EDINBURG — Trevelin Queen was 10 years old and in love with baseball, especially as a pitcher and shortstop (and No. 2 hitter in the lineup). On this particular day, however, he was playing basketball.
(Christian Inoferio | NBA G League)
“The kid’s parents were talking trash and my dad told me, ‘Don’t let him past half court,’” Queen said during a recent interview with The Monitor. “I ended up with like 20-25 steals. The poor little kid. I was energized, he couldn’t get past half court and the parents almost got into a fight. I was torching the kid.
“After that, I was like damn, this is fun. That kid, whatever he’s doing now, it’s not basketball. He’s probably in government.”
The story tells a lot about the passion the RGV Vipers guard has for life, family and basketball. But along with passion comes emotion. Oftentimes those two overlap.
In Queen’s case, he’s a work in progress when it comes dealing with the negative emotions. There’s no doubt, however, what drives him on a constant basis. Even when the emotions interrupt, the passion overcomes.
“Anything you see me do, I don’t do it for myself. It has always been for me, even for my friends,” he said. “I’m cool with having the bare minimum. I got here off the bare minimum. For me, I want to retire my parents — it’s something always bigger than me.”
Queen is fourth in the NBA G League in scoring at 23.1 points per game. He also leads the league in steals with 3.3 per game, no surprise there.
A Baltimore, Maryland native, Queen went undrafted in the 2020 NBA draft after leaving New Mexico State before signing a contract with the Houston Rockets in 2020. They waived him two weeks later, making him a free agent.
He then signed with the Lakers, but was waived two days later.
Then, on Dec. 18, 2021 he signed a two-way contract with the Houston Rockets, who sent him to play for the Vipers.
“In the bubble I was the 13th player off the bench,” Queen said about the G League 2021 season, shortened and played at the Walt Disney Resort near Orlando, Fla. “But my grandma always told me, ‘Keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.’ And so I do that for her. I want her and my family to be proud.”
Queen was never given a golden ticket for his trip to being a pro basketball player. He wasn’t given a ticket at all for a long time — he paid full price, sometimes more.
(Christian Inoferio | NBA G League)
As a child, he would go to the park with his dad and sometimes be playing against grown men. They would knock him down and his dad would dust him off and tell him to get back in there and don’t let them do that to him.
“Failure is part of life. It can be something small or something large — you miss a shot, have a bad play, or a bad quarter. He’s just got to continue learning to deal with those things,” Vipers head coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah said. “He was 4-for-18 shooting in one game and then said he was going to get others involved and almost had a triple-double. He played through that. He’s been unbelievable.”
He spent time homeless, living in his car and living in a retirement home before getting kicked out. It was during being homeless that he faced the seriousness of his situation.
“When I lost my grandparents, I couldn’t afford to go see them. I was homeless in California,” Queen said. “It made me question myself — do I still want to do this? Is it really worth it?
“There are a lot of biblical verses that my grandma taught me that I live by and will always go to when times are tough. When that happened, everything went downhill. It’s then I realized everything is so much bigger than me and I had to keep going — that’s where I find my motivation — my family.”
Queen could’ve given up. The road was looking too tough from the pit of despair, frustration and anger he found himself in. But that’s when his passion refused to dissipate and he used it to begin climbing once again.
“It would be so wrong for me to give up right there,” Queen said. “My grandma would be so upset with me if I had given up right there. I put her through so much. She always told me to remember someone is going through something worse. I could’ve been dead or in jail. I was still playing basketball and getting an education.”
“Everything he does from pre-game to in the locker room to watching film, he’s intense,” Abdelfattah said. “He wants to be successful and wants to be the best he can be. When he doesn’t live up to his standards, he feels like he’s letting others down and it frustrates him. It’s never toward anyone specific, he just wants to succeed.”
Queen added that his mother also taught him some valuable life lessons. He saw those lessons, and the multiple self-sacrifices she went through up close.
“With her work ethic, she would give me what I wanted and make sure I was happy,” he said. “She would do anything – leave work to pick me up at school because I got suspended, then go right back and have to worry about me all day. I was giving her anxiety. I wasn’t the best kid, but she would fight to make sure I was a happy and healthy kid and showed me the ropes to make sure no matter what, that you’re loved ones are happy.”
That’s exactly what the plan is for his future, wanting to retire at 35, settle down, and have a family — a big family. Obviously, his passion then will be all about them.
“I have four sisters and three brothers, all halves so I was the only child with my mom and dad but they are still my brothers and sisters,” Queen said. “I didn’t grow up with siblings around me. We weren’t in the same household so I missed fighting over stuff or racing to be the first one at the breakfast table.
“I want that for my family.”
