The Los Angeles Lakers were staring a 1-6 start in the face Wednesday as they trailed the New Orleans Pelicans 111-108 with just 1.3 seconds remaining on the clock. Whom did they turn to when they needed a miracle? Surely it was four-time MVP LeBron James, right? Nope. Okay... how about eight-time All-Star Anthony Davis? Guess again. In the hour (or rather, second) of greatest need, the Lakers gave the ball to a former delivery driver named Matt Ryan, who swished a 3-pointer to send the game to overtime. The Lakers eventually won.
But who is Matt Ryan, the hero of the day for the Lakers? Before you ask, no, he isn't the now-benched Indianapolis Colts quarterback moonlighting as a basketball player in search of a new gig, but his story is just as improbable.
Okay, so where'd this guy come from?
Matt Ryan began his collegiate career as a Parade All-American. That's just about the only normal thing about his rise to NBA fame. A 6-6 forward out of New Rochelle, New York, Ryan initially attended Notre Dame. Though he appeared in 72 games across two seasons, he transferred to Vanderbilt in search of more playing time. After sitting out a year, Commodores coach Bryce Drew made him a starter before promptly getting fired and replaced by Jerry Stackhouse. Rather than play for the former NBA star, Ryan transferred a second time, this time to Chattanooga, where he finished his collegiate career.
Statistically speaking, nothing about his college career suggested that he was bound for professional glory. Ryan didn't average double figures until he left major conference college basketball. Shooting was his best trait, yet across four seasons, he fell shy of 37 percent from deep. On paper, he looked like a four-year college player destined for a new line of employment.
But that's not what happened
Well... it was at first. Ryan predictably went undrafted in 2020, and as he told The Athletic's Jay King, he decided against using his Vanderbilt economics degree to get a desk job. Instead, he worked as a landscaper for St. Joseph's cemetery in Yonkers, New York. To supplement his income, he worked as a delivery driver for UberEats and DoorDash. All the while, he waited for an opportunity to play basketball again.
Normally, such an opportunity would have come pretty quickly. Of course, 2020 and 2021 were the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That made opportunities for workouts significantly harder to come by. So Ryan sat out. It wasn't until the Cleveland Cavaliers offered him a spot on their 2021 Summer League team that he began his journey to the NBA anew.
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A nomadic year
Ryan shined for the Cavaliers in Vegas, averaging a stellar 26.5 points in four games played while shooting over 48 percent from deep. Cleveland didn't sign him after that, but the Denver Nuggets did. In 12 games for their G League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold, Ryan averaged 12.1 points in a reserve role. This earned him an opportunity with the Maine Celtics, which eventually got him a two-way deal with the far more famous Boston Celtics.
You may not have realized it at the time, but this is when you were truly introduced to Matt Ryan, the NBA player. No, I'm not talking about the five minutes he played in his lone game with Boston. I'm talking about his work in the 2022 postseason. As a two-way player, Ryan was not eligible to participate in playoff games, but he did stay with the team as they reached the NBA Finals. In their first game on that journey, Jayson Tatum made a game-winning, buzzer-beating layup to slay the Brooklyn Nets in Game 1 of their first-round series. Ryan was the first play to swarm his more well-known teammate.
So when did he join the Lakers?
Ryan was such an afterthought when he arrived in Los Angeles that he didn't even get his own press release. He shared one with another Lakers offseason signing, Dwayne Bacon, when the pair was signed in September. The team had similarly limited expectations for both: come to training camp, serve as practice and preseason bodies, maybe head to South Bay to play for their G League team after that. That's all you can hope for as a non-guaranteed camp signing.
But the Lakers under Rob Pelinka typically haven't filled their rosters with guaranteed contracts in the offseason. There is an obvious financial motivation for that approach, but it has also allowed them more flexibility to tweak the roster before the season than most teams have. In 2021, they were so impressed with Austin Reaves at Summer League that they signed him to the active roster before camp even began. They still had a leftover roster spot before opening night, and they used it to bring back Avery Bradley after he was waived by the Golden State Warriors.
Ryan had the chance to compete for one of those empty roster spots this season, and he made the most of it. Of course, it helps that his competition struggled. Two-way signing Cole Swider, an undrafted rookie out of Syracuse, was the early favorite to steal a roster spot earmarked for a shooter, but he made just 24.3 percent of his long-range attempts in the preseason. Ryan wasn't great, but his 35.5 percent mark from deep in the preseason combined with his performance at training camp got him the nod.
Thus far, he's made the most of that chance. He'd played only around 50 total minutes entering Wednesday, but sank six of his 11 3-point attempts when he was on the floor. And then, against the Pelicans, he made the biggest shot of his career thus far when he got the Lakers to overtime, where they'd later earn their second victory of the season. On a roster devoid of shooting, Ryan has stood out in ways that he simply couldn't anywhere else. If he keeps this up, he'll never have to drive for DoorDash again.
