INDEPENDENCE — In a region of Ohio where it's not unusual to hear sports fans yelling "Dawg Check," Revere High School graduate Pete Nance is the perfect fit.
Whenever Nance isn't working on his professional basketball career with the Cavaliers organization as a member of the NBA G League's Cleveland Charge, he is often playing video games with friends online and hanging out with his dog, Leila, a 25-pound mixed breed who resembles a Basenji.
Nance loves dogs. While Nance grew up in Bath Township, his well-known family of basketball royalty owned many dogs — even seven at one time when he was in the age range of 10-12 years old.
"With that many dogs, it's just like a herd," Nance told the Beacon Journal last week during Charge media day. "You have some of the older ones that know exactly what they're doing. The new ones will just follow the pack, and it's just like a pack mentality. It's pretty easy to train new dogs when you have three or four dogs that know the system."
Knowing the system is vital for Nance right now, too. A 6-foot-11 forward, Nance said he has benefited from the knowledge he gained in July while winning a championship with the Cavs Summer League team .
With several Summer League players on the roster, the Charge will open their season at 7 p.m. Friday against the Wisconsin Herd at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland.
It will represent a new chapter in Nance's hoops journey.
"With Pete, you see a lot of versatility," Charge coach Mike Gerrity said. "He can step out and he can shoot the 3-point shot. He's tall enough and athletic enough to where he can mix in his rolls and his pops.
"On the defensive end, I think the evolution of him is that he becomes a guy that can switch onto multiple positions and guard, and I think we saw that in Summer League with him. That will be something we see more of this year, but also with his athleticism, he protects the paint really well.
"He has the right approach and the mentality of wanting to just keep getting better and growing, and he understands that this isn't just something that's just going to happen right away. He knows that this is a process, and I think if he keeps approaching it the way he does, he'll ultimately get where he needs to go."
Nance isn't eager to publicly detail his grand vision for pro hoops. His father, Larry Nance Sr. , played 14 NBA seasons, made three All-Star teams and became a Cavs legend in the late 1980s and early '90s. His older brother, New Orleans Pelicans center and power forward Larry Nance Jr. , another Revere graduate and former Cavs player, is in the early stages of his ninth NBA season.
Pete Nance, 23, said such a lengthy NBA career "might not happen for me," but he'll be satisfied if he gives it his best shot. He went undrafted this past summer after playing four seasons at Northwestern University and one at the University of North Carolina. A silver lining of not being picked is he signed with his hometown Cavs , so he has a rare opportunity to begin a pro career in his old stomping grounds.
"Having the extreme comfort of family and friends right where I grew up, being able to do that here, I got super lucky," Nance said. "So I just feel really grateful for that and just really happy to be back home."
Nance said he'll wear No. 11 on his Charge jersey instead of the No. 22 his dad donned with the Cavs because he wants to blaze his own trail in Cleveland. He explained he's thankful to be part of a family with such a strong hoops tradition — older sister, Casey, starred at Revere before her brothers and then played at the University of Dayton — but inherent pressure comes with the territory.
Whenever Nance would walk into a gym, even as early as fifth grade, he could sense lofty expectations because of his surname.
Perhaps those kind of experiences have shaped Nance's personality. Charge guard Sharife Cooper noted Nance is "a sarcastically funny kind of guy" who he enjoys having around.
"The pressure that I deal with and stuff like that ... I don't always feel like a lot of people can understand it," Nance said. "So instead of trying to talk about it with people, I think [I try to] keep it light and just have a good time for the most part."
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Nance graduated from Northwestern with a degree in radio, television and film before transferring to UNC. He said becoming an analyst in sports media would be "a natural progression" when his playing days end.
For now, though, Nance is eager to push himself to develop as a player. He may eventually use his platform as a pro athlete to raise awareness about his passion for animal rescue. He learned about another type of "dog check" when he adopted Leila in the spring of 2022.
"There are so many dogs out there that are looking for homes and that are being fostered and that are in shelters that only have so long before they have to do whatever," Nance said. "That's something that definitely means a lot to me because I know how special those dogs can be because I have one of them."
Spoken like a true Northeast Ohioan.
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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Revere grad Pete Nance starts NBA G League career on Cleveland Charge
