From the moment Caris LeVert arrived in Brooklyn, the Nets have raved about the rookie’s maturity and poise. As the young guard rehabbed from foot surgery, people marveled at his determination to overcome adversity.
But for LeVert, an injury is no real adversity. He knows from real adversity. Life had seen to that a long time ago — when it took his father from him.
“For sure. An injury, that was always minor for me,’’ LeVert, 22, told The Post. “I was never really worried about that, because, life [toughened me]. I’ve been through things in life that are way worse than a foot injury.”
Things like losing his father, Darryl, when LeVert was just 15.
It had been Darryl, a graphic designer who had played Division III hoops himself, who had put a basketball in LeVert’s crib as a baby. It was his father who used to school LeVert and his younger brother — also named Darryl — in games of H-O-R-S-E.
But on Easter morning, after having watched the Final Four games with his father just the night before, LeVert heard the yell from his brother. LeVert sprinted downstairs to the family room and found his father lying cold on the floor. He was dead from a heart attack, just 46 years old.
“For sure [it molded me]. I was the oldest male in the house from when I was a sophomore in high school, so I definitely had to grow up a lot quicker,’’ LeVert said. “I had to do things that I wouldn’t have had to do if he was still living, had to make certain decisions for myself, had to try to mentor my brother while I was still a little kid, too. It was definitely tough, but it forced me to grow up.”
And grow up quickly. It was the teen who actually had to make the call to his mother, Kim, who had been away visiting family in D.C.
“I’ve always seen [Caris] to be a no-nonsense type, always had a good head on his shoulders,” Kim LeVert told The Post. “He always had a sharp sense of who he was. He took in the things I tried to teach him. … He’d been around an educator all his life, so he’s always had structure. Then after his father died, he did have to grow up real soon.”
And Kim, a principal and teacher, wasn’t the only educator. Caris is named after his paternal grandfather, president of the school board in Johnstown, Ohio. His maternal grandmother was an educator in Prince George’s county, Maryland. LeVert had structure, but his father’s death made him hungry on the court.
“Even before he passed, I had a huge passion for [basketball],” LeVert said. “But after he passed, after it happened, it made me a little more focused, and made me more hungry and made me want it that much more for my family.”
The results were dramatic. The same way other members of that family — cousins Eddie (lead singer of The O’Jays) and Gerald and Sean (from LeVert) — excelled in music, he blossomed on the court.
LeVert had been on the JV team that sophomore season, but by his senior year he had been named all-state and led Pickerington H.S. Central (Ohio) to its first OHSAA Division I state title.
“With his father’s sudden death he had to become an adult at a very young age. He had to become the man of the house,” Michigan coach John Beilein told The Post. “In his first year, there wasn’t the leadership yet, just the calming attitude and a lot of confidence. … We tried to redshirt him and he was just killing us in practice every day. As soon as we put him in the game, it was like it was just natural.”
It was natural like arriving as a 17-year-old, 166-pound beanpole, but defending so fiercely that he forced Beilein to scrap plans to redshirt him. It was natural like draining two huge 3-pointers against Syracuse’s zone in a win before 75,000 screaming fans at the 2013 Final Four.
“We saw this calming maturity at a very young age. The injuries junior and senior year, he never changed from that,’’ Beilein said. “[His take was], I understand God’s got a plan for me, this is part of the plan apparently, although I don’t like it but I’m going to see it through.”
The injuries were his junior year against Northwestern, then breaking his fifth metatarsal again as a senior. But after being operated on by Dr. Martin O’Malley at the Hospital for Special Surgery — the Nets’ doctor who performed Brook Lopez’s surgeries and as well as Kevin Durant’s — Brooklyn traded Thad Young for LeVert’s draft rights and happily scooped up a lottery talent to anchor their rebuild.
When Nets board member Sergey Kushchenko was asked whom he would consider the team’s core, he came up with just one name: LeVert. The team is better with him on the floor (plus-4.5 according to Basketball Reference), thanks to his slashing on offense and 6-foot-10 wingspan on defense.
“I’m surprised he’s this far along considering how long he was out in college and not having a whole lot of time with us in the summer. … But from a personality standpoint, it was part of the reason why we drafted him. He’s got a calm about him,’’ coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He looks like he’s about 15, but he just carries himself [with] maturity for a guy that young. It’s impressive.”
Life saw to that maturity a long time ago.
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