It was supposed to be an easy path, it was supposed to be go to Mizzou for a year, dominate, number one draft pick. Once I had that first back surgery, the journey was just a little more shakier. I didn't work out for any team, you know, but then all the teams pulled up to pro day and they were like, man, despite the injury, he might still go top five.

The night before my back went through another episode, I woke up that morning not being able to get out of bed. And this is the day I'm supposed to show up and work out in front of the top 10 teams. But instead, like, I called my agent, I'm like, man, I can't even get out of bed.

Like, he was like, okay, like, we're going to send a doctor. All the teams are going to send their doctors and they're going to evaluate you. So I remember instead of working out, I'm laying on the table and all the top teams are evaluating me. And the report kind of came out that I might not ever play again.

But then the draft comes around. That was another tough part because I'm seeing all these dudes that I dominated in high school get drafted before me. And I know I'm better than them. But I'm sitting in that chair in like a ton of pain, not knowing if I'm going to be able to play again.

But I mean, the Nuggets took a chance on me. I don't have any regrets. You know, I got drafted a great program. My story at this point is about resilience. You know, nothing about it has been smooth and easy.