Image via Complex Original
Buddy Hield was buzzing heavy during March Madness and the 6'4" shooting guard will soon be moving the needle again.
Projected to be a top five pick in the NBA Draft, the Oklahoma shooting guard is being compared to some of the game's best shooters. And much like the baby-faced assassin Steph Curry, Hield’s friendly face has been known to throw opponents off. Not because he looks like a 12-year old, but because he has a huge toothy smile and he talks at a wild five words per second.
But how much do you really know about the budding NBA star from the Bahamas? Before he hears his named called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver, check out 14 Things You Didn't Know About Buddy Hield.
He learned how to shoot on a homemade basket made from plywood and a milk crate.
Growing up in the Bahamas with three brothers and three sisters, Hield’s family didn’t have the money to get a proper hoop. So Buddy and his siblings got resourceful. As his brother explained, “You just need something where the ball can go in and come out.”
He's fueled by Gummy Bears.
Hield has been known to take gummy bear breaks during workouts. And his love for gummies hasn’t gone unnoticed. Hield got hit up by Ferrara Candy on Twitter for some free gummies, which he accepted graciously. Maybe Buddy will pick up a candy sponsorship this summer.
He won best dressed at Oklahoma’s first athlete awards.
The NBA is cutthroat when it comes to fashion, so it’s exciting to potentially welcome another Russell Westbrook into the mix. The Sooner Choice Awards gave Hield and softball player Erin Miller the award this past April at the university’s first annual award show. It’s safe to say Hield will probably fit in well at post game press conferences. He also won Athlete of the Year that night...but that wasn't a surprise.
He loves reggae.
As a guy who grew up in the Bahamas, this isn’t incredibly shocking. He’s known amongst his teammates and coaches for almost always having island tunes on, and at a deafeningly loud volume. He even turned Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center into an “exclusive dancehall-reggae club in Tornado Alley…for one dancer only,” during his workout sessions.
“And you've gotta blast it. If you play it low, you don't get the vibe. You've gotta feel the beat thumping," Hield said. Some of his favorites are Popcaan and Vybz Kartel.
His nickname comes from a character on “Married...With Children”
Buddy is not Buddy’s real full name. He was born Chavano Hield, but quickly got his nickname after his mother and her friend noticed his uncanny resemblance to the character Bud Bundy on Fox’s popular sitcom. They lengthened it to Buddy, after deciding he shouldn’t be named after a drug dealer who used to roam the neighborhood, which seems like the motherly thing to do.
He was a star track and field runner at Sunrise Christian High School in Kansas.
Four of the seven Hield siblings went to college with the intention of running track, according to an interview with Heid’s mom, and Buddy definitely shares those genes. As a prep school student at his first school in the United States, he broke the season record for the 800 meters with a time of 2:05.50. Pretty fast for a guy who's about to devote his life to another sport.
He had a tough time adjusting to American food.
The small town of Eight Mile Rock, where Buddy grew up in the Bahamas, isn’t a whole lot like Kansas, where he was recruited to play ball at prep school. Hield struggled to adjust to American food and upon arriving in the States would make "frequent trips to the grocery store to buy lemons, limes, hot sauce and black pepper to replicate the ‘island taste’ he so loved in foods back home, such as conch and curry chicken.”
He showed love to the women's programs at Oklahoma.
Women’s softball doesn’t get much love in the sports world, but apparently Buddy is looking out. It’s also probably easier to pay attention when Lauren Chamberlain, who holds the NCAA record for home runs, is your team’s best player. He retweeted a video of her screaming “Bama sucks,” which is a sentiment athletes across sports can probably agree with at OU. He also Instagrammed a few pics of the women’s basketball team during their season.
His teammates at Oklahoma thought he was crazy when they first met him.
Buddy’s accent is thick and he talks fast, so it throws people off. Oklahoma forward D.J. Bennett remembers upon first meeting Hield, the entire Oklahoma squad "thought he had mental problems or something. He's a real goofy dude too and just how fast he would talk.”
He could talk slower if he really wanted to.
Hield says he could slow it down if he wanted to "but, you know, it's just I get into a rhythm talking and my tongue is all tied so it just keeps going off and going off.”
He's cool with Kobe Bryant.
Hield is open about his love for the Black Mamba. He told his mother he would be in the NBA like Bryant when he was just starting to pick up basketball and, after his 37-point game against Oregon in the NCAA Tournament, he simply said, “Blame it on Kobe,” who watched the magic from the stands. Apparently Bryant really took notice, as the two have been working out together in preparation for the draft.
His teammates at Oklahoma even call him “New Kobe,” so add that to the list of legendary comparisons.
He has multiple pseudonyms.
Because the lifelong pseudonym Buddy wasn’t enough, Hield also goes by “Buddy Love,” “Buddy Buckets,” and “Buddy Fresh,” each with their own corresponding personality traits.
He explained the concept to Rolling Stone:
"Buddy Love is this guy who has a sweet personality, keeps smiling, charming to the ladies...”
"Buddy Buckets takes the court and gets buckets, no matter who is guarding him, however it comes."
"Who told you about Buddy Fresh? Buddy Fresh is the casual guy, chill…and I just call myself fresh. Wherever I go, I gotta look fresh."
He dropped 46 points in one of the most watched college basketball games ever.
In what became the second most viewed Monday night college basketball game ever, Hield put up 46 points only to have his No. 2 Sooners lose to No. 1 Kansas in triple overtime on the road. If they didn't know who Buddy Hield was before this game, a lot of people sure enough knew about him after it.
He can't handle spicy food.
Oklahoma teammate Ryan Spangler pulled off a pretty good prank on his pal, targeting his weak tastebuds in the process.
“So we were at one of the sorority chili cook-offs, we go there every year as the judges," Spangler remembers. "Buddy doesn't like spicy. They rank them 1 through 5, with 5 being the spiciest. Isaiah Cousins put a 1 on a cup, but put the spiciest [chili] in there and gave it to Buddy. He took a couple bites before he realized how hot it was. There were tears coming out of eyes, he ran out of the room—that was one of the funniest things.”