How Bryce McGowens got his groove and NBA career back

An inside look at the crazy past week for the former Hornet

(CHARLOTTE SPORTS LIVE) — Bryce McGowens had already heard the NBA was a business. Now in the face of a major setback, he was about to learn how to succeed in it.

“A few hours before the game against San Antonio, I got a call,” he recalled. “It definitely wasn’t pleasing to hear.”

We would agree, but as clichéd as it sounds, the Hornets told him getting cut wasn’t personal and to prove it, they were more than happy to let him stay on with their summer league team.

The choice was his.

“It was like a short but like a long process mentally,” McGowens remembered, as it seemed time stood still before his next move.

A part of him wanted to say, ‘Heck no! I’m out of here!’ But the professional side realized he still had an opportunity to impress.

“That’s why I wanted to play,” McGowens, Charlotte’s 2nd-round draft pick in 2022 said. “That’s why I continued to play. I felt like I had something to prove. I was hungry!”

He was also emotionally spent.

With his release coming on the day of the Hornets’ first game in Sacramento, the soon-to-be third-year guard managed to score only six points. The day was an all-time stinker and the 21-year-old was thrilled to put it behind him when he finally went to bed that night.

“I woke up the next morning refreshed,” he smiles. “A lot of weight (was) off my shoulders and I felt like a whole new person.”

He played like one too. Clearly refocused, McGowens would drop 20 his next time out, and 29 two days later. He had produced, and the rest of the league had taken note.

“Right before practice, I got pulled!”

Oh what a difference a few days can make. For the second time in a week, his world was changing but this time it was for the better as his agent got him signed with Portland.

“It’s just a part of the business. Just a part of the business,” he says.

And thanks to his attitude, McGowens is still a part of it too.

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