NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- Joe Bryant's entire path so far has led him back to one place- Norfolk. From childhood to college, the Mermaid City has been his home, but it hasn't always been easy.
"You've got to be tough," Bryant said. "You can't be [a] punk growing up in Norfolk, so I just took that with a grain of salt and here I am now."
He's here thanks to a few factors. The Norfolk State fifth-year guard credits his parents with keeping him going in the right direction. Basketball was something else that helped him do that.
"Sometimes when my friends [would] do the negative stuff, I just 'hey I'm not doing that. I'm going to the gym,'" he recalled.
Bryant made basketball his primary sport midway through high school at Lake Taylor, where he led the Titans to a state championship. For awhile, however, he hoped hoops would take him out of the city he always called home.
"My dream was to go to Duke or a school like that," he remembered. "I never thought I'd be here at Norfolk State."
During his recruitment, which was started by Spartans' assistant coach C.J. Clemons, Bryant caught the eye of NSU head coach Robert Jones.
"I felt like he had a good New York handle," recalled Jones. "A lot of times guys down further south, they're very athletic and sometimes very skilled, but it's not the same type of handle that up north players have and he had that."
The more the hometown star learned about Norfolk State, the more he liked it.
"The winning culture," Bryant said of what drew him to the Spartans. "I've been a part of winning all my life. As people know, I won a state championship at Lake Taylor and that just carried on to here."
All he's done for the green and gold is take them to new heights. The guard has led Norfolk State to back-to-back MEAC championships and pulled in conference Player of the Year honors in 2022. He always knew he had potential, but his achievements at the college level may have exceeded what he and Jones even expected.
"Him being player of the year, him basically leading us to the last two championships and trying to lead us to a third championship and all the accolades that he's gotten over the years, I can't say I saw that coming," Jones said.
"It just goes to the work I put in, on and off the court," noted Bryant. "The extra work after practice, before practice, the weight room sessions, just the extra grind I put in every day."
He gets to put in the grind and see it pay off in his own backyard, and his family and friends get to do the same.
"It definitely means a lot, just trying to give back to my community, the city that made me who I am today," the guard said. "It's definitely a blessing."
"He stayed home and now he's blossoming into probably the most decorated Division I player that we've had," added Jones.
Now it's time to put an exclamation point on his college career. Bryant hopes that his path will lead him to the pros, but no matter where it takes him next, he's left a winning legacy in green and gold.
"Sometimes you take a kid for granted while he's here because people see him so much that you don't really realize what he's done at Norfolk State," Jones pointed out. "He will be sorely missed when he's gone."
"I want to be known as one of the best that's ever come through Norfolk State," said Bryant. "By getting those titles, I should have that."
Conference title this year or not, it's probably safe to say he is.
Bryant leads Norfolk State with 17.5 points per game, which currently ranks third in the conference, and is tops on the team in assists and steals as well.
The Spartans are currently 16-7 on the season, 5-2 in the MEAC. They're back in action on Saturday at Maryland-Eastern Shore.
