delusional confidence

But for a camp* that included Durant, Stephen Curry and LeBron James, his biggest lesson came from someone six years younger than him.

“Delusional confidence is the greatest thing. I learned that last year and I saw that with Anthony Edwards,” Hayes-Davis said. “He is the walking embodiment of delusional confidence.”

That’s something he carries now he wish he had before. When speaking on that, Hayes-Davis sprinkled in some great advice you should take on yourself into whatever you’re trying to achieve, whether it’s as big as trying to get back to the NBA or not.

“That’s the one thing I would tell to younger Nigel, is delusional confidence will take you a long way in this life, whatever avenue of life you want to do,” Hayes-Davis said. “Having that will set you up to avoid doubt in yourself, it will set you up from making bad decisions, it will set you up from feeling too high or too low about yourself, it will set you up to not worry about when things go wrong, because they do go wrong. But with that, it will keep you on track.”

Kellan Olson

"Nigel Hayes-Davis back in NBA as a completely new player with Suns," Arizona Sports. September 28, 2025

*Nigel was invited to be one of the practice players working with Team USA as they prepared for the 2024 Summer Olympics