Myers-Main-31816.jpg
A Hometown Return for WVU's Myers Tonight
March 18, 2016 12:30 PM | Men's Basketball
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The memories of home began overtaking Teyvon Myers once the West Virginia team bus pulled into the Barclays Center for Wednesday afternoon’s shoot around in advance of tonight’s NCAA tournament game against Stephen F. Austin.
Brooklyn, New York, is home to Teyvon Myers. It is the place he said made him the person he is today.
“I will always be a New York guy,” Myers said yesterday in front of a small gathering of New York City reporters in the team locker room.” I’ve moved around a lot but Brooklyn gave me the mentality I have and that mentality is learning how to strive and learning how to overcome adversity.”
Teyvon Myers playing a college basketball game inside the Barclays Center instead of at one of the local parks nearby is a testament to his perseverance and desire to move his life forward.
After five high schools, two junior colleges and a move to California, Meyers is returning to his old stomping grounds wearing a basketball uniform for the No. 8 rated college basketball team in the country.
“When you are facing adversity and you are trying to find any way to come out on top, no matter how much your back is against the wall or how much you feel down on yourself, you always find a different way to pick yourself up,” he said.
That meant if he didn’t have money in his pocket to ride the D-train home, he walked. That meant if he wanted to play basketball in a park that didn’t have nets, he figured out a way to put nets on the rim.
That meant if there wasn’t a basketball around to use, they got a Scooby-Doo ball from the 99-cent store.
That meant if he wanted to play against better players, he would have to go over to Tillary Park and call next and then have to wait half the day before he was finally allowed to play.
“I used to go there and call next and have to wait five nexts after my next because everybody would take my next because I wasn’t from the neighborhood. I was like, ‘Man, I’m just trying to get some games in,” he laughed.
Now, he’s about to play an NCAA tournament game in the Barclays Center in a place where he once grew up.
“It wasn’t even being built yet,” Myers said. “I remember when the (New Jersey) Nets used to have camps and stuff like that when they were coming to Brooklyn, and this was like eight years old. I’ve still got the little shirts. All this stuff right here was basically just the train station and Target across the street and stuff like that.
“Now the area is beautiful. They are trying to build all of this new stuff and it seems like they are trying to make downtown Brooklyn into Manhattan.”
For many years, New York City has been good to West Virginia University basketball. The nucleus of the Mountaineers’ Final Four team in 2010 was made up of New York City metro players such as Devin Ebanks, Truck Bryant, Kevin Jones, Da’Sean Butler and Wellington Smith.
Myers said he knew about all of them.
“Way back when when we were in the Big East when Truck Bryant was here – that’s my guy,” Myers said. “Dev Ebanks was my guy, too. He played at Bishop Loughlin and Brooklyn. I grew up watching those guys and they went to West Virginia and became pros and now come back, play me one on one, and we’ll see who takes the crown!”
Myers was also childhood friends with Tarik Phillip, another Brooklyn native who found his way to WVU a year prior. After Myers led the country in scoring at Williston State College and other major schools began pursing him, West Virginia and his boy Tarik Phillip were always stuck in the back of his mind.
“During my whole recruiting process I knew if I was going to get recruited by West Virginia I’ve got to look at them longer than any of the other schools because my boys are here and it was easy for me to fit in,” he said. “I didn’t have to come here and learn how people are and all that other stuff. I kind of just fit right in.”
In order to get to West Virginia University, Myers admitted it required an attitude adjustment on his part at an important time of his life.
“If you ask anybody, no matter how long it’s been since they’ve seen me, they will say I’m more locked in because before I let other things sidetrack me, but I still got my A-A degree, still got my diploma and I did it. That’s all that matters.
“It was a grow-up switch,” he continued. “I hit a certain age and it was like, ‘What am I going to do? I was in California, I wasn’t playing basketball and I actually went on Google and started finding schools by myself - started calling schools and stuff like that. When I went to prep school in Florida I kind of found my way to junior college. I didn’t even know anything about junior college and found my way there, did what I had to do. Then I felt like the competition wasn’t good enough so I went to a national junior college, everything was great, everything fell into place, and that’s how it happened.”
Today, Teyvon Myers is at WVU getting an outstanding college education as a result of his desire to do more in his life.
And tonight, he will be out on the floor playing in a beautiful new basketball arena that came about as a result of the desires of those who wanted to make things better in the community.
It only seems fitting.
College Basketball Crown Recap
Thursday, April 16
Ross Hodge, Honor Huff & Brenen Lorient | Oklahoma Postgame
Sunday, April 05
Ross Hodge, Treysen Eaglestaff & Brenen Lorient | Creighton Postgame
Saturday, April 04
Ross Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Thursday, April 02
