Oklahoma Star Buddy Hield’s Childhood Hoop Was A Crate Nailed To Plywood, Looks Nothing Like A Basketball Hoop

Oklahoma shooting guard Buddy Hield has been an absolute nightmare for opposing teams all season long. The Wooden Award finalist and unanimous AP All-American has saved his best basketball for last, averaging 29.2 PPG on 70 percent shooting in the NCAA Tournament, capped off most recently by a mind-boggling 37-point performance in Oklahoma’s 12 point victory over Oregon in the Elite Eight, while his idol Kobe Bryant looked on in the audience.

Many mock drafts pin the Oklahoma senior to go Top 10–USA Today’s envisions the 6’4”, 215 pound guard being taken seventh overall by Sacramento. Hield will then be a very rich man.

Buddy’s success on the hardwood is all the more impressive when you consider his unique upbringing–growing up in the Bahamas, an island country that has only seen two of its citizens make it to the NBA, Mychal Thompson and Rick Fox. And considering this was his environment as a child:

“People laughed at him,” said Hield’s 26-year-old older sister, Jalisa.

Now, as his team prepares to take on Villanova under college basketball’s brightest lights, ESPN’s Jeff Goodman ventured to Buddy’s hometown neighborhood of Freeport, Bahamas to check out some ancient artifacts that helped Buddy become college basketball’s elite. Most notably, this makeshift basketball hoop made from plywood and plastic crates that Buddy constructed himself and remains standing.

This basketball abomination would make James Naismith roll over in his grave.

But hey, whatever works.