It’s the end of May and Darryn Peterson is scrolling through his notes app while sitting inside the USA Academy in Glendale, CA. After spending the entire summer on the West Coast preparing for the NBA Draft, the 6-5 guard is in search of a very specific list that he kicked off just over four years ago. After just a few swipes, he reads out the title of the note from May 4, 2022: “Trying to Go Pro!”
The very first entry wishes for his parents to not work a day past 45 years old. Check. Next, stay ranked in the top five of his high school class. Check. Then he reads out three words: “Work. Work. Work.” Below the string of words resides Giving 110 percent effort every day, followed by healthy eating habits, constant stretching and drinking lots of water. Four straight checks.
“I don’t think I was dunking at the time, so Dunk Everything was on there. Get my jump shot to be automatic. Don’t miss free throws. Thank the Lord every day. And never get outworked,” Darryn continues.
Darryn Peterson has never found anyone who could match the latter, as he goes through the list mentally checking off each entry one at a time. But last night, the second overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft got to reopen the notes app and finally check off that top line. Darryn Peterson is an NBA pro. And if you knew anything about the journey to get here, you’d understand just how much of a full-circle moment returning to his mindset from the spring of 2022 was.
“When I wrote it, I thought I was going to do it. Blessed to be able to do it,” Darryn tells us after placing his phone back in his pocket. “It feels crazy, but at the same time, it was what I wanted, so I was going to get it.”
The game of basketball has been one of many constants in Peterson’s life, just like the role his family played in helping him reach the highest stage in hoops. There isn’t one singular place where the Canton, OH, native fell in love with the game. Instead, he ties those memories to the dozens of gyms and spaces that have housed his work ethic over the years. “Basketball has been all I’ve known my whole life,” he says.
“My dad was a coach. My older brother played. My whole family played. It was kind of all I knew. I’d say I really started to chase it and really want something, probably 6th, 7th, 8th grade. Going into high school is when I really started to get serious about it, [want to] one day be in the League and be one of the faces of the League.”
The goal to be the next cornerstone of the NBA started in Northeast Ohio, where Darryn traces the roots of his game back to the local legend of McKinley Field House, his Hartford Middle School gym and workouts at the Martin Center. The confidence that’s baked into his game and resulted in a career-high 61-point performance in one high school game and a 20.2 ppg scoring average as a freshman at Kansas was built in those spaces alongside a myriad of others and the tutelage of his father.
If those walls could talk, they’d tell the stories of the theater stage that cut up his shins during box jumps. They’d reflect on the hours upon hours spent lifting with his brother’s football teammates, who were twice his size. The 108 stairs at Monument Park would reminisce on his grueling weekend conditioning circuit. The hardwood that hosted his dad’s middle school team practices would detail the dominance he showed against kids a few years older than him. And the kitchen tiles in his childhood home would say that the bounce on display in Allen Fieldhouse last season started next to the stove and pantry. “Just all types of stuff that I think ended up helping me be who I am and helping me have the confidence that I do,” Darryn says.
Jared ebanks 