Cade Cunningham & Tyrese Maxey Return to DFW to Give Back to Their Communities

Before they were NBA All-Stars, they were high school legends in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This summer, Cade Cunningham and Tyrese Maxey made their way back to the communities that built them—and the trips were about a lot more than basketball.

Maxey returned to South Garland, where he played from 2015 to 2019. An injury shortened his freshman year, but he averaged 22 points per game over his final three seasons, led the Colonels to their first-ever state tournament appearance as a junior, and reached a regional final as a senior. Despite recruiting interest that could have taken him to a prep school, Maxey chose to stay home. "I felt like I owed the city a chance at something special every single night," he said. This summer he came back to host a skills camp, passing along lessons to the next generation of players in the same gym where his own story began.

Cunningham's path through DFW looked a little different. He played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Arlington Bowie, helping the Volunteers reach a regional final in 2016, before transferring to Montverde Academy in Florida. By his senior year, his team finished 25-0 and was ranked number one nationally. He went on to Oklahoma State and was selected first overall by the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Draft. But the 817 never left him. Cunningham hosted his second annual 817 Day at George Stevens Park in Arlington, a community event centered on giving kids a positive environment and a place to play. "I just learned what it's like to work hard, what it's like to be resilient," Cunningham said. "Every day I tried to do that."

Maxey heads back to Philadelphia, where he now shares a locker room with LeBron James, while Cunningham returns to Detroit looking to build on the Pistons' 60-22 season a year ago. Both left the DFW area with the same message for the kids they met: work hard, have fun, and never let anyone tell you what you can't become.