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college
basketball

the gift
of Grab
Kenneth Faried owns the glass like no
other player in the country, and he does
it in obscurity. It’s a nice little story, in good hands
The versatile Faried
but only the start of his unlikely narrative leads the Eagles in
points (17.6) and
rebounds (13.3)—and
By Luke Winn he’s a crafty defender,
with 38 blocks and
43 steals in 19 games.

Photog ra ph s b y
g r e g n e l son
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kenneth
faried
W
here you at, Nard?”
Mild crisis in Newark: Three missed shots
into the game, and Nard has not rebounded
any of them. Whereabouts on the floor: un-
certain. These are invisible misfires, invisible
missed rebounds, radio play-by-play streaming over the Internet.
Nard’s team, Morehead State of the Ohio Valley Conference,
is rarely televised. He’s playing against SIU-Edwardsville,
930 miles from this 24th-floor apartment in the Zion Towers
projects, yet in his mother’s living room he’s everywhere—his
plaques, his trophies, his game balls and pho-
tographs of him hugging her. Her voice again,
this time with exasperation.
“Where you at, Nard?”
Five shots have been missed, and Waudda
Faried’s oldest son’s name still hasn’t been called.
She counts all the rebounds made by Kenneth
Bernard Faried-Lewis II. He gets them as a tribute
to her. When he first went to Newark’s playground
courts with Waudda and his father, Kenneth Sr.
(he was Kenneth, so the boy was called Nard), they
explained that if he wanted to shoot the basketball,
he had to rebound it first. This is a harsh thing
to tell a five-year-old—unless that kid goes on to
become the best rebounder in college basketball.
Then, it becomes a part of his legend.
“Tillman turns, fires . . . off the iron, off the glass,
off the rim, a miss, rebound Faried—”
“Thank you,” Waudda says, clapping once for
emphasis. “Thank you.”
That’s one. Nard, who’s averaging a Division
I-best 13.3 rebounds per game for the 12–7
Eagles, will get 20 before the final buzzer.
Waudda has requested 30—“He owes me 30,
and he’s working on it,” she says—but will
celebrate his 20. It’s 7 p.m. and darkness has
settled over Zion Towers. She has enough en-
ergy left to rise up off the couch and dance
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a happy dance. Go Nard, go
Nard.
She didn’t think she’d live long
enough to do this.
I
n 2007, Faried arrived in tiny
Morehead—a 6,000-person
burg in the northern tip
of the Daniel Boone National
Forest—cutting a frail figure.
He was 6' 7" and 185 pounds,
dreadlocked and culture-shocked. He’s grown im-
mensely, to 6' 8" and 228, his upper body a sculpted
isosceles triangle, his legs sinewy pogo sticks. He’s
still small compared with the top NCAA rebounders
of the past three seasons (touch to see chart), yet he’s
so relentless that each of his first three seasons with
the Eagles appears in the top six. Oklahoma’s Blake
Griffin won the Wooden and Naismith awards in
part for his glasswork in ’08–09, but Faried had
better numbers that year and the next.
Faried received little attention during his
high school days at Newark Technolog y, a
charter school with an unestablished basket-
ball program. He could start in the frontcourt
for any college program in the country (most
NBA scouts will tell you this—more on that
later), and yet four years ago, he was recruited
seriously by just two schools, Morehead State
and Marist. Seton Hall and Rutgers checked
in on him, but uncertainty over what position
he’d play and whether he’d qualify academi-
cally—he had to scramble as a senior to make
grades and didn’t get an acceptable SAT score
until June 2007, two months before he enrolled
in college—made both programs lose interest.
Faried took one official visit, to Morehead
State, whose first-year coach, Donnie Tyndall,
had received a tip on him through a New Jersey
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kenneth
faried

scouting service contact. The Eagles were in the

midst of a 12–18 season in 2006–07, but Faried Sky-high expectations
Faried returned to
committed in February, and he’s since been the Morehead State for his
cornerstone of the program’s rise to the NCAA senior year hoping to
impress NBA scouts,
tournament in 2009 and a 24-win season last who have flocked to
Kentucky for Eagles
year. Tyndall had no notion that Faried would be games this season.
a star capable of appearing on the NBA’s radar.
“I thought he’d be a guy who could start for us
for three years and make all-conference before
he graduated,” Tyndall says. “Now, I call him
a once-in-a-lifetime player at this school. Even
if I’m fortunate enough to coach at Morehead
for 20 years, I’ll probably only have one Ken-
neth Faried.”

W
hat separates the player who gets 10 to
12 rebounds per 40 minutes from the
one who gets 17, as Faried does? He’s
oversized for his conference, which helps; he has
long arms, an excellent second bounce and loads
of lateral quickness, which help even more. He
has a few tricks that he learned from Kenneth Sr.,
including a jujitsu­l ike swim move­Faried uses
against opponents who have him boxed out; it
typically involves a deft blow to the solar plexus
that pushes the opposing player away from the
basket. But elite rebounders have an intangible
force as well. Former Pitt star DeJuan Blair, for
example, said he was powered by something like
greed. “I love money,” he explained during his
sophomore season. “I pretend that every rebound
is a million dollars, and I’m going to go out and
get my millions.” Faried has a deeper drive, and
this is what major-conference recruiters missed:
They could see 6' 7", 185 pounds and they could
see his raw athleticism—but they could not gauge
the depth of his will to rebound.
That will comes from a place that Faried is
slow to reveal. He’s in his dorm room at More-
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kenneth
faried

he a d , a r e c t a n g u l a r, was a very physical play-

ground-f loor triple in
Chairmen of the boards er,” she says—while play-
which he occupies one
A look at the top Division I rebounding ing on the same teams as
averages (per 40 minutes, pace-adjusted)
end; best friend Demon- from the previous three seasons puts Faried Kenneth Sr. Because of
te Harper, the Eagles’ in good company. His average for the 2010–11 her mother’s experience,
highest-scoring guard, season (16.3) would rank seventh. Waudda knew she was
occupies the other; and 1 John Bryant Santa Clara ’08–09 19.0 genetically predisposed
a student manager’s bed Averaged 13.4 points and 9.5 boards for the to contract lupus.
D-League’s Bayhawks in ’09-10. She w a s told when
is wedged in the middle
space. They use shower 2 D eJuan Blair Pitt ’08–09 18.6 Kenneth was two that
The 6' 7", 265-pound strongman led
c u r t a i ns a s d iv iders. Pitt to a No. 1 ranking; he was drafted she h ad t he d i s e a s e ,
Faried is play ing the by the Spurs. and when he was in the
Xbox 360 game Call of 3 Kenneth Faried ’08–09 17.7 fourth grade, it began
Duty: Black Ops, a first- 4 Faried ’09–10 17.4 to debilitate her, affect-
person shooter that re- 5 Blake Griffin Oklahoma ’08–09 17.2 ing her kidneys and her
quires too much focus to The gravity-defying man-child is joints, and sapping her
simultaneously engage in running away with the NBA Rookie of energy. “I used to wonder
the Year race.
an emotional discussion. why my mother would lie
6 Faried ’07–08 16.4
An anonymous, online in her bedroom in the
soldier slays him with a 7 eric COleman Northern Iowa ’07–08 16.3 middle of the day with
The 6' 7" Coleman has played pro ball in
volleyed explosive device, Europe for the past three seasons. all the lights turned off
and Faried relents. He 8 D e Marcus Cousins Kentucky ’09–10 15.9 and not want us to bother
powers down the Xbox, Cousins, at 6' 11" and 270 pounds, was the her,” Waudda, age 43,
then the television, and fifth overall pick in 2010, by the Kings. says. “And then I under-
apologizes. stood.” She has spent the
“It’s just that . . . video past 12 years in and out
games are my escape,” he says, leaning forward in of the hospital, dealing, as Faried says, with
his chair now, so that his dreadlocks fall over his heartbreak after heartbreak.
eyes, which are welling up with tears. “Because He explains how after high school games,
when I start thinking about my mother, and talk Kenneth Sr. would take him to visit Waudda in
about her being sick, I always start to cry.” St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J.
Faried never met his maternal grandmother, “Tell her the story,” Kenneth Sr. would say, and
Ishana, who died from lupus, a chronic inflam- if Nard wasn’t being descriptive enough, his dad
matory disease that causes the body’s immune would interject falsehoods (“Remember when
system to attack its own tissues and organs, you got dunked on?”) designed to rile up his boy.
while Waudda was pregnant with him in 1989. Waudda only cared about one stat. “She’d say to
Waudda was an all-district hurdler and long me, ‘You’d better have gotten your rebounds,’ ”
jumper in high school, ran track at Jersey City Faried remembers.
State and held her own in streetball games—“I Despite her illness, Waudda promised to be pres-
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kenneth
faried

ent if Faried ever played for a Touch on a player for photo and text

Small conference Stars

championship at Morehead
State. On March 7, 2009, in
Nashville, after the Eagles
Over the past 10 years, 10 players from mid-major teams have cracked the NBA
beat Austin Peay in double draft’s first round. Kenneth Faried hopes to be next on the list come June
overtime to win the OVC
tournament and reach the
NCAAs for the first time
since 1984, Faried’s first
move after the buzzer was
to bound up into the stands
and embrace his mom. She
was weak, with staples in
her arm from a recent op-
eration, but she had made
the trip. Waudda came to
Nashville again last season, on March 6, only to The Oklahoma City Thunder put him through
see Morehead lose in the OVC finals to Murray State. the most thorough physical exam of his life. He’d
Faried was devastated by the loss, but what he heard battled asthma in the past—he was even hospital-
that night from Waudda—who asked him to have ized for it as a child—but the Thunder’s doctors
a talk with her at her hotel—shook him to his core. discovered something alarming.
“I don’t know how long I have left,” she said. “I Faried had been playing for an indeterminate
always wanted to see you achieve your dreams, amount of time with a deviated septum. One
and see you have a child . . . but I don’t know how of his nasal passages was blocked completely;
long I have left.” the other was 25% blocked. He had surgery this
Unbeknownst to Waudda, Faried’s close friend, off-season to correct the issue and has been able
Rebecca McCarthy, was due to have their baby to stay on the floor for longer stretches as a se-
girl, Kyra, in just a few days. nior. (He’s played 35-plus minutes in 10 games
He had been too scared to tell his mother; he already—compared to just four last year.)
wanted to make sure the child was healthy first. But Faried had been the nation’s best rebound-
Kyra was born on March 12, and when Faried er when he could barely breathe.
called Waudda with the news, she was overjoyed. It was Waudda who insisted he stay in school,
There was then the matter of his dream—the because he wasn’t certain about turning pro and
NBA—and whether to enter the draft as a junior. he couldn’t get a first-round guarantee. After pull-
He declared with the intention of helping his ing out of the draft, Nard went home to Newark to
mother and daughter. spend what might have been his last quality time
Faried could only fit one workout trip around with Waudda. He was with her on May 26 when a
his finals during the shortened draft window miracle occurred: After a seven-year wait, St. Barn-
(April 25 through May 8) for underclassmen. abas had finally found a kidney donor for her. The
 ≤ Previous Story page 6 of 6
kenneth
faried
surgery was successful,
giving Waudda what Ken-
neth describes as “a sec-
ond life.” The transplant
could give Waudda another
five years in her fight with
lupus. It should also allow
her to see Kenneth in the
NBA draft, which is being
held in Newark in June—
and, he firmly believes, in the NBA in 2011–12.
“She is what drives me,” he says. “I want to
be the person she wants me to be. When I see
her I say, ‘That’s one strong woman. She has no
quit in her whatsoever.’ That’s why I don’t quit
on anything.”
T
h e game is over, and Waudda has pulled
out a box of photographs of Nard as a boy.
She is partial to one of him dancing in a
plain white T-shirt when he was about eight.
“That,” she says, picking it up and examining
it, “was one active child.”
Now NBA scouts regularly fly to Lexington and
drive the hour east, or to Cincinnati and drive
the two hours southeast, to check in on Waudda
Faried’s active child and watch him chase every
rebound. They are trying to discern, while seeing
him dominate tiny OVC forwards, whether he’s
worthy of their first-round pick. The most com-
mon assessment they make on-record is, “He’s
interesting,” because they know to be coy about a
mid-major sleeper. He could be the next Paul Mill-
sap or Louis Amundson, or if you believe Florida
coach Billy Donovan—against whose fully sized
Gators Faried had 20 points and 18 rebounds on
Nov. 21—“Dennis Rodman all over again.”
“If I was an NBA general manager, I’d be taking
him with my pick,” Donovan said of Faried after
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Florida’s 61–55 win. “That’s
what a next-level guy looks
like. He just totally de-
stroyed our frontcourt.”
Surely several G.M.’s
winced upon reading Don-
ovan’s quote; when the col-
lege coach of Joakim Noah,
Al Horford and David Lee
anoints a small-school for-
Dream team ward the Next Rodman, the
The kidney transplant
Waudda received last secret is going to get out.
summer could prolong But Faried has been mak-
her life several years
and allow her to see ing his case for three years.
Faried play in the NBA.
He had double doubles in 15
of 19 games this season, 25
games as a junior, 25 as a sophomore and seven
as a freshman. In his two NCAA tournament ap-
pearances, he had 14 points and 21 boards (against
Alabama State) and 14 and 11 (against Louisville).
It doesn’t matter what kind of frontcourt Faried is
up against. He’ll always get his rebounds.
A look through the Newark Star-Ledger clip-
pings Waudda has in a scrapbook reveals that
Nard was doing the same thing in high school.
He averaged 15.8 rebounds (and 23.2 points)
as a senior, yet major colleges put no stock in
those numbers. Waudda saved every tiny story
and box score, from the games she witnessed
Nard rebounding for her, and the games about
which she could only hear his stories. She some-
times annotated the scrapbook entries in her
unsteady hand, such as the article from Dec. 17,
2005, which is headlined faried sparkles as
technology triumphs. That was his junior
year, and he had 25 points and 22 rebounds in
a playoff game. What Waudda wrote next to it,
in thick red marker, is the only epitaph Nard’s
career will ever need: “He played his ass off.”±