When Kevin Bradshaw first took a coaching position at Point Loma Nazarene University, he was often asked why he didn't go to one of the many Division I schools that would have hired him. The answer comes out in his character and through a look back at a life filled with God's direction.
 
Bradshaw, who returns to San Diego after 16 years overseas, is most famous for scoring an NCAA record 72 points in a single game while playing for local United States International University (USIU).
 
But you won't hear him talk about that. After a lifetime of accomplishments on the basketball court, he is hesitant to talk about anything that puts the glory on himself. Instead, he gives credit to God for the good things he's experienced and points to how God has worked through the trials in his life.
 
A “Can't Miss” Prospect
 
Bradshaw was one of the nation's top recruits coming out of high school in 1983. He played alongside future Houston Rockets star Vernon Maxwell and was considered by many to be the better prospect of the two. He was named Gainesville Sun Player of the Year and made First-Team All-State in Florida.
 
His college career began at Bethune-Cookman, where he earned First Team All-Conference honors in his freshman and sophomore seasons. Despite his successes on the court, he was playing in a small conference, not getting much attention and was overall unhappy with how his life had gone. He was fed up with the way being a basketball star changed the way people looked at him. Feeling lost and confused, he left Bethune-Cookman in 1985 with the thought that he may never play basketball again.
 
“It was a turbulent time in my life; I pretty much thought basketball was finished for me.” Bradshaw recalls. “I was so frustrated, I felt like a piece of meat while playing basketball. I wasn't getting the kind of attention I wanted.”
 
He knew something was missing in his life. Without giving it much thought, he signed up for boot camp and joined the Navy.
  
Navy Life: A Big Adjustment
 
In an instant, Bradshaw saw his world change dramatically as he adjusted to the Navy's way of doing things. Coming from the background of a star athlete, who had until this point always been treated like royalty, it was a major adjustment.
 
“It was tough because you had to do what you were told and there were consequences for your actions,” says Bradshaw. “When I got to the Navy I met guys that didn't care who Kevin Bradshaw the ballplayer was.”
 
This turned out to be exactly what Bradshaw needed. He soon earned a spot on the Navy's traveling All-Star team, and became good friends with teammate David Robinson, the future NBA star and Hall of Famer. After a few months of Navy life and the new types of interactions that came with it, he began to understand others, and himself, in a new way.
 
“Whoever was dealing with me was dealing with me as a person,” says Bradshaw. “That was new for me. The relationships were real. They weren't based on putting a ball in a hoop.”
 
Bradshaw served four years on the submarine base in San Diego, while taking three months out of each year to travel with the basketball All-Stars. Looking back on it, he sees his joining the Navy as one of the pivotal moments in turning his life around and eventually moving toward accepting Christ.
 
“Going from a star athlete to boot camp...It was tough but it was exactly what I needed,” he recalls. “That was one of the best things that happened in my life. A blessing in disguise. I met a lot of good people, like David Robinson, that helped turn my life around.”
 
Back to School
 
After finishing his fourth year in the Navy, Bradshaw had the opportunity to get back into college basketball. He was recruited by some big name schools, but after meeting Coach Gary Zarecky of USIU, he decided on the smaller NCAA Division I school that would keep him in San Diego.
 
Zarecky ran an up-tempo offense focused on getting up shots as quick as possible, and he would look to Bradshaw as his number one scoring option. In the 1989-90 season, Bradshaw was second in the NCAA in scoring, averaging 32.4 points per game.
 
USIU initially had a good core of players around Bradshaw, but that all changed due to the university's financial instability, which ended in the school declaring bankruptcy during his senior season. As a result, USIU struggled through a tough Division I schedule with a depleted roster, in what ended up being the school's final year of basketball. 
 
This put increased pressure on Bradshaw, but he continued to light up the scoreboard. In his senior year he led all of NCAA Division I with 37.7 points per game, including his record breaking performance on January 5, 1991.
 
On that night he faced a tough Loyola Marymount team, led by Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers. Zarecky, now the coach at De Anza College in San Jose, remembers the night well as one of the fondest memories of his coaching career. 
 
“Those guys threw everything at him,” says Zarecky, noting that Bradshaw was double-teamed and even triple teamed for much of the night. “Every game that season [other teams] threw everything they had at him and he could not be stopped.”
 
Zarecky says that by the end, Bradshaw could barely walk after getting knocked down many times and playing all 40 minutes in an up-tempo game. But with 1 minute and 27 seconds left, Bradshaw hit two free throws to tie and then break Pete Maravich's previous record of 69 points. He finished with 72 points, a record that stands today. 
 
Zarecky looks back on that night as the bright spot in an otherwise tumultuous season. He has a hard time making others understand what his team went through, having its funding cut during the season and playing with less scholarship players against tough competition, but says that Bradshaw was an example to everyone.
 
“A tremendous young man, you couldn't ask for a more dedicated player than Kevin,” he says. “A lot of pressure was on him. In everything we went through, he never complained.”
 
Pro Ball…in the Holy Land?
 
After a stellar senior season, Bradshaw thought he might have a good chance of being selected in the NBA draft. When his name wasn't called on draft day, he was frustrated and once again thought his playing days might be over.
 
“At that time I was like 'How can this be?',” says Bradshaw. “But looking back again, it was God not giving me more than I could handle. If you would have put me there and put all that money in my pocket…I could have made a lot of bad choices.”
 
In 1992 he decided to take advantage of an opportunity to play professionally in Israel, thinking he would play for a few months, before returning to the states.
 
Bradshaw continued to dominate on the court, winning three championships during his professional career and even outdoing his college record by scoring 101 points in a single game. However it was the time he spent with and observing the Israeli people that really made a lasting impact.
 
It was here that he would meet his future wife Karen, and her family quickly took him in as one of their own. The two were married in 1996 and Bradshaw became an Israeli citizen. This led to one of the more interesting things a professional basketball player has ever had to do in a foreign country, as he served two years in the Israeli reserves. On a couple of occasions, Bradshaw carried an M-16 and stood watch on the border between Israel and Lebanon.
 
“It was surreal for me,” says Bradshaw. “I was so embedded in the culture.”
 
Seeing the way Israelis lived, despite being at war, put Bradshaw's own life in perspective.
 
“The way the people go about their lives…just showed me how much time I'd wasted,” he says. “Being in the Middle East, you're forced to see things in a real way. I mean you walk out on the street and see a bus blow up, you ask yourself 'Why in the world would I waste my time being pissed at anyone?' Because your life can be taken from you like that.”
 
A Deeper Walk with God
 
These experiences helped Bradshaw come to grips with reality. As a result, he no longer put an emphasis on material things and began to understand God in a new a way. He found himself truly happy for the first time. The fact that God had always been there for him, finally began to sink in.
 
“I finally began to understand how fortunate I was,” says Bradshaw. “At the time it seemed so complicated, but God took me step by step, giving me exactly what I could handle. Even when I didn't ask for it, he put me in places I needed to be.”
 
In 1996 he recommitted his life to Christ. He was now able to see a divine direction from God in his decisions to join the Navy, play basketball at USIU and come to Israel.
 
“Looking back on it I can see clearly how God guided me and put me where I needed to be and didn't give me anything I couldn't handle,” he says. “He gave me ten times as much. The funny thing is I questioned [not getting drafted] when it happened, but now I understand that he gave me what I needed. Once I got overseas I was mentally prepared to get the money and to be able to handle certain things.”
 
Since that time, Bradshaw has lived his life with a renewed purpose.
 
“Once you understand how good God is, you can't help but be humbled and grateful,” he says. “There's no other way I could live my life than as a soldier for him and spreading his word and using my life as a testimony to tell people he's real.”
 
Bradshaw ended his playing days in 2004 and immediately went into coaching. He became the first African-American head coach in the Israeli professional basketball league.
 
Using Strengths For a New Purpose
 
The things that Bradshaw went through as a college athlete, and the people who were there for him, helped inspire him to get into coaching. Now Bradshaw can see how his basketball career has come full circle. He is now able to use what he's learned to help others.
 
“Everything you're going through…he's gone through,” says PLNU point guard Noble'D Shelton, who noted that Bradshaw's presence has been good for players who are far from home. “He's like a big brother or a father figure. If I have a problem I feel like he'd be the first person I could talk to.”
 
It hasn't taken much time for Bradshaw to click with his players. Sea Lion guard Dean Colbray, who also referred to Bradshaw as a father figure, adds that his laid back personality off the court has been a lot of fun for the team.
 
“Off the court he's real cool,” says Colbray. “He's a good friend and father figure also.”
 
He says that just about everyone on the team has come up with a nickname for him and that he loves giving Bradshaw as hard time for his wardrobe of consistently “fresh gear”.
 
Though Bradshaw can have a good time with players, when it comes to coaching basketball he means business.
 
“The biggest thing is that he keeps it real,” says Shelton. “If you're playing like garbage, he's going to let you know. That's something I like in a coach.”
 
Colbray adds that Bradshaw is always willing to work with players to improve. When he first came to school, he constantly had Bradshaw telling him his shot needed work. “He tells it like it is,” says Colbray, who has become one of the most dependable shooters on the team. “He knows what he's talking about…Really knows the game. He's someone you can take questions to.”
 
Shelton and Colbray have teamed to create a formidable starting backcourt, combining for more than 25 points, five assists and five steals per game in the first part of the season. 
 
“He has so much experience and he's done everything we're trying to do,” says Shelton. “The things he tells you, you have to listen to, because he's done it. He's scored with the best of them; he can win games…so we really take his advice to heart.”
 
Bradshaw's main duties are to work with the team's guards and help with recruiting. He says he would like to use his connections in the basketball world to bring in some players from the South, which would be new for a school that recruits almost exclusively in the West.
 
“People would be blown away if they really knew what this school was about and got a chance to see it,” says Bradshaw.
 
Bradshaw says that he, his wife Karen and their four-year-old son DeShawn, have been welcomed into the PLNU family and that he's loving being back in San Diego.
 
“Nobody gives you a cold shoulder,” he says. “I don't think you could ask for better people to work with. We're very blessed.”
 
Bradshaw loves Point Loma because it represents much of what his life has shown him to be important. He sees it as a place where players can grow as basketball players, but even more as a place where he can use his strengths to help players grow emotionally and spiritually.
 
“Part of the reason I chose Point Loma is that it's a place that's known for doing good works,” says Bradshaw. “It's not your ordinary university where they're only concerned about basketball. It's all you could ask for in a school and more.”

-Jeremiah Wood