NBA Draft: Mercurial Rise for Coward

Central of Fresno grad Cedric Coward completed a massive rise over the last few months as an NBA prospect with his selection at No. 11 in the first round of this year’s NBA Draft, which was held on Wednesday in Brooklyn. Corona Centennial also made history by having a first round pick for the second straight year. In the second round of the draft on Thursday, there were two more selected, another late riser and another one headed to the league from Etiwanda.

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All of the possible roadblocks in the improbable path of Cedric Coward to the first round of this week’s NBA Draft were overcome with his selection this week as the 11th pick by the Portland Trail Blazers, although it was known at the time that the pick was going to be traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Coward did not play on the varsity team at his high school, Central of Fresno, until his junior season. He did not even play one summer on the AAU club circuit. Cedric did have academics and superior grades, however, and did enough to gain a scholarship with D3 Willamette University in Oregon. There, he did enough after one season to gain a spot at Eastern Washington University.

Despite only playing six games in the early part of the 2024-25 season at Washington State due to a shoulder injury that cost him the rest of the season, Cedric did enough to gain an entry to the annual NBA Draft Combine. There, he sizzled like a football player running the fastest 40-yard dash in the NFL. Then, as the weeks before the draft wore on, Coward’s name kept creeping up the various lists. He was in the first round, he was in the top 20 and finally he went all the way up to No. 11.

“Every June there are a handful of notable draft stories that stand out because of the remarkable perseverance and outstanding journeys carved en route to fulfilling a lifelong dream of being selected,” wrote Matt Norlander of CBS Sports in a profile about Cedric posted one week before the draft. “Coward’s odyssey is a level beyond that.”

Coward going to Memphis comes one year after the Grizzlies selected a player with a journey very similar to his own: Jaylen Wells, a Folsom High grad and a former Cal-Hi Sports all-state pick. Jaylen went to Sonoma State, then to Washington State and then to the NBA. He was not a first-round pick like Coward, but was considered one of the top rookies in the league for the 2024-25 season.

Cedric’s selection at 11th in the first round also is higher than former Mr. Basketball Jared McCain of Corona Centennial was chosen last year (16th) and it’s higher than former Camarillo High and UCLA star Jaime Jaquez was selected the year before that (18th). In fact, you have to go back to 2021 for Jalen Green of Fresno when he was chosen at No. 2 overall to find the last player from the state picked as high as Coward. Green, however, went to Prolific Prep of Napa for his senior season and is therefore listed as being from that school and not San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno (which is where he graduated from).

It was a different type of journey with a lot of stops, but the state’s other first round pick in the NBA Draft this year is another from Corona Centennial. That was 6-foot-8 small forward Carter Bryant, who went at No. 14 overall (three spots after Coward) to the San Antonio Spurs.

Bryant only played his senior season at Centennial and that was after playing at Fountain Valley and Sage Hill of Newport Beach. He was always considered one of the top prospects in his class in the state, but didn’t always have the high school accomplishments to go with it. He made those transfer moves just as much to be coached by his father, D’Cean, who was his head coach at Fountain Valley and Sage Hill. His sister, Cydenee, has been at Centennial the past two seasons and should be one of the state’s top players next season as a senior for the Huskies. Bryant declared for the NBA Draft after playing his freshman season at Arizona.

Centennial having first round picks in back to back years was checked out and the only time we saw that that has happened was for 2001 and 2002 for Dominguez of Compton. The Dons had graduating senior Tyson Chandler (in the days when high schoolers could be picked) at No. 2 overall in 2001 and then the next year it was Tayshaun Prince (coming out of Kentucky) who was selected in the first round. There are plenty of other schools that had first rounders twice in three years, but that is the only other one with back-to-back before Centennial this year.

For the second straight year, the NBA had a prime time special on ABC with the first round on one night and then the second round on ESPN on the second night.

The second round of this year’s draft also ended up with two from California selected — Kobe Sanders from Christian of El Cajon and Jahmai Mashack of Etiwanda.

Sanders didn’t go to a D3 college like Coward to start off his college career, but at first it was to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He was considered a mid-level college prospect coming out of high school, which saw him average 16.7 ppg as a senior. Sanders then went to Nevada for the 2024-25 season and saw his stock rise with outings such as 30 points in a loss to Boise State and 27 points in a win vs Wyoming. He was selected with the 50th pick overall in the second round by the New York Knicks but as part of a trade to the L.A. Clippers.

Mashack has been known as a defensive monster even during his days at Etiwanda. We talked to him after a win over Mater Dei in the CIF SoCal D1 regional semifinals, but that was just a few days before the COVID pandemic hit the sports world. He was our State Senior Player of the Year during a season in which a junior was Mr. Basketball. Jahmai then went to the University of Tennessee. He was chosen with the 59th pick and last of the night by the Houston Rockets but as part of another trade, which for him will be to Memphis.

Etiwanda has had many others play in the NBA who were guided at the school by former head coach Dave Kleckner. Besides Mashack, the list includes guard Darren Collison, forward Jeff Ayres (formerly Pendergraph), guard Jordan McLaughlin, shooting guard Kessler Edwards and point guard E.J. Harkless.

The Grizzlies therefore are going to have Coward, Mashack and Wells all playing for them down the road. A nice California connection for sure.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports