​Nick Boyd’s career has followed a repeating refrain, five words spoken at every major stop along the way: the work is just starting. He shared that line with St. Mary High School basketball coach Brian Gaccione before taking a gap year in Indiana, and he echoed it again after committing to Florida Atlantic University out of high school. He carried that same mindset through his time at San Diego State and Wisconsin as he completed his college eligibility, and now, as an undrafted player entering the NBA, he’s leaning into the same message with the Golden State Warriors.
The phrase has become a mantra for a player whose path has been defined by resilience and persistence. Boyd, a 6-foot-3 guard, finished his standout college season with Wisconsin this past year, averaging 20.7 points, 4.3 assists, and 3.8 rebounds to earn a spot on the All-Big Ten second team. Yet despite that strong stat line, NBA teams chose not to select him in the 2026 draft, adding another chapter to a career trajectory that has thrived on momentum built from underdog status.
“I think he’s proved people wrong at every level, and this is his last stop to prove people wrong as well,” Gaccione told NorthJersey.com. “It’s his dream to play in the NBA, and when you see a kid this close, you’re rooting for him. The whole St. Mary community is rooting for him.”
Boyd’s underdog story began long before college. He started high school at Don Bosco, but his playing time scarcely blossomed there, pushing him to transfer for his junior year to St. Mary. An injury in that crucial recruiting period cut his season short, keeping him from gaining high-profile Division I attention out of high school. With that setback, he drew interest from some Division II programs, yet Boyd refused to settle for what others perceived him to be. He believed in his potential and chose a path less traveled.
To pursue that potential, Boyd took a gap year at Bosco Institute in Indiana. It was during that year that scouts and coaches began to recognize his true ability, seeing beyond the early limitations that had shadowed his recruitment. After adopting that broader view of his potential, he committed to Florida Atlantic University and spent three seasons with the Owls. Yet his ambitions remained larger than the Atlantic coast, guiding him first to San Diego State in 2024 and then to Wisconsin in his final college season, where he finally found a system that amplified his strengths.
Wisconsin leaned into an open ball screen offense, a scheme that complemented Boyd’s skill set and his talent for playing with the ball in his hands. Gaccione has noted that Boyd’s best moments come when the ball is in his control, a carryover observation from his high school days when defenders could predict his drives, but he still found a way to go left and score. At St. Mary, that signature move—going left—became a predictable, almost inevitable path to the basket, one that Boyd executed to lead New Jersey in scoring his senior year with 747 points.
As Boyd transitions to the NBA with the Warriors, the refrain of “the work is just starting” feels especially apt. It signals a readiness to embrace the grind, to prove doubters wrong once again, and to chase the dream with the same relentless mindset he’s shown since his earliest days as a player. His journey from Don Bosco to St. Mary, from the gap year in Indiana to FAU, SDSU, and Wisconsin, and now to professional basketball, has been built on that single, persistent mantra. In that sense, the work truly does begin anew for Boyd, and his story continues to unfold with every new stop along the way.