The Lakers clinched a much-needed win Wednesday, and it was all thanks to a player whose job wasn’t just playing basketball last year.
The game was all but lost by the end of the fourth quarter. The Pelicans took a 111-108 lead by 7.8 seconds on a dunk by former Laker Larry Nance Jr. and then watched as Lakers guard Lonnie Walker IV rattled a 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left, making the game could end.
Pelicans rookie Dyson Daniels, the eighth overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft, rebounded from Walker’s missed shot and was immediately fouled. With 1.6 seconds on the clock, Daniels only needed to make one of two free throws to effectively end the game.
He didn’t make them.
LeBron James quickly recovered from Daniel’s second miss, called a timeout and moved the ball up for a second try for a game-winning 3-pointer. That attempt ultimately fell to Matt Ryan (no relation to the Indianapolis Colts quarterback who is now on the bench), who dumped an unbalanced, contested 3-pointer to force overtime:
The Lakers eventually clinched the 120-117 win in overtime, improving to 2-5, their second straight win after opening the season on a five-game losing streak.
Lakers hero Matt Ryan was a DoorDash driver (and more) a year ago.
It was a career-building moment for Ryan, whose story was already incredible.
Ryan made two transfers from Notre Dame to Chattanooga via Vanderbilt in his collegiate career before going undrafted in the 2020 NBA draft. He would see his first minutes in the G League in 2021.
What happened in the year in between? As Ryan explained earlier this year, he drove DoorDash up until the call for the Cleveland Cavaliers Summer League team. And UberEats. He also coached a basketball basketball team. And his job: work in a cemetery in Yonkers, New York.
Like many players, Ryan saw his post-college basketball prospects dashed by the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he had to wait a year while pushing all the way before he could play basketball again.
The story goes on
Matt Ryan is a great story for the Lakers. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
That first opportunity came with the Cavaliers, then Ryan signed with the Denver Nuggets — and was waived two weeks later. He eventually signed with the Grand Rapids Gold, a Nuggets G League affiliate, before finally earning an NBA pick with the Boston Celtics as a two-way player.
That stint with the Celtics took him to the NBA Finals, despite playing just five minutes with the team during the regular season and none in the postseason.
In Year 2 as an NBA player, Ryan got his chance with the Lakers whose malfunction opened the door to the first real season of his NBA career. Obviously he just made the best of it.