Faith in the Center
An interview with Luke Kornet, an NBA player and Knight of Columbus, about how his love of God and family elevates his game
12/1/2023
Luke Kornet is all about verticality. At 7 feet, 1 inch, the towering 28-year-old center for the Boston Celtics is among the 10 tallest players in the NBA this season. He is also one of the most savvy and creative.
For example, the “Kornet Contest” is a maneuver he invented to a block a shooter’s view of the rim by leaping skyward with arms outstretched, from as far as 20 feet away. The tactic seemed ridiculous at first — until the percentage of missed shots proved otherwise.
“It can look really dumb,” Kornet admitted, “but it seems to be pretty effective.”
Now other NBA bigs routinely use the move.
Off the court, Kornet made a leap of a different sort a few years ago: Struggling through potentially career-ending injuries as he played for the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls, he made a profound religious commitment to put Christ and his family first in his life.
“My order of priority is God, then spouse, then children, and then work and everything else,” Kornet said.
It was during his vertical realignment with God that he joined the Knights of Columbus, becoming a member of St. John XXIII-St. John Paul II Council 15771 in Chicago. Shortly before starting his third season with the Celtics, Kornet spoke with Columbia about the joys and challenges of being a committed Catholic husband, father of two and professional athlete.
COLUMBIA: Can you describe your journey into professional basketball and the role your faith played in it?
LUKE KORNET: My dad was a professional basketball player, and my older siblings and I all played basketball growing up. In my senior year of high school, I accepted a scholarship to play at Vanderbilt University, where my parents had gone. God kind of laid that out for me; it was quite a blessing.
But the first two years of college were especially challenging. For one, I came from this great Christian school where I had a lot of close friends and faith was culturally reinforced. At Vanderbilt, I still always went to Mass on Sundays and had a very firm Catholic identity, but not having that support around was quite difficult. I ended up meeting some great friends and other Catholic athletes, including my future wife, Tierney, who was in track, and we had a pretty good community by the time we were juniors or so.
As for basketball, it was a complete change because I had been playing just for fun up until then. The thought of playing professionally wasn’t even in my mind until after my sophomore year, when I felt, “Oh, I could really do this.” But then basketball became an identity-consuming thing for me in college; it was very difficult to find a balance. For example, we had games on Saturdays, and I remember a lot of times during Sunday Mass being consumed thinking about the game.
I then had some injuries that set me back, which in retrospect were a gift because, especially at that time, the pressure was a lot for me to handle. So I’m glad that I had all four years at Vanderbilt to grow and keep getting incrementally better.
COLUMBIA: What was the start of your NBA career like? What were some of the ups and downs that you faced?
LUKE KORNET: After my senior year in 2017, I was not drafted but signed a contract with the New York Knicks where I split time between the NBA and the G League, followed by a regular contract the following year. I basically had a year and a half where it was all going well.
But then in December 2018, I got hit in the face in a game and broke my nose. It didn’t really seem like anything, and I played throughout the rest of the season. But I started noticing that my body movements weren’t really natural. I ended up signing with the Chicago Bulls that summer, not realizing that this break was affecting my body — and my shooting. I had spent my whole life primarily as a 3-point shooter, which was the main source of my confidence and identity as a basketball player. And then I couldn’t shoot anymore. As 2019 went on, it became embarrassing to shoot in front of people, because I really didn’t know what was going to happen.
Then I hurt my ankle, and for at least a year I was playing on an ankle that wasn’t functioning properly. So this was a very difficult and challenging time. It led me to face a lot of spiritual and personal things that had been pushed to the back burner. I was just so consumed with riding this career wave that when it all cratered, there was a moment of having to be honest with myself: “What if this is all my worth, and it’s gone?”
With this came a profound sense of loneliness. But Christ actually met me in that and healed a lot of things for me and helped set that hierarchy of faith, wife, children, and then career and work, which for a lot of my life had been inverted.
COLUMBIA: Did Christ help you through any particular people or circumstances?
LUKE KORNET: I don’t know how I would have been able to survive any of this without my wife, Tierney — we got engaged in June 2018 and married in August 2019. Her love was really a testament to Christ through that time. To have someone who loves me and wants the best for me by my side was such a gift and such a grace. She really helped me realize what it was I needed to realize.
Another big part of this was doing Exodus 90, a 90-day program of prayer, asceticism and fraternity. My brother-in-law, who was becoming a Dominican, and a couple of my friends and I formed a group in January 2020, and that experience was probably the most transformative period in my life. It was a rich time of going through the desert and meeting God, a time of tilling that allowed a lot of good seeds to be planted in my heart.
For example, I found that praying the sorrowful mysteries, like the crowning with thorns, became really significant for me in the context of my injuries and the resulting humiliations I experienced. The carrying of the cross was also very significant, for Christ shows us how to take on our sufferings, accept them and walk with them, versus trying to run from them. It really became very comforting to know, “Yeah, I can accept what God has placed in my life.” And that brings a lot of peace.
COLUMBIA: How has your approach to your basketball career changed?
LUKE KORNET: When we had our first child in March 2021, my wife and I spent a lot of time talking, especially as I was out of the NBA, in the G League, and trying to find my way back. And we agreed that I had to accept that I don’t have to say yes to every single opportunity, that I need to be willing to say no for the sake of my family. When that happened, I became a lot more free, participating in this job and actively choosing to do it, instead of being a slave to it.
And then I got traded to the Celtics. And last year, I played the most minutes that I have played in any year of my career, and I got to contribute to a winning team.
In a weird way, those injuries made me a better player and a better teammate. Though I still work to try to shoot at the level I once did, I really do play a lot more joyfully now. I care about my team, and we can give glory to God in our pursuit of an NBA championship. But our hearts are made for a whole lot more. This can’t be my god, the No. 1 thing.
What really matters is the family God has entrusted to me. My order of priority is God, then spouse, then children, and then work and everything else. If I don’t love God well, I can’t love my wife well. If I don’t love my wife well, then I can’t love our kids well, and if I don’t love all of them well, then I can’t do my work well.
COLUMBIA: Has your faith helped you handle the challenges of being away from your family when you’re on the road?
LUKE KORNET: That has been a pretty significant part of our marriage, especially after we had our first child. I got traded from Chicago to Boston when our daughter was two or three weeks old, and my wife couldn’t travel. So we had to be apart for the last two or three months of the season. That definitely made us ask, “Is this worth doing?”
Honestly, I don’t think it was until this past year that we were able to learn how to come a lot closer together through the Mass when I was away. Going to Mass on the road and staying close to Christ through the sacraments, I’m able to offer my life and work to God and for them. And when I come home, I’m able to fully give of myself.
I think we feel united in a way that we hadn’t before. That was very much a gift of daily Mass and just realizing the Catholic Church is universal. So wherever we go, we all remain united in this body of Christ together.
COLUMBIA: What inspired you to join the Knights of Columbus?
LUKE KORNET: It was during that time in Chicago when I was really struggling. There was a church that we attended literally a block from where we lived. And there’s one man there, Dan Stolze, who’s very direct and inviting and loving. He was always asking me about joining, and his joyful persistence eventually led me to say yes in August 2020, and then to participate in some of the council’s events.
It’s very difficult to be an active member with how much I’m on the road and other things. But I feel it is very necessary, especially in this time, to feel bonded and yoked with other men wanting to serve God and their communities and to strengthen each other.
A lot of times, we have this desire to serve, but we don’t really know where to start. The Knights provides a great place for us to focus that effort and energy. Having men from all different walks of life unified under the cause of Christ and serving their community is a unique thing.