Cunningham, as Expected, Gives Oklahoma State a First, First Overall NBA Draft Pick

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State basketball has enjoyed plenty of accomplishments and honors, but even with former players like Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Kurland, Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, Randy Rutherford, Tony Allen, Desmond Mason, and Marcus Smart the school has never had an overall number one NBA Draft pick until Thursday night. The crowd in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. including hometown favorite and Oklahoma State head coach Mike Boynton heard NBA Commissioner Adam Silver proclaim it.

“With the first overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons select Cade Cunningham, Oklahoma State University.”

Cunningham was ready and bounced from his family’s table with a big smile and a dark blue and black suit and joined Silver on stage. Oklahoma State, Cunningham, and Boynton, the coach that recruited him hard even before he played in his first high school game, completed the first journey of a Cowboys basketball player that was one and done.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Cade Cunningham hugs NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after bing picked first by the Dtroit Pistons.

“Words can’t really explain the emotions, you know what I’m saying,” Cunningham said on ESPN’s telecast of the NBA Draft. “My family is all here and it’s special to spend this moment with them. It’s a blessing. It means everything. I know my name was the first name called but I didn’t do this by myself. Number one pick, I have a number one pick family, honestly. I have a supportive system. I can’t even talk right now I have so many emotions going on. I’m ready to show what I can do at the next level.”

The pick really was a foregone conclusion as earlier in the day nearly all of the NBA insiders reported that the Pistons, who hadn’t confirmed, reported they had made a visit on Wednesday to New York City and spoke to Cunningham one more time and told him they were going to take him with the first pick. The Pistons were the only team Cunningham chose to work out for. He said that his intention was to go as the first player picked in the draft and there was only one team he needed to work out for, the team with the first pick.

Oklahoma State fans know that while that sounded cocky or confident, it’s just Cunningham as he has been a player that says what he means and means what he says.

Montverde Academy

Cunningham at Montverde Academy

He came to Oklahoma State from Montverde Academy in Florida. He had played high school basketball at Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas before joining prestigious Montverde where he helped make them one of the best high school teams in the nation and won National Player of the Year honors. Playing only 22 minutes a game because of his team’s strength, Cunningham averaged 13.9 points, 6.4 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game in leading Montverde to a 25–0 record. Montverde averaged winning their games by a whopping 39 points.

One of the nation’s top recruits he chose Oklahoma State and Boynton over North Carolina, Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, Michigan State, and Florida. It may have also helped that Boynton hired his older brother Cannen as an assistant coach on his staff.

Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Cunningham is good attacking the basket.

In his one season at Oklahoma State, Cunningham impressed everybody by having a very high basketball IQ that allowed him to have almost a sixth sense in knowing when to share the ball and get teammates involved in the game and when he needed to put the team on his back and take over. He helped the Cowboys to a 21-9 record and an 11-7 mark in the Big 12. The Cowboys went on to the NCAA Tournament and defeated Liberty in the first round before losing to Oregon State in the round of 32.

It started with game one as Cunningham scored 21 points in a season opening win back in his hometown as Oklahoma State beat UT-Arlington. He scored 29 points including 13 of those in the final 91 seconds in a furious win at home over Oral Roberts. His career high came in a Bedlam game as he tallied 40 points and 11 rebounds in a 94-90 overtime win over Oklahoma.

Cunningham had the answers most of the time when the Cowboys needed them. He swept honors for freshmen in the Big 12 and nationally winning the Wayman Tisdale Award for top freshman. He was unanimous All-Big 12 and consensus first-team All-American.

Internationally before his senior season in high school, Cunningham averaged 11.7 points, 5.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game in helping the United State win the FIBA Under 19 World Cup. On that team he played with future Oklahoma State teammate Isaac Likekele and played for Kansas State head coach Bruce Webber.

The one and done Cade Cunningham era at Oklahoma State is over, but Cunningham said, for him, never forgotten.

“I know it was just a year, but I made friends that will be with me a lifetime,” Cunningham said after announcing for the NBA Draft back on April 1, 2021. “I know that I can come back here and be welcomed back. Oklahoma State is always going to be a part of me. I will always be a Cowboy.”

Twitter @CadeCunningham_

Cade and Riley Cunningham

Cunningham takes great pride in that he is father to his three-year-old daughter Riley, who was born in 2018. He has taken a very active role in her life and can’t wait to be a provider that can make her life extremely special. Riley was in his arms at the the table when Commissioner Silver called his name.

”I just want to show her what hard work does,” Cunningham said of what he wants to show his daughter. “I think that is the biggest thing and I want her to grow up and hear what her dad has done for her and for her to know what hard work does. She is my biggest motivation and I have learned a lot more from her than she has from me.”

Also, Cunningham is really careful in taking care of his body and he has been a Vegan since 2019. The Detroit Pistons will be glad of that as they get a player with that high IQ and is also a very good athlete.

There is already a nickname floating out there for Cunningham in the “Motor City” with “Motor Cade”.

“I love it,” Cunningham said and then looked into the camera and told the Pistons fans. “I’m pumped up now. Detroit, I’m all the way in it. Detroit Pistons, I’m all the way in it. Let’s do it!”