RICHMOND, Ind. — Abel Bryant tells the story like it happened yesterday. He doesn’t expect many to believe it. 

Memphis Grizzlies shooting guard Desmond Bane, then a member of the middle school football team Bryant coached, kicked the ball high into the overcast Indiana sky.

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On this fall day, it was breezy. 

“And that was the key,” Bryant said. 

As the ball soared through the air, it collided with a gust of wind about 20 yards downfield, knocking it back in the direction of the kicking team.

Standing under it when it came down, astonishingly, was Bane, who snagged it out of the air and carried it into the end zone. 

“We couldn’t believe it,” Bryant said. 

So that is the story of the time Desmond Bane caught his own kickoff.

Bryant repeatedly shares it 10 years later. 

“Yeah, that s--- was crazy,” Bane said.

“And what’s also crazy was I wasn’t supposed to play that first half because I missed practice with a hurt hamstring, so they didn’t want to play me right away. But they didn’t have another kicker, so I had to kick, then I caught the ball and ran it in for a touchdown.”

That’s Bane. 

He’s been doing things like that his entire life. 

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“His aunt used to live across the street from us. We both had the corner lots, and I can remember her talking about Desmond when he was about 4 years old,” Bryant said. “She was talking about how far he could throw the ball and how well he was already doing things. 

“I never really paid any attention to it. But she would say things like, ‘No, Abel, I’m telling you.’ Then when I first got a glimpse of it, I was kind of like, ‘Whoa.’”

According to Bane’s childhood friends and teammates, Jacob Rogers and Nick Matthews, he was always the best athlete in town growing up. 

In football, Bane was the running back and quarterback who scored all the touchdowns.

In baseball, he was the big kid who hit all the home runs. His friends estimated Bane hit more than 100 and claim that if he continued playing the sport through high school, he’d probably be playing in the majors. 

“I was a little nervous for him, but Des wasn’t nervous at all. I think on the basketball court is where he is most comfortable.”

Josh Jurgens
Coach at Seton Catholic

But basketball was always Bane’s obsession, as it is for most in his hometown of Richmond, Indiana.

It was obvious from the beginning. 

“I remember watching him as a kid, he would be out there shoveling the driveway in Indiana weather just so he could shoot on that basketball hoop,” said Adria Morken, Bane’s second cousin whom he calls his aunt. 

“I still remember going over there and installing that hoop in his front yard,” said Tony Bane, Desmond’s uncle. “The kids always wanted to lower it so that they could dunk on it, but his great-grandfather never let him do it. It was probably the best decision he ever made.”

Sure enough, Desmond was a beast on the court too.

But as he grew into his high school years, he never gathered the same level of respect as some other local players. 

The reason was obvious: Desmond played at 1A Seton Catholic, which had just over 100 students total. Richmond High, a 4A school with more than 1,000 students and a rich basketball history, played up the road. 

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It’s a story that mirrors that of Desmond’s co-star with the Grizzlies, Ja Morant, who chose to play at Crestwood High in South Carolina out of loyalty to his father’s high school coach instead of opting to play at a prep school, where he surely would have gathered more attention. 

However, for Desmond this was his great-grandparents’ choice.

Fabbie and Bob Bane, who raised Desmond from 2 years old, were devout Catholics. They thought the discipline of Catholic school would provide the best environment for their great-grandson and sent him there beginning with fourth grade. 

“Seton, they had rules,” Fabbie Bane, who died in 2021, said in a 2018 interview with YouTube channel InTheGymHoops. “You have to stick to those rules. And Desmond, he got detention several times.”

Doubters

Josh Jurgens, who quickly climbed the ranks to varsity coach at the small private school, feels fortunate to have been there at the right time. Jurgens was 18 years old when he met Desmond — a third grader — as a volunteer coach in a city basketball league. 

“I remember telling Desmond when he got to high school at Seton that we were going to fill up that trophy case right there,” Jurgens said, pointing to a glass box that sits at the intersection of the school’s only two hallways. 

It’s now loaded with sectional championships awards, game-used basketballs and a plaque celebrating Desmond’s 18 school records, career statistics, team accomplishments and individual awards.

Desmond once scored 63 points in a game, on only 31 shots. 

“That thing was empty when he got here,” Jurgens said. “It’s not anymore.”

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Yet some felt Desmond wasn’t even good enough to hoop up the street. 

“People thought he couldn’t play,” Jurgens said. “I was told during his junior and senior year that he wouldn’t even make the junior varsity team over at Richmond High School. There was a lot of doubt about him because he went here and he put up gaudy numbers. 

“But the people that were here knew he was good. I can remember him coming out of the locker room as a freshman with slides on his feet and watching him make like 35 straight 3s.”

Everyone had heard the doubts. 

“If he came to Richmond, he would be average. That’s what people would say,” said Desmond’s cousin, Molly Morken. “That’s something that sticks with him and his supporters from the beginning to this day. For as many haters as he had, to be where he is now is just crazy.”

The Seton coaches called him the LeBron James of Indiana 1A basketball.

Every time, Desmond brought the ball up the floor. On defense, they stuck him in the middle of a 2-3 zone because it was the best way to keep him out of foul trouble. 

Still, Jurgens admits there was a time he begged for Desmond to get high-major college attention. Prior to Desmond’s senior season, some of his low-major options were applying pressure to have him commit. 

“There was one coach, and I won’t name the school, who said to me, ‘Do you know how many Desmond Banes there are in Texas and Florida?’ Jurgens said. 

“At the time, Des was not ready to commit. We told him, ‘All right, go get one then.’”

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But, quietly, Jurgens was feeling the heat. 

“His great-grandmother Fabbie was always on me like, ‘Where are these college recruiters? Where are these college offers? Why does so-and-so get offers and Desmond doesn’t get those offers?’

“I had to tell her, ‘Look, he’s going to get his chance. With the Wettig coming up, he’s going to get his chance.’”

The Wettig

Before Desmond’s senior season at Seton Catholic, the school had never been invited to play in the Bob Wettig Tournament, which features each of the top high school teams in the Richmond area. 

But with the best team in school history, the tournament creators decided to finally give the Cardinals a chance to play against schools with student bodies eight times bigger than their own.

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Why did they do it?

Because they knew a potential Desmond vs. Richmond matchup would sell tickets. 

But that wasn’t what mattered to Desmond. 

“We told him, ‘You want to prove you can do it against the top level of competition? Well, this is it, bud. Let’s see what you got,’” Jurgens said. 

“I was a little nervous for him, but Des wasn’t nervous at all. I think on the basketball court is where he is most comfortable.”

“I remember watching him as a kid, he would be out there shoveling the driveway in Indiana weather just so he could shoot on that basketball hoop,”

Adria Morken
Desmond Bane’s second cousin

Seton Catholic defeated Hamilton Heights in the first game, moving on to play the highly anticipated game against local powerhouse Richmond. They won that game too, 62-58, with Desmond scoring more than half his team’s points (33). 

Over four tourney games, he averaged more than 30 points and shot close to 80% from the 3-point range. He is the only player named Tournament MVP without reaching the final. 

The 2015 win over Richmond is still the only time Seton Catholic has defeated the local public school. The two teams played again in the Wettig this season, with Richmond winning 70-28.

“That’s where I really feel like I made my name,” Desmond said. “People thought I was just this kid at a small school putting up big numbers until I did it against the best in the state.”

His performance in the tournament is so legendary that the Wettig honored Desmond before its start this season by announcing his statistics from 2015 and celebrating what it meant for his future basketball career. 

“That was the most fun I’ve ever had coaching in my life because it was the biggest ‘I told you so’ that I’ve seen,” Jurgens said. 

Everyone had been turned into believers.

Finally, the high-major attention started to pour in, including some from Texas Christian University, where Desmond went on to play in college. 

“It’s been fun,” Jurgens said, “to see the transformation of Richmond fans that afterward went on to be TCU fans, and now are Memphis Grizzlies fans.”

But, much to the displeasure of Richmond residents, Desmond never received a scholarship offer from the three major local programs — Indiana, Purdue and Butler.

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“We went on an unofficial visit to Purdue, and (Boilermakers coach) Matt Painter shakes Desmond’s hand and says, ‘I have never received more emails, more text messages and more phone calls regarding any one recruit,’” Tony Bane said. “I’m over there thinking, ‘And you’re still not going to offer this kid?’ 

“They missed out.”

But for Desmond, who loved his time at TCU, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Like Morant, Desmond relishes the fact so many along the way doubted he would ever be good enough. He still has a mental note of all 29 players drafted ahead of him in 2020. 

“Even trying to get him onto the Indiana All-Star team was a whole struggle for me too,” Jurgens said. “I’m 24 years old calling these old guys trying to get them to vote for him. Most of them would say, ‘Who is this kid?’”

What it means

So for those who believed in Desmond from the beginning, his NBA success is particularly rewarding.

Even for those who played only a small part in his upbringing. 

“Growing up in Richmond, I had a little bit of a rough start myself,” said Bryant, the former grade school football coach. “I don’t want to make this about me, but that was the whole point of coaching: to try and give back to the community and make some difference.”

Bryant is now in the midst of his third bout with cancer, currently in his lungs.

He has lost both a kidney and his left eye. But he finds great joy in watching Desmond play, even if he never coached him on the basketball court. 

“To see Desmond make it to that level, it really helps you put things in perspective,” Bryant said. “It makes you realize how blessed we really are to have him be a part of our lives and watch that journey.”

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