Within the span between his dependancy and Tyler Kolek, Nick Correia’s relationship with basketball was “bizarre.” He didn’t belief himself.
The game felt like a set off to the medication that after crippled Correia’s life.
However then, Correia began coaching Kolek, and the purpose guard’s underdog rise to NCAA stardom helped additional push the darkish occasions out of focus.
“Tyler was a zero-star recruit,” Correia informed The Publish. “He wasn’t ranked like that. He didn’t have all these high-end scholarship provides. He needed to work for every part. And you may’t assist once you watch a man who’s gritty like that — like, that’s the sport to me, guys that play exhausting, that play selfless.
“I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, this is the reason I like this sport.’ Tyler was the primary time once more the place I didn’t need to miss a sport, sitting on the sting of my seat, watching with emotion and fervour.”
The Kolek-Correia partnership has been mutually useful.
Since he was 17, Kolek has tapped Correia for energy and conditioning steering, together with this summer season as the purpose guard prepares for his rookie marketing campaign with the Knicks.
Correia, a Massachusetts product with a ardour for Larry Fowl and an accent out of “The Departed,” labored out the 23-year-old Kolek most not too long ago this week, a few month earlier than Knicks coaching camp begins in Charleston, S.C.
Correia likened these periods to a automobile tune-up.
Their exercises have been extra intense in the course of the pandemic, when Kolek was house in Rhode Island for an prolonged interval and deadlifting 335 kilos for 20 reps.
“[Kolek’s] house for per week proper now. We’re type of simply altering his spark plugs, placing new tires on him, ensuring he’s as free and feeling pretty much as good as attainable when he will get to camp,” Correia stated. “Two weeks in the past, when he was house with me, after the Summer time League, we did a five-day stretch the place we have been making an attempt to get him stronger, we have been making an attempt to place a bit of little bit of muscle on him. As a result of I do know the calls for of the NBA and it beats you up. … However we are able to’t sacrifice velocity, agility or mobility for energy. As a result of if we get him depraved robust and he loses a step, we’re in hassle. So I combined it up.”
Correia was a Division III basketball coach at UMass Dartmouth earlier than turning into a coach.
He was additionally within the throes of drug dependancy, when a victory celebration beer with the workers might flip right into a bender.
Alcohol grew to become cocaine and opioids.
A profile on Correia in The Customary-Instances from 2017 additionally detailed heroin use and arrests.
“It type of pulled away from the love of the sport,” Correia stated. “The issue is I’d have one beer and need to keep out. I used it as a manner to purchase my medication.”
Correia obtained clear over a decade in the past with the assistance of Chris Herren, the previous NBA participant who overcame his personal drug dependancy and now runs a restoration middle in Massachusetts.
The following years introduced Correia success in each sobriety and energy coaching.
He linked up with Kolek, and through their six summers collectively, the cerebral level guard emerged as Rhode Island’s Excessive Faculty Participant of the Yr, the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Yr with George Mason and the Massive East Participant of the Yr with Marquette.
The run with Marquette turned Kolek into a school star and the thirty fourth decide of the 2024 NBA Draft, chosen by the Knicks.
“When he began to play at Marquette, I informed him, ‘You helped me fall in love with the sport once more, Tyler,’ ” Correia stated.
However now comes the toughest half.
As an older rookie with the most important contract for a second-round decide in NBA historical past, Kolek, who flashed his passing prowess at Summer time League final month, might declare a rotation spot on a Knicks crew with the convention finals because the bar.
There’s a possible want at backup level guard, with newly signed Cam Payne additionally vying for that spot and Miles McBride higher outfitted as a two-guard.
In a great signal for Kolek’s case for a rotation spot, a supply stated head coach Tom Thibodeau was a proponent of drafting the Marquette man. And Kolek has an ardent supporter within the weight room — a coach who is aware of a factor or two about overcoming adversity.
“I’ve by no means seen that child not be in a rotation, and I’ve by no means seen him not make folks round him higher,” Correia stated. “And with the firepower the Knicks have and with the best way they type of broke down within the playoffs with the accidents, they clearly wanted some depth. And I feel he’s going to offer that depth.
“And Tyler can play with anybody. He can play with [Donte] DiVincenzo. He can play with [Jalen] Brunson. He can accomplish that many various issues that I simply see him being an X issue that individuals don’t notice. And in huge sport conditions is when he’s at his greatest. That child goes to play with power like John Starks did within the ’90s. Spike Lee goes to have a Tyler Kolek jersey within the rotation.”
