You learn quickly in sports to never reveal a game plan, so when Dante Cunningham discusses a recent trip he took with a friend to Venice, La., he’s a bit tight-lipped.
“I’m not going to tell you exactly the spot where he took me,” a smiling Cunningham said of his fishing buddy’s secret angling location. “But literally we dropped a line 100 feet down into the water, and as soon as the line hit the bottom, we were catching (redfish). Then later I had two sharks on my line. I got blisters on my hands from reeling for so long; I’ve never had a red that fought so hard. I also got two – I think they’re called ‘nurse’ sharks – which are about three or four feet long. You only kill what you eat, so after I reeled in the sharks, I took a couple pictures with them, then sent them back in the water.”
If Cunningham’s story sounds fairly unique for an NBA player, that’s probably because it is. But the New Orleans combo forward actually has plenty of similar stories from the three-plus years he’s spent in Louisiana since joining the Pelicans. A native of the Washington, D.C., area, his affinity for fishing, hunting and other outdoor pursuits began as a kid, when he joined his father on many excursions to fish or go crabbing on Solomons Island, located in southern Maryland.
“If my dad and I weren’t in the garage under a car,” said the 6-foot-8 Cunningham, who is also an auto aficionado, “we always went there. We started out literally in a tent fishing, getting our own food to eat. As I got older, we stepped into cabins and would bring (some) food. We always went camping and had our father-son time bonding.”
Now 29, he describes his love of the outdoors as a way to relax and briefly get away mentally from the busy, sometimes-stressful environment of city life or his eight-year career as a professional athlete.
“The area where I grew up, D.C., was always very busy, full of people,” Cunningham explained. “I just wanted to branch out and have my own space, and I noticed that there were other places that give me that opportunity.
“Obviously (as a player) you love basketball and love doing it, but at the same time it is a hectic thing. You are always moving, always traveling, always here and there. The best thing about fishing is it’s just you and the atmosphere, you and Mother Nature. You’re looking for signs of fish; you’re not necessarily worrying about what you have to do next (in your daily life) or what’s going on. You have all day to sit there and relax and catch fish.”
A second-round draft pick in 2009, Cunningham has told rookie teammates that it’s important to find something away from basketball during the season, a pursuit that serves as a productive way to spend time. For Cunningham, that means getting outside as much as possible.
“Try to find hobbies and activities that allow you to relax – you don’t need to necessarily take your work home,” the Villanova product tells first-year pros. “You obviously have to watch film and some things behind the scenes that no one gets to see, but at the same time you have to have a hobby, something that clears your mind.”
Cunningham enjoys fishing so much that on many Pelicans off days, he rises at 5 or 6 a.m. to make sure he’s on a boat at peak time.
“I get up early so I’ll be on the water first,” Cunningham said, in the proud manner of a dedicated fisherman. “I can sleep later. If you get out there at noon, the fish are already asleep by then.”
Louisiana, Sportsman’s Paradise
Several versions of the license plates issued by the state of Louisiana include the description “Sportsman’s Paradise.” For Cunningham, that’s an apt description of what he’s found since signing with New Orleans, the team he’s played for longest in the NBA.
“It’s all plusses here,” Cunningham said of the range of opportunities available to an outdoorsman. “I’ve been shrimping here, I’ve been hunting for pigs, I’ve fished. Everything I love to do outdoors-wise is here. It has great weather and great timing for everything. If I have an off day, I make a couple calls and I’m out there all the time.”
His NBA teammates have often taken notice and shown curiosity about Cunningham’s hobbies, including in Minnesota, where he even tried a different, frigid type of fishing for the first time.
“I’ve always been the wildlife guy on my teams, just wanting to be outdoors. I did ice fishing on a lake in Minnesota,” he said, before smiling. “Now, I don’t ever want to do that again, but anything outdoors, I want to at least try one time to say I did it.
“I have a lot of teammates who ask about it. They say, ‘Man, you do a lot of stuff with your free time.’ ”
In October, Cunningham gave Pelicans training-camp invitee Shawn Dawson quite the eye-opening experience when he brought the guard along on a pig-hunting trip. Dawson, a native of Israel, had never seen an animal gutted and cleaned, as Cunningham did with a pig.
“He was like, ‘What are you doing!?’ ” Cunningham said of Dawson’s wide-eyed, stunned reaction. “But he just watched, didn’t touch anything.”
Cunningham also has captained a shrimp boat, helping two friends catch the popular local seafood.
“They had me out with them, and I have no idea what’s going on (in terms of the specific method to catch shrimp), but I know how to drive a boat,” Cunningham recalled. “So I essentially just drive the boat, steer as they drop nets and buoys, pulling up shrimp by the bundle, probably 20 or 30 pounds at a time in each net.”
In addition to the relaxation the outdoor activities brings him, Cunningham said one of the most fun aspects of being a Louisiana angler and hunter is the connections with locals he’s made.
“The community here, the people here have been so great to me,” he said. “They are so open and willing to show you their hunting holes and their best spots.
“It’s a great feeling, because they’re not necessarily looking at you as Dante Cunningham the basketball player. They’re looking at you just as the fisherman or just as a person. It’s great to get away and kind of let your guard down in that sense. It’s hard sometimes to just walk out and let people know and fans know that you like to do everyday things.”
A fitting example of that came on a recent fishing trip, when one of Cunningham’s Louisiana friends introduced him to another avid angler. The new acquaintance initially had no idea about Cunningham’s profession-in-the-spotlight, was impressed after being informed of it, but then decided to get right back down to business.
“We started talking and he goes, ‘So, what do you do for a living?’ ” Cunningham recalls, smiling at the memory. “I said, ‘Well, I play basketball.’
“He was like, ‘No way! That’s awesome! OK, now gut this fish.’ ”