From tragedy to exile to new life in Minnesota, Bones Hyland embraces the journey

After two years in exile, Bones Hyland now finds himself as a key member of a team with grand ambitions. Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Tyler Ross / Getty

As Bones Hyland snatched the ball off the rim and raced up the court, the numbers were against him. As his hair fluttered in the jet stream created by his flight path, three of his Minnesota Timberwolves teammates were left in his dust. Three Sacramento Kings defenders waited across half court, standing between him and the bucket.

This was nothing new for Hyland. The numbers have been against him for his entire basketball life.

As a kid growing up in a hardscrabble section of Wilmington, Del., crammed into a house with 12 relatives, trying to get noticed in an area typically overlooked by scouts and college recruiters. As a promising prep prospect who nearly had his career derailed by injury and tragedy. As a wayward young player in the NBA, buried behind more-accomplished players and needing to be humbled.

Late in the second quarter against the Kings in December, Hyland had a choice: He could play it safe, retreat and wait for his teammates to join him in the frontcourt, or he could attack. He had every right to be cautious.

After two long years in exile, Hyland was in the starting lineup thanks to both Anthony Edwards and Mike Conley sitting out. One reckless game could validate everything observers around the league had started to believe about Hyland, that he was talented but impulsive, that the scoring booms weren’t worth the busts caused by irresponsible decision-making and bad defense.

He has always been a daring, confident player. It takes that kind of person to overcome all that he has faced to make it to the NBA in the first place. And here was a chance for him to show what he was made of, to prove to the league what he can do.

Hyland put the ball in his left hand, dropped his right shoulder and drove right through Keegan Murray’s chest on his way to a layup. Suddenly, a Timberwolves team that has often looked bored or uninspired during this regular season had an edge. There was a desperation in that moment, a hunger created by the struggle.

“It’s like I see food at the rim,” Hyland said. “If I’ve got one-on-one in transition, I’m going right at him. It’s me and you, and I’m going to win that battle. That’s going back to never wanting to go back to how you grew up. That’s something I live with every day.”

The urgency has been dripping off Hyland’s skinny frame all season in Minnesota. The back-to-back Western Conference finalists have looked complacent at times, and Hyland has emerged from deep on the bench to give the second unit a jolt, the latest coming courtesy of 18 points in an important win in Denver on Sunday.

Minnesota initially tried to compensate for the loss of super-sub Nickeil Alexander-Walker by elevating 2024 first-round picks Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. But Dillingham never gained Finch’s trust before being traded to Chicago just before this season’s Feb. 6 deadline, and Shannon has dealt with a foot injury for most of the season.

Hyland stepped in, averaging 9.5 points and shooting 49 percent from 3 over the last 10 games — a huge boost for a team that hasn’t been able to create any dependable scoring off the bench other than Naz Reid.

“I love having him on the team,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “He’s the same every day. He’s a super happy guy. He’s one of these guys who brings joy to the game in the way that he plays it.”

The timing has been perfect for Hyland, too. He came to the Timberwolves on a two-way deal last season, a favor from president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, who drafted him in Denver in 2021. After falling out of favor with the Nuggets, Hyland was traded in 2023 to the LA Clippers and promptly buried on the bench. He nearly signed in Europe last summer before getting a non-guaranteed contract with the Wolves in September. He played so well that he made Dillingham, the eighth pick in 2024, expendable.

Hyland has every reason to be bitter about how his career has played out to this point. He has watched several draft classmates sign lucrative extensions and earn featured roles on their respective teams. He played just 239 minutes last season and had to take the backdoor into the Timberwolves locker room just to have a chance to stay in the league.

Instead, he has often been the team’s most upbeat player. Whether he is averaging nearly 20 minutes a game, as he did over the 10 games leading into the All-Star break, or he is not playing at all (Hyland played 17 total minutes in Minnesota last season after joining the Wolves), his disposition has not changed.

“Everything’s positive. I ain’t never seen him mad,” Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels said. “It’s just good to see him hooping.”

The reason is both simple and devastating. Why would he allow something as trivial as playing time shake him when he has already lost so much more?

“By the grace of God, I was able to have a second chance at life,” Hyland said. “So why not come in and smile every day and put a smile on people’s faces? Because my life was almost taken, so you never know what someone else is going through.”

The smell has never left Hyland’s nose. There are times during the basketball season when it isn’t as noticeable, when the grind of the game and the hunger to establish himself in this league serve as a scented candle in his living room of trauma.

This time of year, there is no escaping it. His nostrils are filled with the pungent smoke that engulfed his childhood home and claimed the lives of his grandmother and 11-month-old cousin in 2018. The moisture in his mouth evaporates as memories of the fire resurface, putting him right back in his burning bedroom, the blaze pushing him to jump out a second-story window and tear his knee up as he hit the brick stairs below.

Every year, as the March 25 anniversary of the fire approaches, Hyland starts to feel the heat on the back of his neck.

“It still rings in my head,” Hyland says. “I can still smell and taste the flames.”

Hyland was watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on his laptop when he smelled smoke starting to fill his house. Flames met him as soon as he opened his door. He ran to a window, opened it and leaped. A neighbor standing below tried to catch him, but when Hyland landed, he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee.

Hyland had been averaging nearly 28 points a game as a junior for St. Georges High, about 30 miles south of Wilmington, spreading much-needed hope throughout his neighborhood that greater things were in store for one of their own. But in that moment, Hyland’s basketball career was the least of his concerns. His grandmother, Fay, and 11-month-old cousin, Maurice, died from their injuries suffered in the fire.

“It’s a feeling that will never go away,” Hyland said. “That’s installed in me forever.”

Compounding his grief was the possible loss of his basketball future. Doctors initially told him they did not believe he would play again.

“I cried my eyes out,” he said. “But I knew it wasn’t the end for me. God always got the last say-so.”

Hyland was such a popular figure in the Wilmington community that the hospital was overrun with visitors who came to check in on him. His electric runs on the playgrounds in the area and his effervescent personality made him a Pied Piper of sorts for an area that often feels discounted and minimized. A video of him strutting and finger-wagging through two Philadelphia challengers has been viewed more than four million times, a symbol of triumph for the community in the face of disrespect from the big city 35 miles to the north.

When he was down, Wilmington was there to lift him. Hospital administrators eventually removed his name from the public registration list and moved him to a private room with a code on the door to manage the crush of well-wishers.

“There were days I needed my friends,” he said. “I didn’t want to be alone. It was tough. It definitely was. But when you’re a warrior — and you’re one of God’s chosen ones — there’s nothing that can stop you when you’re destined.”

Hyland fed off the city’s love, rehabbing his knee in time for his senior season. He didn’t miss a beat, averaging 26 points and 4.6 assists and earning a scholarship to VCU. He won Atlantic-10 Player of the Year honors as a sophomore, and Connelly selected him 26th in the 2021 draft.

“I was never in a hospital bed or in a room by myself at all,” he said, smiling. “Never.”

It didn’t take long for Hyland to make an impression as a rookie in Denver. His handle and fearlessness led to some big nights and helped the Nuggets survive when star guard Jamal Murray missed time with injury. Hyland scored 24 in a win over Atlanta, had 27 points and 10 rebounds in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers and was in double-figures in 13 of the last 16 games to help push the Nuggets into the playoffs.

But his stay in Denver proved to be short-lived. When Murray returned, Hyland’s playing time dwindled. He did not handle it well. He was traded to the Clippers midway through the next season after clashing with the coaching staff over his role. The Nuggets went on to win the championship that season, but did not offer Hyland a ring for his contributions, a cold world getting colder.

“It was one of those situations where I had to really mature as a person,” Hyland said. “I felt like I knew it all at a young age. I was playing a lot. I wanted to play a little bit more. Sometimes, that happens as a player. You’re competitive — you want to play more. Every player in the NBA wants to play more than what they’re getting.”

Connelly left the Nuggets for Minnesota after Hyland’s rookie season. On the Clippers, Hyland had no path to playing time while stuck behind Russell Westbrook, Reggie Jackson, Norman Powell and Eric Gordon.

“Not being on that floor and knowing you can help a team win,” Hyland said. “Not gonna lie. It was eating me alive.”

Rather than wallow, Hyland studied how Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Paul George and Westbrook worked in practice and the offseason. He tried to soak up the critiques from coach Tyronn Lue and make adjustments to his game and his approach.

He was traded again at the 2025 deadline, this time to the Atlanta Hawks, who waived him. That put Hyland’s NBA future in serious jeopardy. That is when Connelly came to the rescue, offering him a two-way contract and a chance to be around a winning team as it pushed toward the playoffs.

“Just a guy who believes in you goes a long way,” Hyland said.

Being pushed to the brink gave Hyland a new outlook. He embraced a brief G League assignment, averaging 33.5 points in two games, and stayed patient. He encouraged Dillingham, another young guard who was growing impatient with his lack of playing time, to keep working and not get down on himself. Hyland treated practices and post-shootaround runs with players who were out of the rotation as real games. On a team that was a little light at point guard, Hyland listened to what Finch wanted in that position and started to curate his game to it. More passing, more playmaking, but also retaining the aggression that got him to the league in the first place.

“When I’m out there, I’m going to give that energy to my teammates and let them know they can count on me, they can trust me and I want them to feel my energy so they can pick up my energy if their energy is down,” Hyland said.

Even though he was a free agent, Hyland remained close with his Timberwolves all summer, building a fast bond with Edwards and earning the respect of McDaniels and Reid, the other two pillars of the team’s young core. Finch grew fond of him, offering little jabs that indicate affection. When told that Hyland modeled his game after the famed streetballer Hot Sauce from the And-1 Mixtape Tour, Finch smirked.

“Hot Sauce is unemployed,” he cracked.

As players signed with teams throughout the offseason, Hyland remained without a suitor. There were considerations of playing in Europe, but Connelly swooped in and signed him in September to a non-guaranteed contract to be, essentially, the fourth point guard behind fellow Delaware native Donte DiVincenzo, Conley and Dillingham.

It didn’t take long for the hierarchy to change. On opening night in Portland, it was Hyland who came off the bench as the third guard, not Dillingham. Finch trusted his offensive playmaking and size on defense more than that of the second-year lottery pick.

“He takes a lot of pressure off of other guys,” Reid said. “He can score the ball with ease. He’s a leader in his own way.”

He scored 18 in a win over Sacramento, 23 points in a win in Milwaukee and had back-to-back 20-point games against Toronto and New Orleans just before the All-Star break.

“Sometimes, you can just see some people are meant to be a star,” Edwards said. “And I feel like I may not know the criteria to being a star, but if I think I do, I think he’s one of them.”

His given name is Nah’Shon Hyland, but everyone calls him Bones. The nickname was bestowed at an early age, a testament to his slender build. But there is nothing brittle about him. Those pointy shoulders have proven capable of taking on all comers. When Nuggets center Jonas Valančiūnas — who has nine inches and 100 pounds on Hyland — went high with an elbow while setting a screen on Sunday, Hyland went chest-to-chest. There wasn’t an ounce of back-down in him, the look in Hyland’s eyes saying he’s seen far worse in his life than a Lithuanian bully.

“I do everything with aggression and just hunger,” he said. “I ain’t gonna go out there and just walk through the motions.”

March is still the hardest part of the year for Hyland. Tattoos of his grandmother and cousin cover his shoulder and back. He still remembers the smoke filling his lungs, the helplessness as he jumped out of his window and what his journey means to those who are no longer with him.

He thinks about how proud his Mom-Mom would be that he never gave in when the playing time dried up. He wishes his cousin could come to watch him play for a team that has real aspirations of coming out of the Western Conference.

After two years in exile, Hyland now finds himself as a key member of a team with grand ambitions. The scent in his nose now is opportunity.

“I feel amazing, bro,” Hyland said. “Now, I’m just having to take it up to another gear. I’m much more comfortable, and now, it’s time to take it another notch.”

Hyland tells his story while sitting on a chair with his back to the Timberwolves practice court, where a “Stay In Shape League” pickup game is being played by Wolves players who are out of the rotation.

Like the fire, the loss, the injury, the drama in Denver and the inactivity in Los Angeles, that is all behind him now.

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