Early morning workouts are ingrained into Kobe Sanders’ DNA, but that wasn’t always the case. As a 7-year-old, he didn’t understand why his parents would wake him and his brother Gage up so early. Now, it doesn’t feel right to him if he can’t train before the sun rises.
“When you get up early in the morning, it gets you a head start on the day and gives you more motivation,” Sanders said.
The work is paying off as the 6-foot-8 guard is currently preparing for the NBA Draft, which takes place on Wednesday and Thursday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. According to Hoops Hype’s draft workout tracker, he’s had scheduled workouts with at least 12 NBA teams. He was invited to the NBA Draft Combine after a standout performance at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, where 64 college seniors compete in front of professional scouts.
ESPN and The Athletic both have Sanders projected within their top 60 rankings and selected in the 50-60 pick range in their mock drafts. He intrigues teams with his size for a guard and a strong feel for the game.
If Sanders gets drafted, he would become the first player from Cal Poly to get drafted and the second player to play in the NBA since David Nwaba in 2016.
“It means a lot,” said Sanders about what it would mean to be the first drafted player from Cal Poly. “Just all the work I put in at Cal Poly and all the tough times we’ve been through, all the fans that have supported me and the coaches that have been there for me.”
Sanders wasn’t on the typical track for an NBA player. He was an All-League standout at Christian High School in San Diego, but he only received low-major Division I interest, including from Cal Poly. Even when he reached the Division I level, it took him three seasons before he emerged as one of the best players in the conference. At the same time, he grew from 6 foot 4 entering college to 6 foot 7 by the time he finished his collegiate career.
In his senior season, he averaged nearly 20 points per game before transferring to the University of Nevada for a fifth season. With the Wolfpack, he established himself as one of the top players in a competitive Mountain West conference and began to generate NBA buzz after averaging 15.8 points, 4.5 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game.
He credits his ascension to the work ethic instilled into him by his “early bird” parents from a young age.
Sanders’ family is filled with hard workers. Their father, Roland, returned early in the morning from his night shift to wake his sons up and take them to the gym. Their mother, Sara, came from a family of farmers who spent the summers working on the farm and picking crops. Their grandfather worked on a plantation with 13 other siblings.
“Those types of stories that we’re being told early on within our family, wired us a little differently,” said Sanders’ brother, Gage. “These are the sacrifices our generations before us have made, and now it’s our opportunity to reap those benefits…Those little lessons like that give Kobe that chip on his shoulder.”
Former Cal Poly head coach John Smith witnessed Sanders’ morning routine on a trip he took to San Diego while recruiting him. He took a late-night flight from San Luis Obispo to catch a 5 a.m. workout before Sanders went to school.
Kobe Sanders finished his Cal Poly career 26th in points in program history, with 1008. Mustang News. Credit: Maura Shernisky / Mustang News
Fast forward to Sanders’ senior season, and he still had the same routine. He was in Mott Athletic Center so often that the GPS location on his iPhone set the gym as his “Home” location.
“He would work out in the mornings to the point where I had to scale him back because I had to put extra load on him because we were depleted with talent,” Smith said. “But he understands what it takes to be a pro, and it’s the process, and he enjoys that.”
When Chance Hunter transferred to Cal Poly during Sanders’ junior year, one of the first things he noticed was the consistency of his training.
“He will always get shots up, always stay in the gym even if he wasn’t playing versus when he was,” Hunter said. “Nothing ever changed.”
Across Sanders’ junior and senior years, the Mustangs won 12 games and went 1-39 in Big West play. However, Sanders never wavered in his work ethic.
“When things were good and when things were bad, he was always working, always trying to get better,” Hunter said. “Even when we were losing, he was still trying to get advice from the coaches, trying to figure out how to turn things around. He never gave up.”
In an era where transferring to different schools has become a common practice in college basketball, Sanders wasn’t interested in moving while Smith was still the head coach.
“He felt like it was only right to be loyal to that program to those coaches that took a chance with him, because no one else really believed him,” Gage Sanders said. “No matter how bad it got, that’s not the person he is. He’s going to persevere. He’s not going to quit on the people that believed in him.”
As Sanders prepares for the draft, he’s improving his explosiveness and tightening up his shot, two areas where teams want to see him grow. He’s regarded as a late bloomer, a player who excels later in their college career than most. This development track typically indicates that, despite being an older prospect, Sanders has untapped upside.
“I think that’s one thing about me, I’m steadily getting better, and I’m not done yet,” Sanders said. “I think that’s a lot of what the NBA sees as well. Even though I’m an older player in this draft, I bring wisdom and maturity, but I also still have an upside.”
Smith has believed for years that Sanders could become a professional, not only because of his skillset, but also his character and maturity.
“The NBA is a multi-billion dollar company, and you want to invest in people that you could trust, that have loyalty, and he has those characteristics,” Smith said.