Trust the Process
Obi Toppin and Tom Hager
In partnership with Athletes For God
I can still remember my visit to Dayton like it was yesterday. I think most athletes remember their first few college visits, but my trip was particularly memorable because I didn’t even know I was flying to Ohio. As I was boarding the plane, the gate agent was like “You’re going to Dayton, right?”
My response was hardly reassuring.
“Uhh…I guess?”
I was certain my ticket had said Daytona, and after a quick call to one of the coaches, I realized I wasn’t heading to the beach. But at the end of the day, I didn’t really care where I played. It didn’t matter if it was Florida or Ohio or anywhere else. I just wanted a Division I school I could call home.
And for my entire high school career, that wasn’t an easy thing to find.
By the time I graduated from high school, I did not have a single offer on the table, or even any interest from colleges. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my grandfather and my father, both of whom played basketball, but I just couldn’t find anyone to take a chance on me.
This might sound hard to believe, but part of the problem was that I was too small to get attention from recruiters. I’m 6’9 now, but back when I was a junior in high school I was only 6’5…that might sound tall compared to the average person, but it’s definitely small for my current position of power forward. Coaches didn’t care that I could play guard, small forward, and power forward…I think they just saw that I lacked the size to play D1 basketball.
Throughout the entire ordeal my mother and grandmother told me to pray about it and ask God for a better future. God had a plan for me, and as they constantly reminded me, I just needed to trust the process.
Even if it meant going to prep school first.
When I arrived at Mt. Zion Prep in Baltimore for the 2016-2017 season, I didn’t know a single person there except the coach. I had no friends and no relatives in the area, but I trusted that my coach, Rodrick Harrison, was going to make me feel at home. It was hardly the traditional route to a scholarship, but I just talked to God every single day, hoping He would lead me in the right direction.
A lot of players in my position might have taken the junior college route or forgotten about basketball completely, but I thought prep school was the best route for me. As it turned out, Mt. Zion was exactly the launching pad that my career needed. Six players from our team earned scholarships, and after going all those years without much interest, the offers started to pour in.
Schools from Power-5 conferences like Georgia, Mississippi State, and Illinois all offered me scholarships, but I actually decided to head to Dayton from the Atlantic-10. The Flyers might not have played in a Power-5 conference, but they were also not your average “mid-major” program. The team had been to the NCAA Tournament for four straight years, including one trip to the Elite Eight. It may have taken a while, but I had finally found a home.
I was going to be a Dayton Flyer.
Of course, getting the scholarship was only half the battle. Now I needed to get on the court and prove myself. And to do that, I would have to wait an entire season. I redshirted my first season, meaning I would get to keep all four years of eligibility, but I would have to wait until the 2018-2019 season to make my debut. It gave me a chance to focus on academics before hitting court, and it really helped me develop as a player, but it was still hard not be out there with my teammates.
We finished the season 14-17, which was not what we had envisioned when we all signed up to play at Dayton. It was our first losing season in 12 years, but I knew that our program was on the rise. When we played Virginia at the beginning of last season, we lost in a close game, but I felt like we had made a big statement. We returned back home, and when one of the reporters asked me what I learned from the UVA game, is said with a totally straight face “that we can compete for a National Championship.”
I was maybe a year early, but it looks like I was right after all.
When people ask me how this Dayton team got so good, the answer is simple: We’re coming together as a team. We’re hanging out with each other off the court, and forming a bond with each other. It’s showing on the court, because we’re leading the country in assists right now. An assist is a reflection of trust between teammates, since you are giving up your own shot to give someone else a better look, and I really think it’s because we’re closer now than we’ve ever been before.
But that bond isn’t just being formed off the court. We’re also praying together before every game.
Before tipoff we gather in a huddle and pray together. Then I say another prayer on my own during the National Anthem, just to keep everybody free from injury and to help our team play to the best of its abilities.
And if I ever forget why I’m playing this game – or who I’m playing it for – all I have to do is look at my tattoos. On my right shoulder I have a cross tattoo that I got during Christmas break of my freshman year. I also have my mom’s name and brother’s name tattooed on me. When she saw her name etched on my skin, it almost brought her to tears.
My mom is now splitting her time watching both me and my brother play college basketball. He plays at Rhode Island, so she’s had a hectic schedule of travel. Back in December she was watching him play in one tournament before heading straight to Hawaii to watch me play in the Maui Invitational.
And it was at that tournament that our team really got put on the national map.
We beat Georgia and Virginia Tech by a combined 46 points, and then took #4 Kansas to overtime. The crazy thing for me wasn’t that we almost beat a Final Four contender, but how many of our fans had traveled to see us. I understand my mom traveling to see me, but I’ll never forget being at that tournament and just seeing how many fans had traveled 4,000 miles from Dayton to support us. We literally couldn’t hear ourselves – especially after my teammate Jalen Crutcher hit the game-tying three pointer with 2.1 seconds left to send that game into overtime.
The Dayton fans are incredible, and I’ve learned that Dayton is a real basketball city, just like my hometown of New York. Back in the city we trade the gym for outdoor venues like Rucker Park, but I’ve realized that people in both places love the game as much as I do. At most colleges, football is the number one sport, but at Dayton they love Flyer basketball.
And this season we’re also giving them something to cheer about.
When I think about where life has taken me in the last few years, it’s still hard for me to believe what has happened.
From no scholarship to starting at a D1 school. From 14-17 to #18 in the country. And from redshirt to a potential lottery pick.
When my mom told me to trust the process, I’m not even sure that she had the NBA in mind. We believed in God’s plan, and that He would take care of us, but we were focused on just trying to get a scholarship. Being a top-10 draft pick was not on my radar.
It really wasn’t until my redshirt-freshman season that I really started hearing about the NBA. I started getting text messages from my friends that I might make it to the league, and once the season ended, I decided to declare for the draft. I decided not to hire an agent to keep my eligibility, and after spending some time thinking about it I decided to return.
I was projected to be a late second-round pick, and I realized it just didn’t make sense for me to leave. Plus, now that I’m back, we can make a real run at the Final Four. I remember last year we were right on the bubble when we lost in the first round of the A-10 tournament, and when Selection Sunday came and went, our name was left off the brackets. But this year our sights are set much higher than just making the tournament.
Now that our team is climbing up the polls, kids are starting to take notice of who I am. It’s still the craziest thing for me, seeing little kids line up to get a picture or autograph. Sometimes I’ll even give them one of my sleeves or a sneaker, and watching their reaction is pretty humbling.
As I look back on it, my short stature in high school ended up being a blessing in disguise. I was forced to develop the same skills as other guards, instead of just relying on my height to make shots. I might be lanky these days, but I’m still athletic…I’ve been compared to Al Horford and Joel Embiid, but I’m hoping to someday draw comparisons to Kevin Durant.
The funny thing is, I know I can play with NBA guys, because I already have…they just didn’t know it. Two years ago, when I was still in New York, a buddy of mine sent me a text message if I wanted to come to an open gym where other guys would be playing basketball. I hadn’t really heard of the gym before, but I decided to go, and when I showed up, Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith were on the other side of the court. Playing against guys of that caliber definitely helped me a lot, but the funny thing is that none of them knew who I was back then.
I have a feeling the next time I step on the court with NBA players, I won’t be quite as anonymous, but that’s okay with me. If I am able to inspire kids as a college player, I can’t wait to see what the NBA holds. In the meantime, we have a championship we’re trying to bring back to Dayton.