NBA Draft

NBA Draft: McCullough family celebrates first-round pick after draft

Sam Blum | Sports Editor

Chris McCullough walks to the stage of the NBA Draft after being selected by the Brooklyn Nets with the 29th overall pick.

NEW YORK — Two minutes after 1 a.m., a black stretch Suburban pulls to the curb, and the man everyone has been waiting on steps out.

The Royal – a club inconspicuously situated between apartment buildings and a café on the corner of East 13th Street and 4th Avenue – closed the blinds and welcomed its guest.

Chris McCullough, the first-round pick (No. 29) by the Brooklyn Nets two hours earlier in the NBA Draft, arrived wearing a black t-shirt that read “Millions,” red shoes and his Nets draft cap.

His aunt, Shuron McCullough, waited on the for him on the sidewalk, still overcome by the moment.

“That’s my nephew, a first-round pick,” she yelled at the sky. Then she turned, “I’m out here acting a fool, you would’ve thought he was my son.”



McCullough stepped into the club’s semi-darkness, lit only by dim neon blue and orange lights. He waded through handshakes, including those of former Syracuse teammates Ron Patterson and B.J. Johnson. Halfway down the bar, McCullough hit a large group of people and a yell went up from the crowd as they jumped and pounded him on the back.

A similar shout had gone up at 10:50 p.m., when NBA commissioner Adam Silver approached the podium and called McCullough’s name. The Royal, then jammed with the dancing and celebrating McCullough family, was on its feet for over three minutes applauding and screaming.

The DJ blasted Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares,” telling them to sing along as if McCullough were there. Shuron dove onto a leather couch, knocking into other family members and nearly losing her pink-and-white hat.

The Nets selection thrilled the McCullough’s, but did not surprise them.

Al McCullough, Chris’ father, said that the Nets had interest for the last two or three months, but talks intensified within the last three days. Chris didn’t say much when his name was called, Al said, he just hugged his family and walked to the stage to shake the commissioner’s hand – the thing he looked forward to most, Shuron said.

“He’s come a long way,” said Jennifer Grant, a family friend. “And the fact that he’s coming home is the best.”

McCullough, from the Jackson Projects in the Bronx, returns from a journey that started when he left home at 13-years-old and enrolled at the Salisbury (Connecticut) School. He bounced around to Brewster (New Hampshire) Academy and IMG (Florida) Academy before attending Syracuse.

“It was like going to college, but a smaller scale,” Al said of prep school. “When someone at Syracuse asked him if he was OK being away from home, he said he was because he’s always been away.”

It was a good thing he left the Bronx, Shuron said. He left behind all the “craziness.”

Before he left, Shuron said, his dad and uncle, Andre McCullough, kept him off the streets and in the gym. McCullough learned the game from two accomplished basketball players in their own right. Al played ball at Murray State, and Andre played professionally overseas for six seasons after a back injury derailed NBA dreams.

Basketball is the family trade and pride. When Al and Shuron showed off pictures of Chris’ 2-month-old son, Chris Jr., onlookers oohed over the long legs and big hands. Al smiled. Shuron said he looked a year old, “This McCullough’s going number one.”

But Thursday night, Chris Jr.’s father had gone. Andre remembered the times he would watch NBA games on TV with Chris as a child.

“It’s different, coming to his hometown and everything,” said Al. “But he’s about to join the family business.”





Top Stories