Image via Complex Original
Kris Dunn just might have one of the craziest paths to the NBA of any draft pick this year, but that hasn’t prevented the 22-year-old from potentially becoming top five selection next week.
Depending on what mock draft you subscribe to, Dunn could be the first point guard taken and has been compared to the likes of Russell Westbrook, John Wall, and Rajon Rondo. At 6’4” with a 6’9” wingspan, Dunn’s explosive athleticism, ball-handling skills, and experience make him one of the most attractive players available this year.
Four years of ball at Providence later, Dunn has done a pretty good job of making himself known. But chances are we’ve unearthed a few nuggets you were clueless about when it comes to the point guard. Here are 13 Things You Didn’t Know About Kris Dunn.
His college coach told him to leave school early.
He decided to forgo the 2015 NBA Draft to earn his degree in social sciences. He also wanted to mature more as a player, as two shoulder injuries plagued him in his first two years as a Friar.
"I told Kris if I was his dad, I told him he should leave,” Providence coach Ed Cooley told the Providence Journal. “Given the circumstance of his injury, I do not want that young man to be hurt under my watch. I don't know if I would have been able to live with myself.”
Dunn had zero regrets about the decision, especially after he led Providence to a second-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament this past March.
He used to beat other kids at one-on-one for money.
Dunn’s mother, who passed away on Dec. 2, 2013, was in and out of prison over the first 10 years of his life. He and his older brother, John, would eat hot pockets for dinner, gamble on card games, and sometimes steal from stores just so they had food on the table. Kris would bet other kids $20 in a one-on-one pick up game, even when he didn’t have the money in his own pocket. Whatever way they could get money, they would—including John selling $200 Jordans almost immediately after receiving them as a gift.
He models his game after a bunch of point guards.
Dunn's favorite player entering college was Rajon Rondo, but he's studied the games of John Wall, Russell Westbrook, and Gary Payton, among others, in his quest to improve.
He moved from Virginia to Connecticut at 9 after his father found out his mother was in prison.
His father, John Seldon, who had been estranged from Kris and his brother since Kris was one, found the boys living down in Virginia and picked them up one night when he learned their mother was in jail.
Seldon visited a Connecticut court to confirm that he could assume custody of his sons. He called a friend at 2:30 a.m. to join him in his 2003 Chevy Venture for a lead-footed, nonstop, six-hour drive down I-95. When they got to the Alexandria address the girl had given them—Dunn’s aunt’s house—a rail-thin boy answered the door wielding a hot-sauce bottle, barking at the two men to back up. John walked into the room to calm his brother. “That’s our dad,” he said. Kris set aside the bottle and began to cry.
That was the first time he met his father.
Pia Dunn took the Dunn brothers away from their father. Seldon spent years trying to locate them—he thought they were in Florida at one point. After hearing from one of Kris’s coaches that Pia had been in jail, Seldon decided to take the drive to Alexandria and have his sons live with him.
"I was in the house," Kris Dunn recalled. "There were two big dudes banging on the big, glass door and telling me to come to the door. I'm looking at them, I'm like, 'OK, I'm going to lock it up even more.' My brother comes out and says: 'What are you doing? That's our father.' Emotions just came out of me so much. I never met my father before."
His favorite movie is "All About the Benjamins."
He’ll sure be all about the benjamins after draft night.
He likes to rock baseball jerseys.
It’s tough to tell who he’s a fan of though, as he sports rivals' jerseys in separate posts.
He became a Netflix junkie rehabbing from injuries.
Don’t ask him about the How I Met Your Mother finale. But catch up on The League, Lost, and, obviously, Breaking Bad and he can talk all day.
He played safety on New London High School’s football team.
He quit football after his sophomore season, but check out what his old coach said about him and his football playing days.
He almost teammed up with Andre Drummond in prep school.
Drummond and Dunn had a plan to enroll at Wilbraham & Monson Academy, a prep school in Massachusetts. In fact, they both announced plans to play there. However, after talking about their plans and what was best for the both of them, Dunn decided to stay at New London. On that same day, Drummond, who was a year ahead of Dunn but thinking about doing a year at the prep level, announced he would take his talents to UConn.
He is 2K aficionado.
Dunn loves 2K so much, he said he wouldn’t mind designing bits and pieces of the game. He also claims his skills are “unbearable.”
One of his favorite television characters is Chandler from "Friends."
"Chandler is so sarcastic that it’s through the roof. Ross is so sensitive about things that it makes it funny,” he said. “You can have a bad day and watch Friends and be so relaxed. You forget about your day."
Ever since his mother’s passing, he ends every Instagram with “R.I.P Mommy.”
Despite growing up under difficult circumstances, including having his mom in and out of prison, Dunn remembers where he came from. An incredibly grateful son, he shouts out his late mother at the end of every Instagram post.
