Boyd’s ‘bus trip or bust’ made all the difference

A latecomer to the game, Corey Boyd didn’t play college hoops. An opportunity off the beaten path opened doors — to the TBL, the G League and, now, the London Lightning.

(Photo: Barry Field Photography).

* * *

Corey Boyd took a gamble he couldn’t afford to lose — a one-way bus ticket heading toward a shot he couldn’t miss. Imagine the stress, the pressure on that kid knowing that his last chance was a few hundred miles down a lonely road. Where does his mind go?

“It was crazy sitting there on that bus thinking the whole time that this has got to work out.”

*   *   *

A late bloomer in the game, Boyd started on the gridiron and didn’t take to the court until his freshman year of high school.

Despite being a relative unknown among elite hoops circles, it didn’t take long for Boyd to make a name for himself. He was a kid from St. Louis city schools; he had an edge about his game. He and his teammates played as much for the chance to represent their school, their neighbourhood, as they did for a final score.

Not that he didn’t want to win, mind you, especially in a world that reminded you of every loss.

“It was on the tougher side. These games were grind-them-out games, hard-fought games. Coming up in a rough part of the city, you played hard every night – you had to play hard. You couldn’t take any nights off,” Boyd said.

“The fans that come, the people who come out and support the teams, you gotta be able to perform in front of them because you would hear about it if you didn’t.”

The high school standout bounced around a bit – two schools in St. Louis, a prep school in Tennessee, another in North Carolina. Despite that, his game grew enough that he could continue at the next level.

Boyd planned on attending Connors State College, a junior college in eastern Oklahoma. But less than a week after his campus visit, he was told that his prep school was shutting down, taking with it the credits he needed to graduate.

No high school diploma.

College was no longer an option.

He was stuck in Durham, North Carolina, with no immediate prospects.

“Everyone in the family has graduated, everybody has gone to college. I was the only one that veered off from that typical family plan,” Boyd said. “It was tough for my mom.”

(Photo: Barry Field Photography).

His last chance, he believed, was a tryout with a fledgling basketball league, the Junior Basketball Association (JBA). It was a real shot in the dark, a cattle call of 120 players a few hundred miles away, to play in a league surrounded by a whole lot of questions.

With doubts swirling, his mom helped him rise above them.

“She always had faith in me. She always said, ‘It’s your life. I can never live it for you. I can never wake up and be you. So, at the end of the day, whatever it is you make for yourself, you gotta go through it. So, if that’s what you choose to do, that’s something you gotta do.’”

The family pooled enough money to buy Boyd a bus ticket to attend the tryout where he found out that long rides give you plenty of time to think – and he did a lot of that.

“Going home, it was rough back home. I didn’t want to go back home. I couldn’t go back to school. There was nothing else. My mindset was it had to work out. I had to play harder than everybody,” he said.

“I had to make it or nothing, basically I had to make a team or go back home and just try to start working at something. In a week or two, everything in my life just flipped.”

*   *   *

It’s the craziest box score you’ll ever see outside of NBA2K – actually, you would need to be a damn skilled player to even pull off this kind of line in a video game.

July 19, 2018. The Los Angeles Ballers, led by LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball, scored a 170-123 JBA win over the Atlanta Ballers in Garland, Texas. The numbers in this thing are wild:

293 total points.

100 rebounds by LA alone.

52 offensive rebounds by LA (achieving the rare feat of more offensive than defensive rebounds).

LiAngelo had 48 points in 48 minutes while shooting 19-54 (35.2%) from the floor. That includes 5-24 from three and 5-9 from the free throw line. LaMelo also scored 48 points on 35 shots, including 7-18 from beyond the arc. 

As you might guess, this event was more of a spectacle than a traditional contest. A showcase for the Ball Brothers, the game had little emphasis on defense, where end-to-end play was more freewheelin’ than a Duluth-born troubadour.

And Corey Boyd was right in the middle of it.

“It was a bunch of 17-, 18-year-olds with 48 minutes to play. That’s a lot of time to score,” laughed Boyd, who went 19-for-39 from the field, good for 41 points for Atlanta. “We were young. We never got tired. It was probably the most energy, the most athletic time of our lives. We played fast. There was a lot of good talent; it was a lot of fun.”

Boyd walked off that bus and had a solid trial a few weeks earlier, then got the call from the league to join the league training camp in Chino Hills, California. Well, it was more than just a training camp. It was a full-blown reality experience.

Founded in 2017, the JBA was created by LaVar Ball, and aimed to provide high school and junior college players with a professional alternative to the NCAA. Funded entirely by Ball’s sports apparel company, Big Baller Brand, the league launched with eight teams representing major U.S. cities. However, the JBA's ambitious venture was short-lived, lasting only one season in 2018.

There was plenty of criticism of the JBA and its heavy focus on promoting the Ball family, particularly LaMelo and LiAngelo, which led to concerns about a lack of competitive balance, limited opportunities for other players, and the league’s overall credibility as a genuine alternative to traditional basketball pathways.

Boyd, however, credits the league for helping clear his path forward in the game.

“I know the media has portrayed the league as though it was bad. That people didn’t get paid and whatever. But I think everybody who played in the league appreciated it. We were all young, making $3,000 a month. For me, it put me on a good platform. My JBA highlights got me in my first two jobs.

“I didn’t have nothing. A lot of those players probably had schools to go to. But me, it was that league or nothing. I always appreciate them. They put me on a platform — and I performed.”

That platform also included a Facebook reality show – no, really.

Ball in the Family was a series following the lives of LaVar Ball and his family as they navigated fame, family dynamics, and the pursuit of basketball greatness. In the episode entitled Welcome to the Family (Season 3, Episode 7), LaVar and Tina Ball welcomed to the Ball Estate in Chino Hills four new JBA players – Greg Floyd Jr., Demba Thimbo, Niles Malone, and Corey Boyd (known at the time as “Big Jelly”).

“It was a crazy experience for me. Growing up where I grew up to living in a mansion, that part was crazy.”

Boyd loved the experience of the league, the competition, his teammates, the travel (except the plane rides – he could do without those). Most of all, he appreciated the stability and consistency it brought to his life after a period of real uncertainty.

“I was waking up at 6 a.m. We would go run hills, lift weights, shoot every day. Where I’m from, we just played. We were playing outside or just going to the gym. I never really worked out. Working out every day, going through drills, it was different. It helped to just focus on basketball.”

*   *   *

Chaka Amahle is the MVP of this story. Her son wouldn’t argue that fact at all.

“She’s always been my biggest supporter – no matter what. She supports me no matter where I’m playing, no matter what I’m doing. She’s been my biggest motivation to keep going,” Boyd said. “When you know somebody supports you no matter what, it makes all the difference. No matter if I’m playing in front of 20,000 fans, 2,000 fans, or two fans, she’ll always be my biggest fan.”

Coming out of the pandemic, Boyd was struggling to find his place. A tryout with the College Park Skyhawks (Atlanta Hawks) of the NBA G League left him wondering whether the game was for him anymore.

(Photo: Barry Field Photography).

“When I got there and saw the different types of players, the athleticism, all types of stuff, I got hit that maybe this isn’t for me. I didn’t think I had put in enough work, worked hard enough to be ready. Maybe I needed to figure out something else. It got real, real dark for me.”

His confidence dipped, his weight ballooned, and his spirits shrunk. To Boyd’s mind, basketball was over. Then mom stepped in again. Amahle needled her son, saying things like, “OK, I guess you don’t play basketball no more.”

As many parents know, tough love – repeated tough love – was what it took.

Boyd got back to work. Off the couch. In the gym. The weight came off. The outlook improved. The passion for the game returned. He kept pushing, knowing full well that if he slid back on his dreams, his mom was standing right behind him to push him forward.

He started to land opportunities – in the NKL (Lithuania), The Basketball League (TBL) and the Basketball Super League (BSL), including stops with the KW Titans and Montreal Toundra, before landing with the Lightning this season.

“I wish she was here. Back home, she had this cowbell. She’s known at the games – ‘the crazy lady with the cowbell,’” Boyd laughed. “She supports me 100 per cent. She’s proud of me, everything I’ve accomplished, and the fact I’m still going with it, too, honestly.

“At one point, it was dark. I didn’t want to play basketball. But she pushed me. When I got too far from what I said I want to do with my dreams, she was on me to keep going. She pushed me to get back into it and stay with it.”

*   *   *

He’s as true a five as the Lightning have today – and one of the best in years. A big body. A banger. A difficult matchup. In a game that has traveled away from the basket, preaching spacing and three-point shooting, Boyd is a throwback to an era where danger awaited those foolish enough to attack low.

Lightning head coach Jerry Williams coached Boyd during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season with the Newfoundland Rogues. The then-first-year TBL head coach loved what he saw in the young man.

“Corey was a dog. He was the guy who was going to go get it. He was the guy who was going to do the right thing at the right time. I have known Corey for a long time, and he was always a guy I wanted to coach, and lo and behold, I end up coaching him twice.”

Williams continued, “I like the way he’s able to move, the way he’s able to face you up, shoot a jump shot, play around the basket, finish well, rebound the ball. He’s a big, strong body who is hard to move. When Corey gets going, he’s a problem. Trust me.”

Boyd hates that the pandemic cut short what might have been a special season out east.

“We’ve both been promising each other a championship since Newfoundland,” he said. “London is the best fit for both of us to make that possible. It just might end up happening here.”

A vocal player, who loves to keep energy high and bonds strong among his teammates, Boyd is averaging 11.8 points and 6.5 rebounds across 24 minutes per game through the Lightning’s first four contests. While finding success on both ends, he has struggled at the line, going 9-20 (45%).

Williams feels that his centre has room to grow.

“Corey is a guy who can do some good things. He’s just got to take the game more seriously, get in the gym, work. If Corey decides to dedicate a year to just nothing but basketball, take everything else off the table and just dedicate himself a whole year, he could be an NBA player. But he has to dedicate himself to his body and his game; that’s the main reason why a lot of kids don’t make it because the dedication is hard. But Corey has that kind of talent.”