One quick peek at Nate Renfro’s Instagram to those unfamiliar with the former Sahuaro High School and University of San Francisco standout, and you might think he is training for the NBA dunk contest.
Rather, the 24-year-old is just hoping for his chance to make it to the league.
Recent videos show Renfro gliding through the air with effortless ease, his 6-foot-8 frame propelling his head near the rim on each dunk as he prepared for his first taste of professional basketball last week with the Austin Spurs of the NBA G-League.
You would never know from watching him today that 15 months ago, Renfro, the USF record-holder for most games played with 132, tore his ACL training with the Phoenix Suns and had his promising career in jeopardy right after graduating college.
“I literally was so close to all these dreams coming true and then to have a tear like that? It was an awful time. From there it was like OK, what’s next?” he recalled.
When Renfro graduated from San Francisco in 2019 with the distinction of being a first-team West Coast Conference All-Academic Team selection three times, he initially planned to play professionally in Europe.
“The level I was at in college and how I played, I didn’t think the NBA was an option,” Renfro said. “I obviously wanted to play at a higher level, but I didn’t really have the G-League or NBA on my radar.”
Nate Renfro is “an elite athlete who could be in the (NBA) dunk contest,” said his trainer Vaughn Compton.
On his first day of training, that notion quickly changed.
“I had gone through a workout that first day and told my trainer Caliph (Mohammed) after about my plan with my agent to go overseas and he looked at me confused,” Renfro said. Mohammed said Renfro "could do better than overseas. I decided to talk it over with my family and friends after that, and then the whirlwind started.”
A change of plans meant things moved swiftly for Renfro. A showcase in Las Vegas during the 2019 NBA Summer League put him on the radar of the Washington Wizards and Milwaukee Bucks, with both interested in signing Renfro to their G-League teams.
No firm deal came, though, so the Arizona native went back to Phoenix, where Muhammed told him the Suns needed some extra players for practice.
After working out and practicing with the team for a couple of weeks, the Suns told Renfro they wanted to sign him to an Exhibit 10 contract, a non-guaranteed one year contract that only guarantees an invitation to training camp, with potential for bonus money if he were to make the G-League roster.
During a practice with the team soon after that conversation, Renfro drove to the basket and planted awkwardly, his knee buckling and giving out on him. Team doctors confirmed Renfro’s suspicions and the news was delivered by Suns general manager James Jones: a torn ACL.
“It was pretty devastating at the time,” Renfro said.
Surgery followed a month later, with the now contract-less Renfro spending three days a week rehabbing the injury. A few months into his rehab, the spread of COVID-19 had just begun to lead to rapid business closings across the country, including the gym where Renfro went in Phoenix.
Now without a gym to workout, the shutdown of the NBA meant contract talks had gone silent as well. Renfro had been attending Suns games to keep his face familiar to the staff, but wasn’t sure what options he had moving forward.
“Things really got quiet and I had no idea what was going on,” he said. “I didn’t know if there was going to be a G-League season or even Summer League. I was recovering, but started doing little things like Uber Eats to keep myself occupied. My agent and I talked about overseas options, but he was confident a G-League season would take place and told me to wait it out.”
The wait had finally paid off, with the Austin Spurs signing Renfro in January for their team in the G-League bubble at Disney World, where play began last week.
“He was relentless in his pursuit of getting to the highest level,” Renfro’s trainer Vaughn Compton said. “A lot of guys in his situation would have made excuses, would have really just relied on their agent or someone else. He kind of took his development and his growth into his own hands and stayed consistent with it.”
Compton had known of Renfro from Powerhouse Hoops, an AAU team Renfro played for and Compton helps coach and train. The two worked out three to four times a week, with Compton putting Renfro through pro-level workouts that sometimes included other professional players Compton trains to sharpen their skill sets.
“Nate wanted to know the truth, and that’s why he improved so much from the time that we started,” Compton said. “Even at the NBA level, he’s an elite athlete who could be in the dunk contest. We wanted to hit on shooting, ball handling and finishing at the rim. I kind of regret not doing a before and after video, because it was really impressive how much better he got, but that’s a credit to his dedication.”
Renfro said that he has been working on transitioning to more of a “3-And-D” role at the next level as opposed to the more traditional big man position he played in college. He’s averaging 2.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game this season through three games for Austin.
“Guys who make shots get paid,” he said.
In between games of “Call of Duty” in his hotel room, Renfro reflected on the journey to get to this point, thankful after knowing how things could have turned out. The G-League season consists of 15 games, with the top eight teams then playing a condensed, single-elimination playoff schedule after.
“Sometimes, I literally wonder how it all happened,” he said. “Coming off of an ACL injury, never working out for any teams in the bubble. It’s crazy. God is good.”
