ARLINGTON, Texas — Cade Cunningham had tears in his eyes. As he sat in an English class, he poured his heart out to his confidant, teacher Doris Morehead Jones. He was still a sophomore at James Bowie High School in his hometown of Arlington, Texas, and was having a rough time.
The problem? Cunningham was a highly-touted player on the school’s varsity basketball team, and there was some jealousy among older players who might have felt intimidated and wanted more of the spotlight.
When he sat down with Morehead Jones, he just wanted to be understood.
“He was like an old soul in that young body who was still playful and youthful,” Morehead Jones said. “I’ve never heard him say anything negative about anybody. He was in high school with people hating on him all the time.”
Cunningham, who was the youngest on his Bowie Volunteers squad, said he often felt like the “odd man out” and that his teammates didn’t want him there. Despite that negativity, Cunningham persevered and allowed his high school experience at Bowie to shape how he’d become a leader later on.
“I vividly remember that, for sure,” Cunningham told The Athletic, recalling his frustration. “Me and those guys have come to terms, and we’re all good now. But it was something that made me grow a lot. I remember coming home (from school) and being like, ‘Man, this team.’
“I learned how to lead from that, learned how to make people feel how I wanted to be made to feel at that time. I think that was one of the first moments where I was like, ‘I don’t like how this type of leadership is, and I want to be better whenever I have that opportunity to be the best player on the team.’ So I always revert back to that team whenever I’m thinking about how a leader was (that) I didn’t like.”
And when Cunningham got his opportunity, he relied on his experience to connect with those he sought to lead.
“I’ve played basketball in a lot of different places where I’ve got to meet a lot of people. People from different cultures,” Cunningham said. “I think all of that stuff helped as well. As far as learning how to talk to people. Learning how to find ways to relate to people and lead them.
“Just trying to connect with people, I think I’ve always had that in me, but it started in high school.”
On Wednesday, the Detroit Pistons’ All-Star was back at Bowie High School. He once again had tears in his eyes, though for a different reason. He was reunited with Morehead Jones as his alma mater retired his No. 2 Volunteers jersey and hung it from the rafters.
Cunningham was in Texas as the Pistons faced the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. He nearly notched his third triple-double of the season with a game-high 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in an overtime loss to the team he grew up rooting for. Cunningham had over a dozen family members in attendance to show love.
While the game went down to the wire with officiating being a major postgame talking point, things were far calmer the night before in Arlington.
At the ceremony at Bowie, Morehead Jones spoke about both Cunningham and his family’s impact on the school and community at large.
His eyes welled up as she spoke, while fighting back tears herself, about how he’s blossomed into a man the entire school and city has grown to respect and love. Cunningham’s parents and siblings were in attendance, and his 7-year-old daughter, Riley, playfully sat on his lap during the ceremony.
“The people there, they’ve supported me,” Cunningham said. “I just have such a great group of people I’ve been around my whole life.”
He jumped up to embrace Morehead Jones with a big hug as soon as she concluded her speech.
“(Morehead Jones) was a special teacher; she just loved on all of the kids differently,” Cunningham said after Thursday’s morning shootaround. “I didn’t even care for English, but she just had an energy in her classroom that we all enjoyed. … She always supported us outside of class. So, just seeing her and feeling that support and love from her still was special.”
Pistons star Cade Cunningham and teacher Doris Morehead Jones at his jersey retirement ceremony. (Photo courtesy James Bowie High School)
Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff has often commended Cunningham’s ability to “eat without taking food off of others’ plates” during his two seasons at the helm in Detroit.
The version of Cunningham that Pistons fans see now, the one who relishes the late-game moments to walk opposing teams down, is still fueled by the adversity he faced as a teenager. His calm demeanor, which has become synonymous with Sade’s song “Smooth Operator,” was formed inside the halls of Bowie.
Talking to teachers at the school, they all have their own favorite Cade memories.
Natasha Fowler, now the dean of instruction at the high school, remembers one time at lunch when another student was spitting a freestyle. Cunningham, who didn’t know the teen, and his friends overheard the impromptu cipher. Instead of laughing or being discouraging, they went to hype up the student.
“If you think Cade is the pinnacle and the popular (one),” Fowler said, “this kid was not at all that. … But Cade welcomed him right on in. …Cade was right there just gassing him up. (Cade) was just that kind of kid to bring people in. Like, we don’t all have to be the same for us to get along, for us to communicate, for us to talk. And that’s pretty levelheaded for a teenager.”
It wasn’t the only time Cunningham showed his openness to others, according to his teachers. Morehead Jones remembers putting a group of students who were struggling academically together one day. She said they were having difficulty grasping a concept, while other groups had finished and were laughing and having fun with their friends.
“I said, ‘Hey, anybody want to volunteer to come and work with this other group?’ Cade put his hand up immediately, no questions asked,” said Morehead Jones. “He went to work with those kids that you would never put him with.
“(They were) laughing and talking and high-fiving and helping. And I knew then that he was a different kind of kid. … He was just a freshman. So I had no idea that he could play ball yet. But he came in that way, ready to help, ready to lay it on the line, always ready to speak up, always ready to jump in and get done what needs to be done. I didn’t have to ask him. He just did it.”
But that didn’t mean Cunningham was always the model student. His home was within walking distance from school, so he would take advantage by going home after his first two classes to grab food. However, Bowie only allowed upperclassmen to go off-campus for lunch, and Cunningham and his best friend would routinely mosey on home as sophomores.
And his sophomore English teachers, Vanessa Madrez and Laretta Assibey-Mensah, would cut Cunningham and his friend no slack when they were late.
Their class was on the second floor of the school, and their windows faced the direction of Cunningham’s house. So as discreet as they’d try to be on their way back to school, they’d regularly get caught.
“We’re over here yelling, face out of the window like, ‘Y’all better hurry up now! Don’t be late to class!’ But they’d be running, I’m talking about booking it to get back to class on time,” Madrez said.
Nonetheless, Cunningham thrived in the classroom despite his off-campus lunches. Both Madrez and Assibey-Mensah remember Cunningham often redirecting unfocused classmates to pay more attention.
Dayton Barone, a current assistant coach on the Bowie boys’ basketball team, never coached Cunningham but regularly lets the 24-year-old into the school in the summer so he can use the gym.
Just last summer, fresh off his first All-NBA selection and postseason appearance, Cunningham came back to get some work in. Barone had a group of his players working out and offered to clear the gym for Cunningham. He said no and even posed for pictures with the players working out.
“There was one kid we had who was new here,” Barone said. “Cade is his idol, his favorite player ever. I asked Cade if he’d mind taking a picture with him. In the middle of his workout, he took a picture with him and all the other nine or 10 guys who were there. … That’s just the kind of guy he is. He’s just a great human being.”
Cade got his high school jersey retired in Arlington, TX last night…
And his whole team showed up to support 🥹
Cade and East #1 DET face DAL at 8:30pm/et on NBA League Pass! pic.twitter.com/EHhKvhIeVR
— NBA (@NBA) December 18, 2025
On Wednesday, Barone was sitting in the front row at the Volunteers’ gym along with Fowler, Morehead Jones, Madrez and Assibey-Mensah and other teachers who were instrumental to Cunningham’s high school journey.
It was a gym packed with pride, love and support. And the feeling was mutual.
“I think that’s all kids need sometimes, is feeling like it’s possible,” Cunningham said of seeing his jersey in the Bowie gym rafters. “That way, they can work toward it themselves. I know that would’ve meant a lot to me coming up. It did mean a lot to me whenever I did have the opportunity to meet people who made it.
“It’s cool that I get to be in that spot now, to inspire kids to be better, try to go be great and chase their dreams.”