SAN FRANCISCO – Compliments were accepted but kindly and confidently corrected by LJ Cryer as a kid.
“My dad always instilled that you can be whatever you want in life,” Cryer told NBC Sports Bay Area.
Even as young as 3 or 4 years old, Cryer was advanced as a child. He always was the best player on his team, and with that came praise at an early age. With the right intentions, older people would ask him if he was good at basketball, football, or anything else, looking for an easy answer.
But his dad insisted on a correction for all the right reasons.
“He trained me to be like, ‘No, I’m great,’ ” Cryer still remembers. “If you met me when I was a little kid and anybody would be like, ‘Oh man, you’re pretty good,’ I would look back at you and be like, ‘No, I’m great.’
“Just having that belief as a child and carrying that with me up to this point, it’s helped me get here. Sometimes you got to be a little delusional to get to where you want to go.”
Cryer’s father, Lionel, played linebacker at Grambling State University, where his mother, Tamica, played volleyball. His younger brother played football at Florida State, and his cousins were college football players, too. LJ has a love for football and played quarterback and safety in his youth but changed course from other family members and found his real passion with a basketball in his hands.
An athletic background had sports in his blood, but it was far from a guaranteed ticket for the Warriors guard, who is listed as 6-foot tall, with an understanding of that being a generous number. Cryer dominated his high school competition and finished with the most career points in the Houston area public school history. That earned him a four-star rating and a trip to Baylor, but not an invite as a McDonald’s All-American and a new reality in college.
The Baylor Bears won the 2021 national championship in a season where Cryer played only 199 total minutes and scored 67 points. He saw his role expand exponentially the next season and led the Big 12 in 3-point percentage (41.5 percent) in his third year at Baylor but decided to transfer to Houston, where he played his final two years.
That was another shift Cryer had to adjust to. Houston coach Kelvin Sampson demands defense first. Cryer went just 3 of 16 from 3-point range in his first two games at Houston and saw his percentages go up and down trying to be a better two-way player, yet still led the Big 12 in 3-point percentage (38.8). It all culminated to a magical senior season where Cryer led the Big 12 in 3-point percentage (42.4 percent) for the third straight year, was named All-Big-12 First Team, was an All-American and made it to the national championship, where he scored a game-high 19 points, but his Cougars fell to the Florida Gators and eventual Warriors teammate Will Richard.
Still, no Combine invite and his name wasn’t called in the 2025 NBA Draft. Cryer, in his five-year college career, took away the power of patience mixed with his self-belief.
“Went from being one of the last guys on the bench coming into college to being the star,” he says. “Sometimes you just got to wait your time and put in work behind the scenes. It’s kind of what’s happening now.”
Warriors coaches and players were impressed by Cryer in training camp, summer league and the preseason. He was waived on Oct. 18 and sent to the G League, where, when healthy, he clearly has been a level ahead of the competition, averaging 21.7 points per game with a 44.9 3-point percentage. Cryer was signed to a two-way contract by the Warriors in December and made his NBA debut in January, when he played eight minutes over three games but injuries to Steph Curry and others, along with him recovering from a hamstring strain that held him out for weeks, have opened a door that he has strutted through as of late.
After what was possibly Golden State’s best win of the season against the Houston Rockets on March 5, the loudest voice in any Warriors room said what many were thinking months ago. Draymond Green saw an NBA player whenever Cryer was on the court and shared how surprised he was that he didn’t make the team coming into the season.
Not making the Warriors out of camp didn’t come as a surprise to Cryer. To him, it was just another moment to learn from and get better from. In essence, it’s the story that has always followed him.
“It’s like you reach another low again,” Cryer said. “I felt like I did play well enough to make the team, but I had injuries once again, so I felt like they didn’t really get a full look at what I can do because I wasn’t available. I just had to stay focused and understand that it’s all going to work out. I had a great start to the G League and felt like at some point someone was going to pick me up.
“I’m just happy I got to stay here.”
Now the Warriors are getting a full look at Cryer, and they sure are happy he stayed in their organization. Cryer scored 12 points from four threes off the bench in Houston. Before ever having a full practice with the team, Cryer in the Warriors’ last four games is averaging 11.5 points while going 12 of 25 from deep (48 percent).
Against bigger, faster and better competition, Cryer still can get his shot off like he always has and can enjoy watching it sink through the nets like he always has. Over the last four games, Cryer has scored the third-most points on the Warriors despite playing the sixth-most minutes. He has the best offensive rating on the team and is tied for the most threes during this span.
Here comes the surprise: He also has the third-best Warriors defensive rating in the last four games.
No amount of confidence is going to have Cryer kidding himself. He knows he naturally isn’t the greatest defender ever, but relentless effort and taking advantage of a second of laziness are key. It takes more for him to get around a screen and stay in front of the ball, making up for it with aggression, toughness, strength and smarts.
“He’s really strong,” Steve Kerr says. “The guys who make it at that size are generally really strong. [Fred] VanVleet, Chris Paul, guys who can go down on the block to use their strength and wedge people out. It negates the lack of height, just the overall strength. I think he has that.
“He’s got that build. He just needs experience. … We’re really excited about him.”
At Houston, Cryer became a big believer in self-talk and staying positive within himself, never bringing negativity into his head and onto the court. Less than an hour had passed since the Warriors’ stunning loss to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night when Cryer came to the podium after scoring a career-high 17 points in a game he also uncharacteristically missed a free throw with 7.9 seconds left in regulation that would have changed the outcome of the game.
A group of kids invited by the Warriors through a local program joined the press conference, and the final question asked of Cryer goes back to the same superpower his father Lionel taught him from the start: If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self or someone with big dreams, what would it be?
“Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t do,” Cryer says. “I’m not the biggest guy. Didn’t get drafted. Was never a McDonald’s All-American or anything like that. Was always an underdog. If you keep working and have crazy belief and crazy faith in yourself, you can do anything.”
Think about Cryer’s message as much as his stats whenever he wears a Warriors jersey. Don’t let height be his story. LJ Cryer is built for this and always has been.
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