Duke’s Dereck Lively II, a Westtown graduate, has risen into national stardom. His mother steered that path.

There’s one coach Dereck Lively II recalls as his toughest. It’s the first coach he ever had, the one who introduced him to the game and watched the Westtown School graduate become a national star.

Lively’s mom, Kathy Drysdale, has been on the sidelines since her son’s first travel basketball game. She served as coach when he played on the Doug West D-Fenders, an AAU team based out of Altoona, Pa., in the sixth grade.

“As soon as you step foot inside the gym, she’s Coach,” Lively told The Inquirer on Tuesday. “She’s thrown me out of the gym before. The only coach to throw me out of the gym.”

During one practice, Lively missed a free throw during a shooting drill. Drysdale firmly said to her son, “On the line.” He didn’t listen.

“I was like, ‘Come on, Mom,’” Lively said. “Five seconds later, I found myself standing outside of the facility in my basketball shoes, in the concrete with the car door locked.”

It was the first lesson Drysdale, who played a year in Germany and scored 1,000 points at Penn State, taught her son. He had to respect everything, she said. That moment stuck with him, because it marked the beginning of their basketball journey together.

Drysdale’s mentorship steered the direction for her son, and it wasn’t easy as a single parent after Lively’s father died. Lively, now a 7-foot-1 center, hopes to return the favor at Thursday’s NBA draft. After one year at Duke, the No. 1 high school recruit in the class of 2022 will be in the Barclays Center green room, his NBA dreams and a chance to become a first-round lottery pick right in front of him.

“She’s the reason why I play basketball,” Lively said. “I play basketball to try to give her the easiest life possible, so she doesn’t have to worry about anything. I’m trying to do that in full effect.

“We’ve had each other through the worst, we’ve had each other through the best … I’m very fortunate enough to see my name being talked about more and more, so I’m just excited to see where that goes, and I’m just excited to see what I can do for my mom.”

Lively moved to Bellefonte, Pa., from Philadelphia at age 7. Drysdale, a former Sixers employee in game operations, landed a job as a marketing manager at Penn State, where she still works.

After a few months living in the area, the family endured a traumatic loss. Lively’s dad, Dereck, died on Jan. 5, 2012, of a drug overdose. Drysdale said he struggled with addiction, and was in and out of rehab.

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Lively, who was five weeks away from turning 8 years old, didn’t fully understand what happened in the moment, but he asked more questions as he got older.

“As a parent, you want them to have both sides, Mom and Dad,” Drysdale said. “His dad was there and present with us. There was a lot of love there. But his father had to deal with some demons, unfortunately, that got the best of him.

“When he asked questions, I answered them, and I answered them honestly. There was no point in me hiding anything. He has the right to know, and what you need to know could help you stay on the right path at the same time.”

Philadelphia holds a special place in Lively’s heart. His dad grew up in West Philly, and played two years of football at Temple before going to culinary school. Lively took Philly as his hometown when he went off to Duke. And he later inked the inside of his arm with his dad’s date of birth and passing.

Drysdale was tasked with serving as two parents for her son, and she was determined to do everything in her power to make sure Lively felt fully loved.

And in 2014, they faced another heart-wrenching barrier. Drysdale was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and is now in remission after a long battle. Even with Lively’s concern, Drysdale told him, “nothing is changing.”

It wasn’t like her to dwell in pity asking, “Why me?” She wanted to ensure that her son felt the same way. Lively leaned on basketball as an escape.

“She’s always helped me when it came to things that were even outside of the wheelbarrow,” Lively said. “She’s always had to be a mom or dad or a coach. She’s got to be so many things and I’m just so grateful for her.”

As Lively got older, he got taller… and taller. His mom thought, “Oh Lord, he’s a really tall dude.”

Drysdale wanted to start giving her son more exposure to basketball outside the Bellefonte area, so she signed him up for a HoopGroup event in Stroudsburg, Pa.

It was the first time Lively’s name gained traction, but it wouldn’t be the last.

“He just did really well. They wrote about him all the time,” Drysdale said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Watch out for this kid. He’s from Bellefonte; he’s doing all this, and he’s this tall.’ It just kind of grew from there.”

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Team Final coach Nate Hodge was also intrigued by Lively’s performance. One day, he called Drysdale asking if Lively wanted to play on the Nike EYBL team. She wondered how this would work while they lived in Central Pennsylvania.

Drysdale had a sitdown with her son to make sure this was what he wanted, and explained the commitment it would take from them both. Lively wanted to give it a try, and Drysdale made it happen.

As a member of Team Final, Lively played with Jalen Duren, a Roman Catholic forward who was drafted in the first round in 2022 and plays for the Detroit Pistons. The AAU team advanced to the finals during the summer of Lively’s eighth-grade year, though he wasn’t seeing a ton of minutes.

At the end of the game, Drysdale, feeling a bit frustrated that her son didn’t have much court time, was approached by Hodge. “I love your son,” he said.

“He said, ‘I was going to put him in the second half of the game, but he looked at me, like, ‘No, Coach, I’m good, we’re winning and they’re playing well. I will cheer as loud as I can from the bench,’” Drysdale recalled. “For a kid that young to say that, he’s truly a team player.”

Lively was patient and focused. He knew his time would come, and that he needed to work for it. Eventually, it came to fruition.

Lively was looked at by a number of Philadelphia high schools.

First, Lively and Drysdale considered the Catholic League, but that meant Lively would have to live with another family in the area, which was a wrinkle he wasn’t thrilled about at the time. Then Westtown came in the mix.

Head coach Seth Berger knew Lively had potential but the young player wasn’t sold after taking a tour of the campus. He wanted to stay home at Bellefonte. He didn’t want to leave his friends for a boarding school three hours away.

Drysdale, though, understood her son would likely have to go to Westtown if he wanted to take his basketball future to the next level.

Soon after that trip, she found We Town, a documentary on Amazon, which follows the story of Mo Bamba, Cam Reddish, and a Westtown starting five that is considered one of the best in high school basketball history.

“I was blown away, like, ‘Wow, it was realistic,’” Drysdale said of Westtown and Berger. “Sometimes we need to get into a kid’s face and you’re not being very nice about it, and that was shown. He called them out and held them all accountable.

“I was like, ‘My kid has got to go to this school.’ So we were talking about it, and I was like, ‘Listen, before you make any decisions, I want you to watch this.’ I sat him down at the kitchen table and I played it for him.”

Drysdale left the room and went off to do chores around the house. Lively sat there and watched the film three times. He came to terms with going to Westtown.

Life at Westtown was a slow-developing process for Lively. He dealt with an injury his freshman year and didn’t play. In his sophomore and junior years, he started to find his footing, but Drysdale said she truly saw an improvement the summer of his senior year.

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That spring was when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, sending Lively back to Bellefonte to finish school online and shutting down the remainder of his high school basketball season. But every day Lively went to a local YMCA and worked out with his mom.

He put on weight and added more muscle. His mom also wanted him to become a three-dimensional player, so they worked on his outside shot.

“Once he went back to school, I go to his home opener and I didn’t recognize him,” Drysdale said. “He grew up before my eyes. It’s crazy; different hairstyle, he was bigger. I saw a whole new person. He had a different mindset.”

Lively averaged 14 points, 14 rebounds, and 4.5 blocks to lead the Moose to the PAISAA state championship his senior year. He held offers from Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas — known as the “blue bloods” of elite college basketball programs. He was also named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year and a McDonald’s All American, capping a remarkable high school career.

Before Lively went off to Duke, he and Drysdale had a conversation about his goals in basketball. He said he wanted to play in the NBA — and stay in the league.

He also discussed with his mom that he was going to declare for the draft after one year with the Blue Devils. He knew a professional career was what he wanted, and Drysdale fully supported it.

“Going to the NBA and staying in the NBA are two different things,” Drysdale said. “I thought that was a very mature answer, but it didn’t surprise me. He had to grow up a lot quicker than most kids because of everything that he’s been through.”

These past few months have been surreal for Lively. He finished his freshman year of college and competed in his pro day and at the NBA combine. And though he has been focused on his training, he makes time each day for a FaceTime call with his mom.

“We just have these pinch-me moments,” Drysdale said. “Like, ‘Are you good, can you believe where you are right now?’ He goes, ‘No, Mom, I can’t.’ He’s earned it ... He knows I am there supporting him and I love him. I’ve been doing that for years. I don’t know any other way.”

Lively’s mom taught him humility. Those values, he said, have served as the biggest contribution to his success.

“My mom has taught me just how to be somebody who you could talk to,” Lively said. “He’s going to shake your hand, look you in the eyes, he’s going to make sure that he’s not just viewed as a dumb jock. He’s not viewed as arrogant. He’s not viewed as egotistical. He’s a good kid.”