Matt Ryan, from a New York cemetery to the Celtics locker room

“I’ve never heard a story like that, like mine. It’s amazing. Myself, I do not believe in my history, however, it is like that. Where I am now compared to a year ago is amazing. No matter how things turn out, I will remember this year as the best of my life. »

It’s hard to fault Matt Ryan, when you know where he comes from. Still, the Boston winger didn’t play the Finals opener against the Warriors. He cannot, being blocked by his “two-way contract”.

But even staying on the bench constantly during the Celtics’ run in the playoffs is a more enviable and pleasant situation than the one he experienced last year, when he worked in a cemetery in New York!

In March 2021, when temperatures were freezing and he needed 40 minutes to get to work, he suffered from the cold and spent his first weeks removing Christmas wreaths from graves in St Joseph’s cemetery. “I had eight diapers on me”he says for The Athletic.

The day at the cemetery, the evening at the hall

A few weeks later, when the weather becomes more clement, his missions change. He mows the lawns, picks up bits of wood, rakes the leaves and places fresh earth near the graves.

“For branches and very tall things, we had Matt come. Her size (2m01) was very helpful”recalls his boss, Frank Dietrich. “Because some of the guys that work for me are short, really short. »

His boss saw him every day arriving with a backpack. After his day at work, when he wasn’t doing another job (UberEats for example), Matt Ryan went to the gym to play basketball for four hours. His dream of becoming a professional was always present, despite a difficult context.

“I had just left university, I had nothing. These times were complicated. I can’t say it any other way. It was really, really hard to go to the gym and not know if I was ever going to play again. »

How could this future NBA player end up working in a cemetery? To understand this, you have to go back to his university career. He did a first year at Notre Dame in 2015/16, then in his second, his playing time was halved. Faced with this impasse, he was transferred to Vanderbilt and did not play the 2017/18 season.

A shattered university career

For his first year on the court at his new university, in 2018/19, he had his best season with an average of 8.1 points. Bad luck: coach Bryce Drew is fired and he decides to leave as well.

“Shit, I still have to be transferred”, he regrets. “I didn’t want to, but with the circumstances, I had to. I chose Chattanooga over Wisconsin. I wanted to show myself. »

He makes the right choice because it is. With Chattanooga, he scores 15.4 units per game. He stands out with his shooting skills, even if his rating for the NBA is still low. But then we are in 2019/20 and, in March, the world stops with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our training room was closed. So what did I do? I went to Walmart, bought an outdoor basket, set it up in the parking lot of my apartment in Chattanooga. And I stayed there for two months. »

The rest of his career looks unclear. Matt Ryan already had few guarantees to reach the highest level but everything is collapsing with confinement and the health situation. The workouts with the NBA teams are canceled, the Summer League too, when it’s a perfect theater for someone like him who has to prove himself. Even the G-League, with its shortened season, shuts him down despite his performance in Chattanooga.

Back to the wall, he thinks of starting his career abroad. “It was obvious. »

Planets aligning

Then, during the summer of 2021, the Cavaliers call him to play in the Summer League. It’s the chance of a lifetime. He plays 68 minutes in four matches and averages 11.3 points with a clean 13/27 at 3-pts. That’s enough for the Nuggets to invite him to training camp. Finally, it is cut before the start of the season.

He manages to bounce back in the G-League, with Grand Rapids Gold, then with Team USA in February for the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, where he rubs shoulders with Joe Johnson in particular. After the “trade deadline” in the NBA, Boston finds itself with five free places in its workforce and as Sam Hauser signs a real contract, a “two-way contract” is released. The Celtics think of Matt Ryan and sign him on February 28.

There are long weeks left on the bench, before the last game of the regular season, against the Grizzlies. That day, he enters the game, plays five minutes and scores a basket at 3-pts. A daydream. “I always wanted to be part of the Celtics. Even though I’m from New York, there’s something about the Celtics that has always appealed to me. »

What a journey for this 25-year-old player: in one year, he went from the alleys of a New York cemetery to the locker room of the NBA finalists!

“I went to three universities in five years, I stopped playing for a year and a half and I may end up with a ring. That’s crazy. I was prepared to be on the other side of this world, playing in some lost league somewhere. The way the planets have managed to align, it’s as if it was God who decided. »

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