From saxophones to superstardom: Maxwell Lewis and his improbable journey into the NBA Draft lottery
Before Maxwell Lewis was terrorizing collegiate defenses with his unstoppable jump shot and tantalizing transition offense, he was doing the same thing to his older brothers in the driveway. Even if they never let their younger sibling officially beat them.
Lewis needed to beg them just to play the occasional game of 1-on-1.
The opportunities came sparingly, but Lewis made the most of one particular opportunity, battling to game point against his older brother Myloe. As long as he had the ball in his hand, he knew he had the chance to earn the eternal bragging rights that every younger sibling dreams of.
The only problem was Max didn’t have the ball. Myloe took it inside.
“I was winning and was going to score for game, but he fouled me and never gave me the ball back,” said Maxwell Lewis. “I was crying and I wanted the ball, but he never let me win because he knew I would talk crazy.”
As the superstar of the Pepperdine program and a projected lottery pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, nobody can take the ball out of his hands now.
In his breakout season with the Waves, the 6’7 wing is averaging 18.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists. From his smooth handles and speed in transition to his impressive turn-around jumper in the post, everything seems to come naturally to the standout sophomore.
Those closest to him will tell you that hasn’t always been the case.
“Around age eight or nine, my dad actually put Max into boxing and playing the saxophone because things weren’t working out in basketball,” said Mario Lewis, his older brother and manager.
The titles of amateur boxer and accomplished saxophonist remain on Lewis’ Pepperdine profile today, but it was his love for basketball and a “crazy” growth spurt that put him back on the path of becoming a basketball player.
Those few years without the sport he loved were crucial for his basketball development but learning to play without that valuable experience prepared Lewis for unprecedented obstacles that stood in the way of his dream.
One of those obstacles was COVID-19, which took away his senior season of high school and jeopardized his entire basketball career.
“COVID took away a lot of great things for me. I didn’t have the same scholarships that I had before I went into the draft,” said Lewis.
Lewis was considering schools like USC and Baylor before the pandemic but shifted his focus to the 2021 NBA Draft as uncertainty prevailed in discussions surrounding the 2020-21 college basketball season. In a matter of months, Lewis went from potentially joining the eventual national champions in Baylor to playing AAU ball the summer before what was supposed to be his freshman season.
Then Lorenzo Romar picked up the phone.
“We were aware of who he was but didn’t really recruit him hard because we thought it would be difficult to get him,” said Pepperdine head coach Lorenzo Romar. “Once someone reached out and mentioned that Max was interested since he hadn’t played in a year and wanted to go to college, that’s when it all started.”
“Coach Romar literally called me every day. I could tell he was really concerned, and he really wanted me,” said Lewis. “My dad says he’s like my second dad when I’m out here.”
This was a unique recruiting scenario for Romar, but Pepperdine’s head basketball coach is no stranger to plucking elite talents from the blue blood schools that stars like Lewis typically flock to.
In his 26 years as a head coach, including 15 seasons at the University of Washington, Romar has accumulated quite the list of college stars and future NBA players. It includes the former first overall pick, Markelle Fultz, and other first rounders and current professionals like Dejounte Murray, Matisse Thybulle and Terrence Ross.
Go back even further and you’ll find electrifying NBA players such as Isaiah Thomas, Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson.
Now, there’s Maxwell Lewis.
“In 26 years as a head coach, I’ve never seen a player improve as much as he has from the first day on campus until now. He’s made the biggest jump of anyone I’ve ever coached,” said Coach Romar.
“I always tell people Max’s progression is unheard of. He went from AAU in 2021 to Pepperdine to play the 2021-22 season,” said Mario Lewis. “I don’t even think he’s 65 or 70 percent of the way in his development.”
This rapid development and limitless potential is the center of the fascination around Lewis. His ability to adapt to unique situations and develop at an astounding rate is the catalyst of a meteoric rise into the lottery of our latest mock draft.
But how do you project a player who has so much left to learn, but is putting up this kind of production at the highest level?
The latest projection, according to our President and draft expert Aran Smith, has the Pepperdine product landing with the Utah Jazz (via MIN) with the 13th pick in this summer’s draft.
Even with his staggering potential and development, players don’t just ascend into lottery discussions on these two traits alone. It’s special plays like Coach Romar described that have scouts looking at Lewis this early in the draft.
“In our game against BYU a few weeks ago, he’s at the top of the key with the ball and takes a dribble to his left about 17 feet from the basket. He takes one dribble from right there, spins back to his right, and shoots a layup on the right side of the basket,” said Coach Romar. “It’s like Giannis or Dr. J.”
For Lewis, it’s the plays that he thinks go unnoticed that could make him one of the highest picks in the upcoming draft.
“I can do the little things like get on the floor and get charges to help my team win. Of course, I’m not going to be the star player right away but if I’m a lottery pick, I can do the little things to keep my team in the game,” said Lewis.
It’s easy for him to say now, but the unfortunate truth is that not every lottery pick is a success story. There are plenty of players each season who never live up to the role they imagined when they heard their name called in those first few picks of the draft.
Among those are players like Adam Morrison and Anthony Bennett who are remembered for all the wrong reasons in the NBA. Their successful collegiate careers for mid-major schools on the west coast, just like Lewis, are an afterthought to the disappointment they caused their respective franchises at the next level.
But if there’s one thing to know about Maxwell Lewis, it’s that his journey is incomparable.
If anyone is going to avoid the fate of Morrison, Bennett and so many other lottery picks who failed to live up to expectations, it’s the kid who went from saxophones to superstardom, motivated purely by his love of the game and a relentless hunger to make his improbable dream an undeniable reality.
