In basketball’s relentless universe, where promising careers can evaporate in the time it takes for a highlight to go viral, Markelle Fultz wasn’t supposed to still be here. Yet somehow, against a backdrop of medical mysteries, public ridicule, and career-threatening setbacks, he remains. Not just existing—but playing, competing, and most surprisingly of all, smiling.
The fluorescent lights of an empty high school gym in Upper Marlboro, Maryland buzz overhead. It’s well past midnight, and the only sounds are the rhythmic bounce of a basketball and squeaking sneakers against polished hardwood. A lanky teenager works tirelessly on a move he’s been drilling for hours—crossover, hesitation, pull-up jumper. Again. And again. And again.
This wasn’t the gymnasium at DeMatha Catholic where scouts would later flock. This was a community center, where a boy with oversized dreams and undersized recognition put in work when nobody was watching.
That boy was Markelle Fultz. And nobody – absolutely nobody – could have scripted what was coming.
Humble Beginnings in Upper Marlboro
Upper Marlboro isn’t the kind of place that typically produces NBA lottery picks. It’s a modest Maryland town where blue-collar ethics reign supreme and flash gets checked at the door. For Ebony Fultz, a single mother raising her son after his father disappeared from the picture, the focus was simple: keep him busy, keep him focused, keep him off the streets.
“My mom was everything,” Fultz would later tell reporters during a rare moment of personal reflection. “She worked multiple jobs, showed up to every game she could, and never once let me think I couldn’t do something just because it was hard.”
Hard was relative in the Fultz household. Hard was Ebony working double shifts to keep the lights on. Hard was making sure her son had shoes that fit, even when the budget was stretched thin. Basketball, by comparison, was just fun.
Keith Williams saw it first. A local trainer with an eye for raw talent, Williams didn’t initially see a future NBA star when ten-year-old Markelle Fultz showed up to his sessions. What he saw was a kid with unusual focus.
“Most kids that age, they want to shoot threes and do fancy dribbles they saw on TV,” Williams recalls. “Markelle Fultz would spend an hour just practicing footwork. Who does that at ten? Nobody. That’s when I knew he had something different.”
Rising Star at DeMatha Catholic High School
By the time Markelle Fultz arrived at basketball powerhouse DeMatha Catholic High School, that “something different” still wasn’t translating into immediate success. In a program that had produced NBA talent for decades, Markelle Fultz was initially an afterthought – cut from varsity as a sophomore, relegated to JV, and nicknamed “Bambi” by assistant coach Cory McCrae for his gangly, uncoordinated appearance.
“He was all limbs back then,” McCrae remembers with a laugh. “Couldn’t put it all together yet. But man, that kid worked. While other guys were checking their social media after practice, Markelle was still in the gym.”
The transformation came suddenly. Between his sophomore and junior years, Markelle Fultz grew three inches, developed coordination to match his creativity, and returned to DeMatha a different player entirely. By senior year, he wasn’t just making varsity – he was breaking school records, earning McDonald’s All-American honors, and drawing comparisons to NBA stars like James Harden for his smooth, unhurried style of play.
College recruiters who had previously overlooked him were now showing up in droves. But Fultz, never one for the obvious path, chose the University of Washington over bluebloods like Kentucky and Duke. It wasn’t the conventional choice for a five-star recruit, but then again, nothing about Markelle Fultz has ever been conventional.
Dominance at the University of Washington
The University of Washington’s basketball program wasn’t exactly a powerhouse when Fultz arrived in Seattle. The team was rebuilding, lacking the supporting talent that typically surrounds a player of his caliber. In a different universe, this might have dimmed his star. Instead, it gave him a canvas to paint a masterpiece.
A One-and-Done Phenomenon
From his very first game in purple and gold – a 30-point explosion against Yale – Fultz was clearly operating on a different plane. His game was a paradox; unhurried yet explosive, fundamental yet creative. He averaged 23.2 points, 5.9 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game, leading the Pac-12 in scoring and showcasing an offensive arsenal that had NBA scouts salivating.
“Watching Markelle play was like watching jazz,” says former Washington assistant coach Will Conroy. “Most players, even great ones, you can predict what they’re going to do. With him, it was improvisation at the highest level. He’d make decisions in mid-air that nobody saw coming.”
The team struggled to a dismal 9-22 record, but Markelle Fultz’s brilliance was undeniable. He became that rarest of players: a consensus top draft pick playing for a bottom-dwelling team. By the time he declared for the 2017 NBA Draft after his freshman season, there was little debate about his potential.
Draft Night and the Philadelphia 76ers
Draft night at the Barclays Center was Fultz’s coronation. When the Philadelphia 76ers traded up to select him first overall, it seemed the fairy tale was reaching its natural conclusion. The kid once cut from his high school team was now the top pick in the world’s premier basketball league, headed to a young team with fellow stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
The Process, as Philly’s rebuilding strategy was known, had found its final piece. Or so everyone thought.
The Mystery of the Missing Jump Shot
The first signs were subtle. During summer league games, observers noticed small changes in Fultz’s shooting form. His elbow was flared out awkwardly. His release point had shifted. Shots that once found nothing but net were now clanging off the rim.
By training camp, the whispers had grown louder. Something was wrong with the number one pick’s jump shot – the very skill that had made him such a coveted prospect. When the regular season began, it became impossible to ignore: Fultz wasn’t attempting three-pointers at all. His free throw form had deteriorated into a strange, hitched motion that looked nothing like the smooth stroke from his college days.
Four games into his NBA career, the Sixers announced Fultz would be sidelined with a “scapular muscle imbalance” in his shoulder. But unlike most injury announcements, this one raised more questions than it answered. Had he changed his shot and injured himself? Was it psychological? Was he hiding a more serious injury?
The sports world didn’t wait for answers before rendering judgment. Almost overnight, Fultz went from potential franchise savior to cautionary tale. The hot takes were merciless: he had the “yips,” he was mentally weak, he couldn’t handle the pressure, he was a bust. Former players questioned his work ethic. Armchair psychologists diagnosed him from their living rooms. Online, compilations of his awkward shooting form went viral – the basketball equivalent of public flogging.
“What made me angry,” his teammate JJ Redick would later say, “was the way people were just like vultures preying on a decaying body. This was a 19-year-old kid who clearly was injured.”
But what injury could explain such a dramatic change in a fundamental basketball skill? The Sixers’ medical staff seemed as confused as everyone else, cycling through diagnoses and treatment plans while Fultz shuttled between specialists.
A Rare Diagnosis – Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
Finally, in December 2018 – more than a year after his NBA debut—Fultz was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, a rare condition involving the compression of nerves between the collarbone and first rib. For basketball players, it’s particularly devastating, affecting arm movement and sensation in ways that make shooting a basketball nearly impossible.
“Imagine trying to write your name while someone is randomly sending electric shocks through your arm,” one medical expert explained. “That’s what TOS can feel like.”
By the time the diagnosis came, however, the damage to Fultz’s reputation was done. The basketball world had already written him off as a historic bust, his name becoming shorthand for draft disappointment. The Sixers, impatient with his lengthy recovery and desperate to maximize their championship window, traded him to the Orlando Magic in February 2019 for Jonathan Simmons and a pair of draft picks.
It was a stunning fall from grace: the top pick in the draft traded away for spare parts less than two years after being selected. For most players, this would mark the beginning of the end – a slide into basketball obscurity, perhaps a few years as a journeyman before fading from the league entirely. But Markelle Fultz has never done what most players do.
The Orlando Magic weren’t anyone’s idea of a glamorous NBA destination when Fultz arrived in 2019. The team was mired in mediocrity, far from championship contention and even further from the league’s spotlight. For Fultz, this was perfect.
“Orlando gave me what I needed most,” he would later say. “Space to heal.”
The Road to Recovery
The Magic took an approach radically different from Philadelphia’s. Instead of rushing him back, they essentially redshirted him for the remainder of the 2018-19 season, allowing him to focus entirely on rehabilitation and rebuilding his shattered confidence.
When Fultz finally returned to NBA action in October 2019, the transformation was remarkable. No, he wasn’t the scoring machine that had dominated college basketball, but he was a legitimate NBA point guard – quick, creative, and most importantly, healthy. His jumper, while still a work in progress, looked functional. His confidence, so clearly broken in Philadelphia, showed signs of renewal.
Rediscovering Joy on the Court
By January 2020, Fultz was not just playing – he was starting, averaging 12 points and 5 assists per game. The basketball world, which had been so quick to bury him, now marveled at his resurrection. Some writers even floated him as a candidate for the Most Improved Player award.
More telling than the statistics was the joy. Fultz was smiling again on the court, celebrating big plays with teammates, playing with the creative flair that had once made him special. The weight that had visibly burdened him in Philadelphia seemed lifted.
“People forget basketball is supposed to be fun,” he told reporters after dropping 25 points against the Lakers. “For a while, I forgot that too.”
The ACL Tear and Another Comeback
January 6, 2021. Eight games into what was shaping up to be his best season yet, Fultz drove to the basket against the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was a move he’d made thousands of times before – a quick first step, a change of direction, a gather for the finish.
But this time, his left knee buckled. No contact. Just the sound that every athlete dreads: a pop.
The diagnosis was brutal: torn ACL. Season over.
If there was ever a moment when Markelle Fultz could have justifiably given up, this was it. Having already endured a medical mystery that nearly ended his career, a trade from the team that drafted him first overall, and years of public ridicule, he now faced another year of rehabilitation from one of basketball’s most serious injuries.
The night of the injury, his social media post was characteristically defiant: “Be back soon.”
This time, unlike with his shoulder saga, there was no confusion about the injury or the recovery timeline. ACL rehabilitation is a brutal, methodical process with no shortcuts. For Fultz, it meant another year away from the game, another mountain to climb.
But climb he did. Throughout 2021, while the NBA carried on without him, Fultz approached rehabilitation with the same obsessive focus he’d once shown as that kid in an empty Maryland gym. Day by day, rep by rep, milestone by milestone.
Faithful to the Grind” wasn’t just a hashtag he used on social media—it was his mantra, tattooed into his approach to recovery.
By February 2022, thirteen months after his injury, Fultz was back on an NBA court. His return game against the Indiana Pacers wasn’t statistically impressive – eight points in 16 minutes – but the standing ovation he received from the Orlando crowd told a different story. They weren’t just cheering a basketball player; they were celebrating resilience personified.
Starting Fresh in Sacramento
The NBA’s business side is unsentimental. By 2024, despite Fultz’s inspiring comeback, the Magic were moving in a different direction with their young backcourt. When his contract expired, he wasn’t retained.
For the third time in his still-young career, Markelle Fultz was starting over, this time with the Sacramento Kings – a franchise with its own history of disappointment and redemption.
The contract wasn’t splashy. The role wasn’t guaranteed. But for Fultz, now older and wiser at 26, the opportunity was enough.
“I’ve learned to appreciate just being here,” he told Sacramento media at his introductory press conference, his smile easy and genuine. “There was a time when I didn’t know if I’d play basketball again. So whether I’m starting or coming off the bench, I’m grateful for every minute.”
Those minutes might be fewer than what a former #1 pick might expect, but they’re played with a perspective that few NBA players possess. When Fultz checks into games for the Kings, he brings more than his still-electric first step and creative passing. He brings the wisdom of someone who’s seen the basketball mountain from both sides – the dizzying heights of draft night and the lonely valleys of rehabilitation.
More Than a Comeback – The Markelle Fultz Effect
Professional basketball produces few genuine surprise endings. Hyped prospects either fulfill their potential or they don’t. Injuries either end careers or they don’t. The narrative arc is usually clean, predictable.
Markelle Fultz broke that mold. His story resists easy categorization or convenient morals. He wasn’t a bust who flamed out, nor did he fully realize the superstar potential once projected for him. Instead, he carved out a third path – one of persistence, reinvention, and quiet dignity.
“People always ask if I’m bitter about everything that happened,” Markelle Fultz reflected recently. “And honestly, I’m not. Everything I went through made me who I am now. Would I change it if I could? Maybe the injuries, sure. But the struggle? The journey? No way.”
That journey has given him a unique platform. Young players dealing with injuries or setbacks now seek him out for advice. Kids in Upper Marlboro point to him not as a cautionary tale, but as proof that their hometown can produce resilience as well as talent.
His former trainer Keith Williams now uses Fultz’s story when working with young athletes: “I tell them, ‘You want to know what toughness really is? It’s not dunking on somebody or talking trash. It’s what Markelle Fultz did – getting knocked down in front of the whole world and getting back up. Again and again.'”
In an era when athletes’ careers are increasingly defined by social media moments and hot takes, Fultz represents something more sustainable: the quiet power of simply showing up, day after day, regardless of circumstances.
Still Standing – What Markelle Fultz Teaches Us
On any given NBA night in 2025, you might catch a glimpse of Markelle Fultz checking into a game. His jersey now bears Sacramento’s purple and black, his role more modest than once predicted. But watch closely, and you’ll see flashes of the brilliance that once made him the top pick – a no-look pass that seems impossible, a change-of-pace dribble that freezes defenders, a smile that suggests he’s exactly where he wants to be.
Statistically, he may never live up to the expectations that come with being a #1 overall selection. His name won’t likely appear in All-Star games or on MVP ballots. But in a profession where careers are increasingly defined by championships and individual accolades, Fultz has achieved something perhaps more remarkable: he’s still here, still playing, still standing.
The basketball world once rushed to label him one of the biggest busts in draft history. Now, many years and countless setbacks later, a different narrative has emerged. Markelle Fultz isn’t a cautionary tale – he’s a testament to human resilience, a walking reminder that even the most carefully plotted careers can take unexpected turns, and that dignity can be found in simply refusing to quit.
Back in Upper Marlboro, in that same community gym where a teenage Fultz once practiced alone late into the night, younger players now stay after hours too. They work on their games with the same quiet determination that once defined the hometown kid who made it to the NBA.
They’re not all destined for the league. Most won’t get close. But thanks to Markelle Fultz, they’ve learned a lesson more valuable than any basketball skill: when life knocks you down – even on the biggest stage, even when everyone is watching, even when your body betrays you – you can always get back up.
Again. And again. And again.
Still standing.
If Markelle Fultz’s journey taught us the power of perseverance through physical and public adversity, Ellie Black shows us what it means to come back – again and again – with quiet fire and Olympic grace. Discover how the four-time Canadian Olympian redefined resilience on her own terms: Read Ellie’s story →
