Talent Alone Didn’t Get Clifford to This Point
Drive, personality, attitude drove his journey to be a projected NBA draft pick
Mike Brohard
Everyone remembers a play, one which stood outside the norm of what is seen on a basketball court. The type of play, coupled with the level of athleticism which suggested greatness was a possibility for Nique Clifford.
For Joe Wetters, his high school basketball coach at The Vanguard School, it began with a missed 3-pointer. But the long rebound was snared by his star player in midair, while flying toward the basket, capping the play with an emphatic dunk.
“The air got sucked out of the gym, like how did that just happen. That’s Nique,” Wetters said. “How did that just happen.”
Wetters knows Clifford, and his game, just about as well as anybody. Isiah Stevens has experienced it up close and personal. So too has Jabari Walker. You know what else they’ve seen? Players who seemingly ooze talent out of their pores at one level or another, some of whom do not sit in the place where Clifford does today.
Which is as a projected first-round pick in upcoming NBA Draft, to be held in New York City on June 25. Clifford’s name is expected to be called somewhere in the mid-to-late first round, experts predicting within the 16-20 range.
And when the former Colorado State standout’s name is called, it won’t be a play Wetters remembers first and foremost. His memory will be of a young kid sitting in his living room with his parents, with college coaches telling him for the first time he was good enough.
“The memory I think I’ll have is when we were at his house and the Metro State coaches came and gave him his first offer. It was like he could not believe he was about to achieve a dream that seemed so far away for him,” Wetters said. “The smile, the appreciation of those coaches thinking of him in a way that no one had ever talked to him about. That night, he realized he is that great of a player. I’ll never forget sitting on that couch, watching him, maybe even with a tear in his eye, realizing he’d reached a point like that.”
The players who reach the NBA level, as well as those who help curate the talent, understand ability alone isn’t enough. There is always something a bit more happening behind the scenes. It could be in the mind. Or the heart. Quite possibly a mixture.
Let’s just assume Clifford is a talented player. The numbers and accolades most certainly paint a clear picture, aspects of his game most everyone has seen. Those around him have witnessed the intangibles take over a young many with a dream who decided to act.
“If you have a drive yourself, or you just have … I hate to call it an “it” factor, but clearly, it’s been implemented into some of us on this journey,” said Stevens, who just finished his first professional year on a two-way contract with the Miami Heat. “It’s less about having the most talent, you have to have some of that other stuff. You have to be cerebral, you’ve got to be a killer, willing to work, so driven and motivated and disciplined to your habits. You have to be willing to learn and willing to listen, and he has all of that. I think he has some of that better than I did.
“It’s inspiring to watch him because it’s so genuine and it’s so pure. His approach to the game, you can still learn a lot from him.”
Wetters was there when the seed was planted. He’s been the head coach at Vanguard for 15 seasons, a school which runs kindergarten through the 12th grade. He remembers the little kid who was pretty athletic, moved a bit smoother than the rest.
Clifford was naturally good at everything. He was a bit tenacious too. Competitive, but also encouraging. He didn’t have success on the court, not even in PE class -- the team he was on did.
Kobe Bryant became the player he idolized. Thus, he worked on his game when he was assigned to do so, but also when the gym was empty and nobody else was around. While he was athletic from a youthful age, it wasn’t as if he was physically gifted. He wasn’t always bigger than everybody else. Nothing about his frame stood out.
What did was when things went wrong. He didn’t curl up in a shell, Wetters said he went to the lab.
“He had a very intelligent way of looking at things which could cause him a problem. He’d figure out a way to make it an advantage for him,” Wetters said. “He wouldn’t pout about anything. He would attack things head on. I don’t see a lot of high school kids in that mindset.”
His legend started to grow a bit as a prep, but he was far from a prodigy entering his senior year. He was the 5-foot-10 kid who was still athletic enough to play in down low in the zone because he had a knack for rebounding and the ability to take flight. That’s why heading into his senior season, his first offer on the table was from Metro State.
When his body started to sprout, his glow-up came during his senior season, leading to Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 2020 with offers flooding in from all corners of the Division I basketball world.
The little kid’s personality was still there. Humble to the end. Wetters watched him deflect more praise than passes into the post in his career. It’s part of the reason his teammates love playing with Clifford.
“Yeah, I think there's a lot that's different about him. The main thing that I noticed right away from meeting him our freshman year when we first got on campus was just how selfless he is,” said Walker, who signed at Colorado the same year Clifford did. “He'll offer the clothes off his back. He's very kind in that in that aspect, and he just sacrificed a lot for the betterment of the team, and he stayed in a situation that he didn't have to, even as far as basketball, which just talks about his character off the court. It doesn't surprise me that he tried to stick things out at Colorado before it was just apparent that he needed to go somewhere else, but he's very loyal. He's a great, great person overall.”
He wouldn’t pout about anything. He would attack things head on. I don’t see a lot of high school kids in that mindset.Joe Wetters
Clifford was among the first in that class to commit, while Walker had put CU in his top three. Then the call came from Clifford. Walker said Clifford was the only player to call and the conversation started to roll. No pressure at all, but he could tell the kid on the other end of the phone was genuine. Asked Walker about what he was thinking, if he liked his visit. Encouraged him to come, would love to play with him, but hey, do what’s best for you.
Truth is, Walker was already convinced he was going to Boulder. Now he knew he had a friend. Two years later, Walker entered the NBA Draft after an All-Pac 12 season, picked in the second round by Portland, where he’s spent the past three seasons. Through it all, he’s remained close with Clifford and watched him grow.
“I think it’s how he polished (his game), and it came together, how it slowed down. I've seen the things that he's doing,” Walker said. “I've seen him in spurts, but he was a guy who had that potential where everybody knew it since he got on campus. Even Derrick White came back at some point and was man, you have the tools and things like that, but I think his freshman year and a little bit of sophomore year, I think it was a little bit more turnover prone, and the game was just kind of, kind of fast and a lot of that was because of reps. We had an older class, so it wasn't getting the most reps and he just kind of had to figure out on the fly.
“But once he moved to Colorado State, I think credit to his development and whatever, whatever he did, he started reading the game a lot better, started making more of the right choices, and his body just filled out way more.”
To a sculpted 6-6, 200 pounds. A guy projected as a prep as a shooting guard was becoming a dynamic wing on both ends of the floor. Colorado State was his chance to prove some himself once again, and Stevens knew from the first day the new kid wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.
Around Fort Collins, Stevens was a legend. A five-year starter at point guard, about to become the program’s all-time leader in scoring and assists, and a magnetic personality to accompany his game. Being a leader, he knew enough to give the new guys a bit of space, allow them to settle in and such.
Clifford, it became apparent, was different. Every time Stevens went to the gym, be it the IPF or Moby, Clifford was either already there or about to arrive.
“He’d come to campus, and I was doing what I would normally do, which is shoot at night and find my routine to get extra reps here and there,” Stevens recalls. “I kept seeing him around the same time. You can’t miss him because his car, he had a license plate that said Nique C. You see cars at a certain hours, or back at the IPF, and you get closer, and you realize it’s him. After a while, it becomes let me know what time you’re going and we can go together, maybe play some one-on-one. Then Josiah (Strong) gets involved and now we’re in there shooting away and playing one-on-one until we can’t anymore. That was the first thing. I’m roaming around campus and seeing his car at the gym all the time.”
Shooting for Stevens isn’t just shooting. It has a purpose. And if you’re going to shoot with him, it’s going to get competitive. When the head coach starts asking for summer numbers with bragging rights on the table, those drills become ultra-competitive, and Clifford wasn’t going to back down.
Just like the youngster at Vanguard School, he was going to find an edge.
“Then it got really funny because the shooting competition in the summer started. The goal is to be in the top three and you want to win, because there were different prizes,” Stevens said. “Then it got to the point where we can’t all just keep going at the same time. We all have the same number of makes, so he’d start sneaking off in the morning, sneak off midday, sneak off even later than we all went together.
“I caught wind of it, and I’d get up in the morning, go shoot and come back. That was the competitive drive we had as a team.”
That year, Colorado State was expected to make the NCAA Tournament field, which they did, winning a game in the first four. With Stevens gone and the roster rebuilt, expectations were not as high. At 5-5 early in the season, the Rams were not on anybody’s radar in a national sense.
Clifford was for NBA talent evaluators. When he helped lead the program’s surge at the end of the year, the complete package he was had already started to be pieced together in their files. The key game he took over at Boise State late in the year. The 10 consecutive wins which culminated in winning the Mountain West Tournament, the first-round win over Memphis in the NCAA Tournament and the pass to Jalen Lake which had the Rams on the brink of the Sweet 16, an upset Maryland avoided with bucket on the final play.
His talent is undeniable. Walker knows it’s not enough. He also believes Clifford has proven, past and present, his journey was made with intent.
“It's just that mentality that shows in different ways, especially with the ability that he has. It'll translate on defense; it'll translate to his teammates,” Walker said. “He’ll attract the guys like that. So, he'll be a team favorite, I think. People will want to see him do well and you need that on a winning team too. So right away that just makes him even more of a winning player just with that attitude.”
This is the Clifford everyone sees now. The NBA-level talent with the body to match. Not a scrawny kid with a smile which will light up a room, a heart of gold and a determination to match.
On draft night, that’s the Clifford which will pop up foremost in the mind of Wetters. Yet, once again, he’ll be ready to kick back and watch the remainder of the show develop.
He’s known the kid forever. Understands the depths of that dream, one which wasn’t just to hear his name called on one particular night, but in arenas over and over for years to follow.
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