CHRIS Matthews has trained Drake, Future, and Mark Cuban since becoming the go-to shooting specialist for NBA superstars — known to millions of basketball fans as Lethal Shooter.
But as his fandom grows, Matthews wants the world to learn the full story behind his success. “[People] don’t know about all of the failure that I’ve had in my life that lead to where I am right now,” he tells The U.S. Sun.
Matthews, 37, has coached numerous basketball stars, including Anthony Davis, Domantas Sabonis, and Candace Parker.
He’s collaborated with the biggest sports brands in the world, including Jordan Brand and Red Bull, allowing him to become the first non-player to have a signature shoe and the only person to have ever shot around the pyramids in Egypt.
He’s also featured in the NBA2K video game and a scene with LeBron James in Netflix’s Hustle.
Above all, Matthews has been gifted with a tremendous talent to shoot the ball, which let him break numerous records during his college career.
But the highs wouldn’t have been possible without the many low lows he’s suffered — and the determination he showed in trying times.
“I embrace the failure,” Matthews says.
A career in the NBA seemed like destiny for the DC native.
After picking up basketball at the age of eight, he hooped alongside future two-time MVP Kevin Durant in high school.
In college, Matthews thrived after transferring from Washington State to St. Bonaventure ahead of his junior year, becoming the fastest player in school history to make 100 threes and did so in just 36 games.
He left the Bonnies as the all-time record holder in 3-pointers made in a single game as well as a single season.
But his NBA dreams started to look bleak when no team picked him in the 2010 NBA Draft, sending him abroad in search of the opportunity to play pro basketball.
Injuries later ended those dreams once and for all — with the scariest condition, a collapsed lung, affecting him to this day, he says.
“I can’t really push my lungs the way I really wanna push,” Lethal Shooter says.
“Sometimes it is hard for me to still catch my breath from an injury that happened freaking 10 years ago.”
That lung issue also led to a life-altering epiphany.
Matthews had already been volunteering as a coach at various schools and colleges but had yet to realize it was his true calling.
“I had to just look myself in the mirror and say, ’You’re playing days are over. Like, really give this coaching thing a hundred percent,’” he says.
Crucially, as the realization struck, he thought to himself: “You can still affect the game.”
And that’s how his Art of Shooting came to life.
Matthews fully committed to the new career path — so much so it made him de facto homeless.
“But I was homeless by choice,” Lethal Shooter points out, “because I was chasing the goal.”
Instead of moving to North Carolina with his mom, Matthews stayed in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area and stuck with his goal, refusing to look for a regular job despite holding a college degree.
“The infrastructure that I was looking for as a trainer was not as strong [in North Carolina] as it was in the DMV area,” Lethal Shooter says.
“So I was hopping from couch to couch. … I knew my future had something coming, so I just stayed in the moment.”
Eventually, his friend Patrick Robinson of Pat the Roc basketball academy offered him a spot on the coaching team and lent him money to rent a room in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Matthews’ big break came just a few months later when friend and former New York Knicks and Washington Wizards center Kevin Seraphin asked if they could work on his jump shot together.
Soon after, then-Atlanta Hawks star Dwight Howard called to practice free throw shooting, the biggest blemish on the three-time former No. 1 pick’s offense.
The word of Lethal Shooter’s craft started spreading, partly thanks to his shrewd usage of social media that’s allowed him to garner over two million followers on Instagram.
Still, Matthews recalls, it would take a while before his lack of NBA experience ceased to cast doubt over his credentials — with some wondering why he hadn’t made it at the top if he was as good as he claimed to be.
“Everybody doesn’t make it to the NBA,” Matthews says. “But the difference is when I didn’t make it, I kept going. You’re not gonna be successful with everything.
“So when I was getting that backlash, it really didn’t bother me.
“But it gave me a more of a drive to be the trainer I am — and I still have that edge to this day.”
That drive manifests itself in Lethal Shooter’s meticulous approach to coaching.
Matthews says he watches footage of NBA players who struggle with shooting and takes notes, just in case they reach out one day.
“I’m never not prepared,” Matthews says.
He then identifies a person’s shooting weaknesses and aggressively attacks them in training, making each client’s session tailored to their needs — be it a celebrity or an NBA star.
“Everybody’s training is for that particular person,” Matthews says.
“If I’m training Drake, I can’t train him the same way I train Grayson Allen.
“If I go train Kentavious Caldwell-Pope a certain way, I can’t go train Cole Anthony the same way, because one has a 40-inch vertical and one doesn’t have the 40-inch vertical.”
Matthews says his social media videos don’t show how strict and nuanced his training regime is, which sometimes catches clients by surprise.
Earlier in March, Bad Bunny flew Lethal Shooter out to Puerto Rico to train his basketball team, the Cangrejeros de Santurce, leaving its executives so impressed they wanted to keep him as a coach.
But the Art of Shooting has already left an indelible mark on professional basketball in the country.
Matthews says he worked with a third of the Los Angeles Lakers roster when they won the title in 2020 before Bobby Portis, his other client, helped the Milwaukee Bucks claim the championship the following year.
Grant Williams nearly made it three out of three last year, but his Boston Celtics fell to the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals.
Still, Williams improved his outside shooting numbers by four percentage points to 41.1% in 2021-22, ranking in the top 20 among NBA players with the best 3-point percentage.
Meanwhile, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a long-time client of Matthews, is shooting lights out from downtown this year (43.3%) — a top-five rate.
Their improved aim translated into big bucks with Caldwell-Pope signing a two-year, $30.1million contract extension with the Denver Nuggets and Portis penning a four-year, $48.6million deal with the Bucks last summer.
Matthews says he cherishes the opportunity to help his clients generate generational wealth — and that he “acts like he’s in the locker room” when watching them win titles.
It also warms his heart to see players receive recognition after putting their trust in his skills and training.
Among them is Phoenix Mercury star Skylar Diggins-Smith, who Matthews remembers coaching amid her return from pregnancy in 2020 and who has earned three consecutive All-WNBA honors since then.
“It’s like Christmas,” Matthews says. “Like when you go downstairs and see that present under the tree.”
At the same time, his appetite to taste championship glory at the highest level is growing.
Matthews says he has rejected coaching jobs from NBA teams in the past months, but he sees himself on the bench of one of those pro organizations in two to three years.
“I really want to get the feeling of getting a championship ring in the WNBA or NBA,” Lethal Shooter says.
“I think that will make me really feel complete.”
However, Matthews has to clear up his jam-packed schedule before his coaching free agency comes to an end — and, admittedly, learn how to take better care of himself because “it’s okay to rest sometimes” after all.
His upcoming ventures include a trip to Japan where he is scheduled to face off with a shooting robot akin to the one that stunned sports fans during the Tokyo Olympics.
He’s keeping an eye on up-and-coming NBA stars including Mahmadou Landoure and Victor Wembanyama — who, Lethal Shooter believes, is a generational talent and bears resemblance to two-time MVP, and his once-teammate, Durant.
Also, there are NBA stars he would still like to work with, like Brooklyn Nets star Ben Simmons.
In other words, there are a lot of buckets yet to be made — by both Lethal Shooter and his clients.
To this day, NBA players challenge him to show “he can really shoot,” like Celtics star Jaylen Brown when they worked together during the 2023 All-Star break.
But Matthews says it still feels like a blessing being able to both teach and show his abilities.
And he wants those who share his passion for basketball to learn from his story and keep shooting, even if requires sacrifices and adjustments.
“It’s not really about somebody making it to the NBA or making it to the NFL, it’s somebody mastering their craft,” he says.
“And that’s what I’ve done.”