"I don’t take a second for granted": How grief powered Cheatham’s rise

Adelaide's Zylan Cheatham will be the first to admit he's been defying the odds his whole life. And just weeks after his 30th birthday, the Arizona product reflected how people from "where he's from" aren't supposed to reach 25, let alone 30.

In an incredibly honest interview, Cheatham said his 22-year-old brother Wanyaa was shot dead, falling victim to the gang violence rife in impoverished South Phoenix on December 29, 2018.

"[This] is a big-time achievement, and I don’t take it for granted. It was a little bit of luck, but credit to the decisions I made growing up and the person that my family raised me to be," Cheatham said to the Herald Sun.

During his life, basketball has been a constant and a saviour for Cheatham, who played for both New Orleans and Utah in the NBA, as well as spending time in Germany and Japan.

“I’m not perfect, I’ve been in situations where I could have made different decisions, and, you know, thank God that, just the times that I did make the wrong decision, it wasn’t detrimental to my life or my career,” he said.

Now Cheatham, who has a three-year-old son, Zarrion, is focussing on channelling the heartbreaking loss of his brother on the court.

“There’s two ways you can do it, you can play victim and let it be the reason why you didn’t do X, Y, Z, or the reason why you didn’t make it out [of your situation], or you can channel it and make it energy and I think, for me, that’s kind of why I play the way I play and approach every situation the way I do," the forward said.

“I don’t take a second for granted. I know I was put in this position for a reason, so I’ve just learned to channel it into energy and treat people the right way and have high character and it’s been paying off for me.”

Cheatham's 36ers, who are 11-3 on the season, host Brisbane on Friday from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.

Read the full story here >> How Zylan Cheatham brother's tragic murder fuels him