Javon Craddock (2) looks to inbound the basketball for Tyner while guarded by Red Bank's Tory Sewell during a Region 3-AA tournament semifinal on Feb. 27, 2018. Craddock died of a rare heart condition less than three months later at age 16.
It hangs on a door just outside the Tyner Academy boys' basketball team's locker room. The black jersey with the maroon No. 2 won't be worn this season, but its significance is a daily reminder of the young man who is now the inspiration for what the Rams are playing for.
When he wore that jersey last season, Javon Craddock was a sophomore and the team's youngest starter, averaging 16 points per game with an enviously pure shooting stroke as the Rams reached the Class AA state tournament.
Teammates and coaches - for Tyner, his AAU team and opponents - were certain Craddock was destined to become a college prospect, with the game his ticket out of what had been a tough home life growing up.
"He could flat-out shoot it," said former McCallie and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach John Shulman. "With his range, he could have been a combo guard at the next level for sure. What really stood out was how the kid always played with such joy."
On a warm Wednesday evening late last spring, May 16, just days before the end of the school year, Craddock walked the four blocks from his grandmother's house to the Highland Park Boys & Girls Club to meet some friends for a pick-up game. Soon after, the 16-year old complained of fatigue and walked to the sideline to get a drink before collapsing from his seat onto the gym floor. He never recovered consciousness.
Weeks after his death, the autopsy revealed the cause had been a rare disease - hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - that causes a thickening of the heart muscle. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the syndrome most often is shown in childhood or early adulthood and, as in Craddock's case, sometimes has no prior symptoms.
"I got a call from one of his friends saying Javon had passed out," recalled Craddock's grandmother, Loretta Smith. "When I got to the gym I saw him laying down and they were doing CPR, so I knew something was terribly wrong. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. He had just been playing with his friends. He was only 16. What could be wrong with him?
"I was praying for a miracle that he was going to come back to us.
"At the hospital, the waiting was awful but I started to notice how many kids and teachers and coaches and family started showing up. The room and the hall were full with people. Even after he had passed, seeing so many people there said something about how he had carried himself, how many lives he had touched and how many people loved Javon."
DRIVEN
Amy Ball was one of the first people to recognize there was something unseen that set Craddock apart from other kids his age. As his fifth-grade teacher at Orchard Knob Elementary School, Ball noticed how classmates were somehow drawn to the shy kid.
"He spoke very little, smiled a lot and stayed to himself, but most of the other boys just wanted to be around him," Ball said. "That stood out to me right away because he wasn't really doing anything to get attention, but everyone seemed to want to hang around him anyway.
"Some people just have a natural magnetism, a charisma about them that gives them a star quality, and that's what Javon had every time he flashed that beautiful smile of his. But underneath that smile was a lot of insecurity and distrust."
An unfortunate cycle of issues in young Craddock's home life led Ball to transition from concerned teacher to his ride home after tutoring sessions, with Ball eventually becoming his legal guardian for four years. During the time he lived with the Ball family, Craddock became a protective big brother to the couple's two young children and eventually learned to shed his insecurity and become more outgoing, even being willing to show off his athleticism.
"He was always a soft-spoken kid, but once he started playing sports, we saw him become extremely focused and work so hard at what he felt was his gift," Ball said. "He played football, baseball and soccer, and when he went to gymnastics class with our other kids, he could do 11 back handsprings without ever having taken any instruction. He made it look so effortless.
"But basketball was what he really loved, and eventually he dropped every other sport to concentrate on becoming the best shooter around. He would stay out in the driveway shooting baskets for hours. He had this unbelievable drive, like nothing I've ever seen."
LASTING INFLUENCE
Before his freshman year of high school, Craddock moved in with his grandmother but enrolled at Tyner Academy instead of nearby Howard to stay closer to Ball, who had begun teaching at Tyner Middle that year.
E'Jay Ward, one of the city's rising young coaching stars, took over the Tyner varsity boys' basketball program the following season and quickly recognized his best scoring option was the quiet sophomore with the 1,000-watt smile and unlimited shooting range.
"When anybody would question me about why I was starting a sophomore over seniors, on a team that everybody knew had talent, I would say 'Just watch him,'" Ward said. "His teammates and I saw it every day at practice, and none of them questioned why Javon was a starter.
"He had a special gift, and I felt like the whole city of Chattanooga needed to see what he was going to be."
Battling self-doubt, Craddock struggled to see his gifts were not limited to the basketball court. Several teammates admitted it was Craddock who would step in and coax them away from negative influences, with more than one describing him as "mature beyond his years" when it came to getting them to focus on positive goals.
"I saw it. It was something rare and magnificent that he would bring to the table," Ball explained. "He was a light in a dark place for a lot of kids at Tyner because he came from a place that a lot of them identify with. He had gone through some tougher times, but he kept a perspective on life that shined and made them feel hopeful about their own situation.
"The last time I saw him we went to lunch, and when he got out of the car I said, 'I love you Javon,' and he just laughed and said, 'It's not goodbye. It's see you later.' The irony of that conversation didn't hit me until a few weeks later."
By the time last year's postseason began, Craddock was averaging five 3-pointers per game and hit three in the first half of the Rams' sectional win, then finished with a team-high 12 points in their state tournament loss.
"I remember on the car ride home, Coach E'Jay asked if we thought we'd get back to the state tournament and Javon said, 'Of course,'" said Amon Grace, a senior on this season's team. "He was our go-to guy. He was always high energy, and it was just a good feeling to be around him every day.
"Everything we do this season is for him now. Our goal is to live out what Javon believed we would do and get back to the state tournament. For him."
NOT FORGOTTEN
Before this season began, Ward was swamped with requests from Tyner players wanting to wear the No. 2 jersey as a tribute. Instead, Tyner's coach had new warm-up shirts made for the entire team, each with Craddock's number on it.
Similarly, Kelcey Watson, who founded the Chattanooga Elite - Craddock's AAU team - had so many requests from players in different age groups wanting to wear No. 2 that he decided to simply retire the number. Watson's son Cameron, who plays for McCallie, is wearing No. 2, as is Red Bank's Lucas Brown this season to honor their friend.
"Even as teenagers, you never know who's watching or what kind of impact you can have on people," Ward said. "I've gone to so many youth league games all over the city and had little kids come up to me wearing the No. 2 jersey, telling me it's because of Javon.
"I'm not sure people understand the impact he had on our team, our school and really around the whole city."
Tyner is off to a 14-3 start this season, with narrow losses to East Nashville, the state's top-ranked AA team, and to Class AAA's sixth-ranked East Hamilton in the semifinals of the Times Free Press Best of Preps tournament last month.
Three times the Rams have won on buzzer-beating shots, twice after rallying from 20-point deficits.
"You could feel Javon's presence in the gym in those three games," Ward said. "The only way I know to explain what we did in those games is that his spirit was with us. Javon was one of the best athletes walking the halls at Tyner, and that's saying a lot. But set athletics aside and he was just a great kid. That's why I ask the same question every single day: Why him? With all the lives he was touching and going to touch, why him?
"I told the boys before the season, don't take this for granted. You know Javon would love to be here with you, so enjoy being a kid and do this for all the guys like Javon who can't be out there. Since then I don't have to keep reminding them. They know they all love Javon enough that they're going to keep playing hard for him. He's our 'why' for everything we do this season."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.