De'Anthony Melton traces his path from North Hollywood to the NBA, shaped by his grandfather's coaching from a wheelchair and a choice to abandon football for basketball in eighth grade. He played college ball at USC under Jason Hart's mentorship, then moved through Phoenix and Memphis before returning to the Warriors, where he's focused on team improvement.
Chapters
My parents always said I had a basketball in my hand or football or soccer ball. I grew up wanting to play football, and once I got to like my 8th grade year, that's when I started falling in love with basketball. I was like, "I think this is something I want to do." North Hollywood, California. Growing up over there, having a lot of family was definitely big for me. My grandfather, he used to take me up to this park that was probably like 30, 45 minutes away. We would just sit up there all day. You know, he was in a wheelchair and he coached, so me and my sister, we would be there from sometimes 10:00 AM to all the way to 8:00 PM. I think that's when basketball kind of really got acclimated to me. The joy. I think the fun that, you know, it brought to me. My love for basketball grew over time, so I just stuck with my heart and just stayed with it. I went to high school for football. I had got an athletic scholarship and academic scholarship to go, and then I just kind of made a pact to myself, whatever I was on, I was gonna quit the other sport because seeing my skill level around that time, I felt like I had a chance given my defensive ability and my smarts for the game. Going into my sophomore year, that was like, okay, I feel like I got a chance in this. I feel like I could play a long time and be an impact out there. Colleges started to come. I mean, I had 5 offers: San Diego State, LMU, Colorado State, Nevada, and USC. USC was the only Power Five school that offered me. Went to USC. Jason Hart was a big advocate for me. He played 11 years in the NBA, so if I could do that, that would be amazing for my family and stuff like that. So I kind of took that route and just, you know, went under his mentorship for that. All that comes with USC was amazing. Football gets a lot of love at SC, so we kind of had a chip on our shoulders about that. You know, we wanted to prove that, you know, we belong and, you know, we're here to stay and we have talent. I played my rookie year with Phoenix, you know, Devin Booker, De'anthony Melton. After that, I got traded to Memphis. Going to a small market, it just put me in a place of comfort because everybody over there has a chip on their shoulder, and I feel like that was me coming into the league. And, you know, it was important to have that type of locker room coming into the league. I'm the type, I don't really wanna leave something without knowing what it could've been. Coming back here and the love that they showed and people reaching out to me, making sure I was okay, making sure I was all right, the ultimate love. Just playing in this arena, playing in front of these fans, playing for my teammates, playing for my brothers, you know, playing for my family. A year removed from basketball, you learn a lot. You know, dealing with stuff head on sometimes was tough, but I think this year it's just go out there and have fun. Just everybody getting acclimated with each other. I think now we're gonna have a full year with these guys, and I think, you know, I think the biggest thing is improvement as, you know, as individuals and as a team too. Man, I'm just excited. I'm just excited for everything to come. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
