PHOENIX — As he turned the corner around the stage and went to step onto it, new Phoenix Suns forward Nigel Hayes-Davis looked out to see all of the media assembled for media day on Wednesday.
What he saw three-and-a-half hours into the day was a lot of open seats. A few straggling reporters were diligently hanging around to speak with the last few players of the day.
Upon seeing this, Hayes-Davis made one of those, “Oh? OK.” faces, took out his phone and snapped a picture while muttering to himself how that will serve as fine motivation.
It’s impossible for a player like him to make it where he has without using anything necessary to spark that fire.
Hayes-Davis, 30, has returned to the NBA seven years after his brief stint in the league concluded. A memorable collegiate career at Wisconsin from 2013-17 included three all-conference nods in the Big 10 and a sixth man of the year honor as a freshman across the most successful period in the program’s history. He went undrafted in 2017, spent time in the G League and then bounced around to three different NBA rosters.
Instead of toiling around for another couple of years without breaking through like so many guys in his spot do, he wisely went immediately overseas, initially playing in Turkey and Lithuania. The latter stop was Hayes-Davis’ first time in EuroLeague, establishing himself as a reliable role player to later sign with Barcelona in Spain. A year there led him to Fenerbahce, one of the premier European basketball teams that is a mainstay in EuroLeague.
Back in Turkey, Hayes-Davis elevated his game tremendously, becoming one of the best in all of Europe. The journey ended in May, when he was named EuroLeague Final Four MVP after leading Fenerbahce to its second-ever EuroLeague title.
Part of that accomplishment is why Hayes-Davis decided to give the NBA another go.
“In this job field of professional sports, your time is limited of what you can do, and what better time to leave than after the season I had?” he said. “We had the triple crown, we won almost every trophy that you could win (in) one of the best seasons that club ever had, so what better time to leave than on a high note.”
Suns teammates Grayson Allen, Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks all know Hayes-Davis from college but not this Hayes-Davis. Allen’s Duke, Booker’s Kentucky and Brooks’ Oregon all faced off with Hayes-Davis’ Wisconsin in college during the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
The Badgers defeated the Ducks in the second round and Kentucky in the Final Four before falling to the Blue Devils in the national championship.
Back then, Hayes-Davis was primarily working out of the mid-post as a heady well-rounded player on the interior. He would mix in midrange jumpers and later on at Wisconsin some 3s, but was not known as a shooter at all and wanted to be around the basket.
Bully ball was his forte, and you can see the trail of breadcrumbs with some of his work off the bounce here from the 2017 NCAA Tournament showing the path toward the overall offensive player he could become.
Seven years later, Hayes-Davis set a EuroLeague record with 50 points for Fenerbahce. On top of how seamless his 3-point shot is now, look below at how fluidly he moves around the court. That is a guy who works really hard to maximize his physical potential and refine it for the skill set he had to build up. He’s flying around screens off the ball into that shot!
“Extremely different. I think 180 is an applicable term for it,” Hayes-Davis said of his game and role now. “That’s a testament to myself, something I’m proud of. To be able to grow my game and to be able to change and to be able to be in a position [to have that question asked] of how much has your game changed, and it’s changed drastically.”
Allen, who noted that the 2015 title game has not come up yet and he is not going to go out of his way to mention it, saw the potential for this type of evolution. There’s an eye for it fellow players have, dare I say to the point where you could label them as “ball-knowers.” The ball-knower within the ball-knower, if you will.
“He was always really skilled with the ball and he’s the kind of guy that you just assume whatever you get him to work on he’s going to pick up, so it’s not really surprising,” Allen said. “He has the 3-ball, he can handle, he’s got all the mid-post game, he can get to the rim, he’s a good passer — kind of a guy that just does a little bit of everything and whatever you ask him to do he’ll be able to do. As basketball players, you can kind of see that in guys.”
Brooks agreed with the sentiment too.
“I know, it’s crazy how games can change,” he said. “You could ask me the same question about myself and you could say a lot about me too. Overall, glue guy, does all the hustle things, all the things you don’t see on the stat sheet in wins. I’m glad he’s on our team, he brings a lot of energy and his journey is something to look at.”
That is what really stands out to his new teammates. All of Hayes-Davis’ experience in big-time environments and moments has him ready for this transition.
“He knows his spots,” Booker said. “He knows where to be, right time (and) right place. He’s always going to compete and communicate at a high level — he has all the intangibles to be effective out there.”
Suns head coach Jordan Ott called it a “no-brainer” once he got to speak with Hayes-Davis, citing how “you can hear and feel how much of a deep thinker he is” while acknowledging how you could sense this goal of getting back.
Something credited to accomplishing that goal by Hayes-Davis was his time with Team USA in training camp prior to the 2024 Summer Olympics, where Booker was, along with former Sun Kevin Durant. Hayes-Davis was one of a few extra bodies there to fill out the roster in practice settings, which you can imagine was an incredible opportunity for him to learn and absorb what makes a bunch of future Hall of Famers tick.
According to him, he’s never experienced anything better than what he did across those three weeks.
“(That) time period was the greatest time period of my life and if I talk about it too long I’ll cry because it was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. … I think it was instrumental and pivotal for the season I had last year and for me to get back here,” Hayes-Davis said. “I was able to be an annoying fly on the wall.”
The persistence from Hayes-Davis was admirable. Yes, he was asking guys how they work out, what they eat and so on. But to assumingely make fun of himself for how much he was prodding, he joked about even wondering how the all-time greats put their socks on or what alarm clock they use.
He didn’t get to interact much with Booker over that time, spending most of the camp with the bigs and Miami Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo, but noted Booker as one of several guys he was able to appreciate when it comes to work ethic.
But for a camp that included Durant, Stephen Curry and LeBron James, his biggest lesson came from someone six years younger than him.
“Delusional confidence is the greatest thing. I learned that last year and I saw that with Anthony Edwards,” Hayes-Davis said. “He is the walking embodiment of delusional confidence.”
That’s something he carries now he wish he had before. When speaking on that, Hayes-Davis sprinkled in some great advice you should take on yourself into whatever you’re trying to achieve, whether it’s as big as trying to get back to the NBA or not.
“That’s the one thing I would tell to younger Nigel, is delusional confidence will take you a long way in this life, whatever avenue of life you want to do,” Hayes-Davis said. “Having that will set you up to avoid doubt in yourself, it will set you up from making bad decisions, it will set you up from feeling too high or too low about yourself, it will set you up to not worry about when things go wrong, because they do go wrong. But with that, it will keep you on track.”
