ABRUPT ENDING
After putting NJIT on the map, a cruel twist of fate
DA MON Ly n n never missed a game. It wasn’t a concern. There was no pain he hadn’t been able to play through.
As a sophomore at NJIT, he suffered a stress fracture in his foot and missed two months of practices, but he removed his walking boot before every game and played upwards of 40 minutes each time.
“That was pretty amazing to watch him do that,” said coach Brian Kennedy, who was a NJIT assistant at the time. “He’d go through therapy to get himself ready for the game and he’d come out and perform at a high level. Even when he got injured, he just played on. He’s a tough kid.”
It made the opening minutes of the Highlanders’ game against Florida Gulf Coast on Jan. 21 even harder to process.
When Lynn slowly left the court, he uttered the words no one was prepared to hear.
“He came hobbling off and said, ‘Coach, I’m done,’ ” Kennedy recalled. Just like that, the senior’s collegiate career had ended. Lynn had ruptured his Achilles tendon and he underwent surgery shortly afterward.
The lightly recruited guard had achieved just about everything imaginable at NJIT, a program that inspired little imagination when the New Jersey native joined the only independent team in the country, now a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Lynn, the leading scorer in NJIT history, was the country’s active leader in points at the time of his injury. He finishes his career ranking fifth in NCAA history in 3-pointers made (434), and was on pace to pass J.J. Redick for second on the all-time list.
“I feel like everybody goes through some type of obstacle to get where they want to be and I feel like this is my obstacle,” Lynn said. “I’m really not trying to dwell on it … no regrets. That’s the No. 1 goal, never regret anything. I left it all out there on the court. I can’t be mad.”
Coming to a program which had joined Division I just four years prior to his arrival, Lynn earned an immediate opportunity and was a star from his very first game, leading the team with 17.2 points as a freshman. The team that once endured a 51-game losing streak went 63-53 with Lynn in the lineup, achieving consecutive seasons with at least 20 wins and back-to-back CIT semifinals appearances.
On Dec. 6, 2014, Lynn hit six 3-pointers in an all-time upset at No. 17 Michigan, introducing the Highlanders the nation. He was named an AP All-American honorable mention.
Last season, the 5-foot-11 guard played in a conference tournament for the first time, having previously been denied the opportunity while playing on the nation’s only team without a league. Now, even crueler circumstances stand in Lynn’s way of cutting a net.
“He had done so much by coming there and with some of the things that he was able to accomplish, I just felt like that he was that one kid who deserved to have the story completed the right way,” former NJIT coach Jim Engles said. “He put in so much work and was so committed. He really was the force behind everything changing there. I know there were a lot of other things he wanted to accomplish this year.
“He may not go out with a banner hanging — there are a couple CIT banners — but the legacy he was able to leave there is something that I think people don’t realize. He really put that place on the map. He was really able to take what the guys had done before him and take that to another level and that’s why we got into a conference and that’s why they got a new building.”
Though Lynn will need crutches to get around campus for the next few weeks, he’s still attending practices and home games, noting his teamfirst beliefs didn’t end with his injury. For now, he tries to motivate his teammates, who have lost four straight games since he went down.
He attends classes, and is on track to graduate this spring. He looks forward to rehab, and is expected to fully recover in four to six months.
He waits for the next time he can put on a jersey.
“Obviously he was devastated at first, but he’s a little at peace with the injury and moving forward,” Kennedy said. “He feels good about everything right now, just looking forward to moving on to the next chapter of his life.
“He wants to give professional basketball his best shot. People always say, ‘What do you think? Is he too small? Is he too this or that?’ I have no idea where Damon Lynn can end up with his basketball career professionally, but I would never count him out.”