’ve cried – happy tears – probably in my whole life,” Conwell said. “I love my family and the people that supported me every day. To see people I haven’t seen in a year or two. That already made me emotional. Then just the whole day, the excitement of it all, and hearing my name called and that NBA music … oh man, I’m just blessed.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter. And be sure to subscribe to our new IndyStarTV: Preps YouTube channel.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: ‘Most I’ve cried.’ Happy tears. Pike grad Conwell picked by Miami Heat in second round
Reporting by Kyle Neddenriep, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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By Kyle Neddenriep, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
