Kenneth Faried is around 7,200 feet above sea level. At times, though, the former Team USA starter and Denver Nugget, he has felt much lower. His G League season with the Mexico City Capitanes concluded in late March, the team narrowly missing the playoffs. But Faried played well, averaging 11.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists on the year. Still, he remains far from his ultimate goal. Many NBA fans probably remember the “Manimal” and his ferocious blocks and dunks. From his rookie year in 2011, Faried defied expectations. At 6ft 8in, he rebounded in traffic like an 8-footer. But now, he’s working to get back to the league after the game changed under his feet. For a player known for his hustle, the question remains, can he chase down another chance? And can he do so ahead of 9 April, the last game of the NBA regular season and the final day to amend rosters? He’s trying. But the road can be unrelenting.
“For me, it was the depression,” Faried tells the Guardian, speaking about the ups and downs he’s gone through since leaving the NBA in 2019. “You go into depression. I went into depression. I had to seek therapy.”
A basketball scout would be hard-pressed to find someone who works harder than Faried. Still, the power-forward keeps the faith that he, like everything else, is part of a grand plan. “I started realizing everything is written,” he says. “I can’t really dwell on what happened in the past.”
Faried was last seen in the NBA in 2019 with the Houston Rockets, where he suited up for 25 games, starting in 13. He averaged 12.9 points and 8.2 rebounds. Faried got less time during Houston’s postseason run, but rosters often tighten up in the playoffs.
“I was great in Houston when I got a chance,” says Faried.
He credits the Rockets’ coach Mike D’Antoni, Chris Paul and James Harden for encouraging him. They pushed Faried to shoot more three-pointers – something he never did in Denver. Part of the reason Faried isn’t in the NBA is because he has a reputation as a poor shooter. He’s also not regarded as a versatile playmaker like, say, Paul George or Jason Tatum. But with open looks in Houston, he shot a respectable 35% from long-range in the regular season.
The following year, however, the Rockets didn’t bring Faried back and then Covid-19 hit. Faried later played in Russia, China, Puerto Rico and now Mexico City. Still, his faith remains that the NBA will be next. Defying odds has long been his calling card. From his time in the NCAA tournament with Morehead State, a school where he became the all-time NCAA rebounder, to his rim-rattling slams in Denver.
“Everyone knew what I was about [in the NBA],” Faried says. “I’m still that person and I still have those abilities, to the highest level. But I just need a shot and a chance.”
Faried knows there are many players saying some version of that. If I just had a chance. After all, Faried got his first one in 2011, the 22nd pick of the NBA draft that summer. But the Nuggets’ gamble paid off as he averaged 12.3 points and 8.7 rebounds over his first five seasons. He won Western Conference Player of the Week in November of 2012, and was on the league’s All Rookie team the year prior. In 2014, Faried won a Gold Medal in the Fiba Basketball World Cup under famed Coach Mike Krzyzewski on a team that included Harden, Steph Curry and Anthony Davis. Now, four years removed from the NBA, Faried says he remains “hungry” and that he ”100%” wants to return to the league.
While he played organized basketball in eighth grade, his parents found out he had a love for it much earlier. They would put a bunch of balls in his crib to see which he gravitated too. Every time, Faried says, he picked out the round orange one. Reaching for the basketball has remained Faried’s instinct. If he gets a rebound, it means his team has a chance to score. It’s so important, his family has made it a credo.
“I guess it would be ‘Rebound the ball, ‘Nard,’” he says. “My name is Kenneth Bernard Faried, so my family calls me ‘Nard. They always tell me, ‘Rebound the ball, ‘Nard!’” But Faried’s work doesn’t just help on the court. “My rebounding this ball put extra years on my mom’s life. She’s been battling Lupus her whole life. It means my dad don’t have to work no more with his hands. I can work with mine instead.”
Faried’s father is a carpenter and painter who, Faried says, can “redo your whole house.” He would take Faried on jobs early on to show him a hard day’s work. And his mother “bust[s] her tail to stay alive” every day. It’s this example that pushes Faried and these reasons why he keeps going.
As a rookie in Denver, his then-coach George Karl tested his mettle early on. He told Faried that he simply didn’t play rookies. But the player didn’t take offense, didn’t sulk. Instead, he took it as an opportunity to prove the coach wrong. And he told Karl as much. He got his chance, then quickly became a starter. With more opportunity, though, came more burden.
“More money, more problems,” Faried says, channeling the Notorious B.I.G.
In 2014, Faried played for Team USA and signed a new, $50m contract with Denver. It was a year before that, in 2013, though, when his career really changed. That’s when the Nuggets faced off against the rising Golden State Warriors. Curry was just beginning to show the world who he would be, and his team was just starting to find their modern “small ball” rotation, also known as “the lineup of death.” The Warriors ousted the Nuggets that season (Golden State would go on to win four titles over the next decade). And the loss exposed Faried. No longer was size prized (and thus his ability to neutralize it), instead the ability to guard speedier players like Curry was needed. It’s a shift that has since caused lumbering centers to end their careers early, including the still-37-year-old Roy Hibbert and 36-year-old Timofey Mozgov. Other big men like Brook Lopez were forced to become outside shooters.
For Faried, who is still just 33, it meant he had to adapt – and fast. With a big contract, he had to do more on the floor, not less. With a new style of play on the horizon, he had to change his game. Not just hustle, but score, lead, and bring the team into the new “small ball” era. He remembers seeing Curry dominate, thinking, “Woah, this kid is amazing!” No longer did Faried have to face giants. He had to outrun lilliputians. It was the dawn of the new NBA, one that ESPN insider Brian Windhorst recently described as inaccessible if a big man “just can’t move.” Could Faried be Curry fast?
“When that [2013 Warriors] series happened,” Faried says, “I remember just thinking I need to do more for my team.”
But the league wasn’t the only thing changing. So too was the Nuggets organization. The team drafted center Jusuf Nurkić in 2014 and future multi-time MVP Nikola Jokić in 2015 and brought in four-time All-Star Paul Millsap in 2017. The higher-ups also fired Coach Karl after the 2013 loss to the Warriors and brought in Brian Shaw to coach. Michael Malone arrived in 2015 and has been manning the sidelines ever since. Around the time Malone was hired, Faried got hurt. He’d come down from a rebound against the Chicago Bulls when he felt something in his back burn. The X-rays showed nothing, but he didn’t get the more useful MRI until after the season. He wanted to avoid surgery. But rehab was the final straw. His games and minutes dwindled. Today, years removed from the team and league, Faried says he still watches the Nuggets fondly, including his “rookie,” Jamal Murray.
Faried knows he needs advocates if he’s going to get another chance. He laments a time in the past when he answered a reporter’s question saying he still deserved to be a starter near the end of his tenure in Denver, just as Millsap was carving out his role as a nimble, three-point shooting big. He came off arrogant instead of confident, Faried says. He hopes he doesn’t carry a reputation. (He is also a former NBA “Community Assist” award-winner for community service.) That’s one of the many reasons he wanted to play this year for the Capitaines. To be a valued contributor, one stop away from the NBA in a city that prizes the game. (Mexico City is on the shortlist of possible expansion cities for the league.) Faried holds tight to the fact that he played well in Houston. That he scored 23 points for the team against Denver in February 2019. Then a triple-double the next game in Utah. In fact, he had 12 games with double-digit rebounds for Houston. But to no long-term avail.
The Manimal says the “crossroads” for him came last year. He says he almost didn’t continue his career. Traveling to China, Russia and various developmental teams, from Mexico City to Grand Rapids, he was discouraged. His confidence waned. He was unsure. Over the years, he’s endured more injuries, including rehab for a hamstring, and more time spent on his mental health. But Mexico City gave him his first real chance to compete again on a big stage since he left the NBA. It’s an opportunity the devout Muslim long prayed for. Perhaps now his prayer of making the NBA again will be answered, too.
When asked if the NBA does all it can for players who leave the league, Faried is diplomatic, saying that is just not where his mind is right now. He’s not retired, he’s not in “giving up mode.” Nor is he hoping to come back to the NBA simply for one more big contract. Instead, Faried says, it’s about the adrenaline of competition, proving he belongs and playing for NBA fans. It’s about reclaiming a bit of his past, showing he is still NBA-ready. Thinking about all this, Faried considers his three young sons. His oldest saw him play in the league years ago, but the others haven’t yet. Nevertheless, they tell him, “Daddy, you NBA!”
“Money comes, money goes,” Faried says. “It’s not what motivates me. For me, the whole time, it’s been basketball. I’m not letting go of hope.”
