Donovan walked onto the multicolored court feeling as out of place as the rooster that had been bobbing there a few minutes earlier.
The heat from the early August sun was countered only slightly by the breeze off the Atlantic Ocean near the northern border of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Donovan was next to his mother and looking unsure of himself. The bespectacled youngster gazed, wide-eyed, at the larger-than-life Ohio State men’s basketball players practicing with any locals who wanted to join them.
It didn’t take long for Donovan to find a friend. Amare Bynum walked purposefully toward center court, extended a friendly hand for a shake before handing Donovan a basketball. Donovan, who came up to about Bynum’s midsection, took it, high-fived
Bynum’s nearby teammate Ivan Njegovan and – with a little encouragement – started to look a little less out of place.
One day later, when the Buckeyes played their first of two exhibition games inside Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in nearby Bayamon, Donovan insisted on being there. And when the game was over, there was one player he had to get his photo with.
“He came after the game and his mom was like, ‘He couldn’t wait to get a picture with you,’ ” Bynum said with a smile, standing inside the team's meeting room in San Juan on Aug. 3.
It hardly mattered that Bynum and Donovan would almost certainly never cross paths again. Life isn't a Disney movie, and this wasn’t the beginning of some lifelong friendship. There was likely nothing for either to gain beyond a stolen moment of joy during Ohio State’s exhibition trip to Puerto Rico, but for Bynum, whom coach Jake Diebler has often praised for his infectious positivity, that joy was the point.
Finding that joy, sharing it and living it, that's what matters. And Bynum had two people to thank for instilling that belief.
“I just get it from my parents,” he said.
Amare Bynum ‘makes everybody feel big’
Bynum’s approach to life did not materialize by accident. Within a few minutes of talking with his parents, Breonna Kellogg and Omar Bynum, it’s pretty clear that his joy was nurtured from a very early age.
Kellogg is a registered nurse who helped found and run a non-medical home care company that assists the elderly and others in need of help with their daily activities. Recently, Caring Expertise Homecare, LLC, expanded to include a daycare. Omar Bynum is a mental health therapist who received his master’s degree in clinical counseling from Bellevue University.
Given that background, it's perhaps no surprise that Kellogg maintains her son was full of life from the very beginning. He had a strong foundation to build on growing up in Omaha, Nebraska.
“He always smiled,” Kellogg said. “That was the main thing. It just seemed like nothing really bothered him and he just enjoyed everything. Things that may have been challenging he may have just brushed off or just said, ‘It’s OK.’ He’s just always been like that.”
It makes him magnetic despite his intimidating 6-foot-8, 245-pound frame. Kellogg said Amare Bynum quickly grew out of his rear-facing car seat and has always been the biggest kid in his class. Spend time with him, though, and any differences quickly fade.
“He brings the family all together,” his dad said. “Dinners, movies, sitting around a table talking, things of that nature. He can be the biggest in the room, but he still makes everybody feel big.”
Then there’s his smile, the one Amare Bynum said he undoubtedly gets from his mother. It’s the kind that quickly sets a stranger at ease or endears him to a coach or teammate.
Asked if she has lots of baby photos of him with his smile, Kellogg immediately laughed and simply replied, “Yes.”
“Everybody says I’ve got a good smile that brings a light to the room,” Amare Bynum said. “I think that’s one of my secret powers that I have.”
Combine his overall personality with that smile, and it might have been enough for a young Amare Bynum to get away with a bit of trouble with his teachers and coaches.
Not so with mom and dad.
“They might [be charmed], but then he had to deal with me, and he’ll tell you I wouldn’t let him get away with [any] of that,” Omar Bynum said. “I would pop his bubble to bring him back down and humble him a little bit. But with that therapeutic piece and the background that I had, it was always about keeping that balance.”
That balance enabled Amare Bynum to chase his passion.
Amare Bynum is joyful all the time – almost
With a megawatt smile, confidence in his own skin and an adventurous streak, Bynum quickly assimilates to most situations. Whether it was shooting hoops with Donovan in Puerto Rico or posing for photos with anyone who asked before flying home from Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, Bynum’s joy is nearly impossible to contain.
Justin Pippen learned that very soon after signing with Ohio State during the spring. His first impression of his new teammate?
“That he’s goofy,” Pippen said. “He has a lot of joy always. He’s got a lot of energy. It’s definitely funny being around him and the way he interacts with people who don’t even know what he’s saying.
“I’ve been around him in public, and it’s almost embarrassing, but it’s funny. He always talks to random pedestrians. I try to just walk away and let him do his own thing.”
Bynum admits that he gets frustrated by video games and traffic, but there is one thing that, paradoxically, tests his joy most.
“The thing that did upset him is basketball,” Kellogg said. “I remember they didn’t make it to state and that was one thing that just tipped him over.”
Feeling the good and the bad while balancing the two is critical to Bynum’s basketball career. The ability to quickly transition from an outgoing, pleasant person off the court to a high-level competitor when the ball is tipped is something his parents have helped him develop.
One of them speaks from a place of extra-relevant experience.
Building on basketball bloodlines
From 2000-03, Omar Bynum played in 67 basketball games at Iowa State before embarking on a professional career overseas. When his son started to get serious about the game around third and fourth grade, the elder Bynum put his career as a therapist aside to help support his dreams.
“He was very receptive to the things that I told him and the things that I showed him on and off the court,” Omar Bynum said. “He knows how to grasp information, digest it and then apply it immediately. So even if it’s just being a good young man, making the right decisions, keeping the right people around … if you have dreams, make sure you’re doing all the right things to get to your dreams.”
When he was in fourth grade, Amare Bynum told his parents that he wanted to start traveling to Kansas City to play basketball against more talented competition. Once Omar Bynum finished earning his master’s, they would make the nearly three-hour drive each way as many as three times a week. Amare Bynum might have been full of joy, but basketball was quickly getting serious.
“I remember when he was a young boy and he came up to me at one of his games and said, ‘Did you record me?’ ” his mom said. “I said no. He said, ‘Well, how am I supposed to watch myself?’ I got in trouble [with him] for that game. We catered to his goals and helped him see his dreams though.”
As a freshman, Bynum was one of two Ohio State players to appear in all 34 games. He averaged 9.7 points and 4.9 rebounds, led the team with 37 dunks and played his best basketball down the stretch. He averaged 12.3 points and 6.5 rebounds in the final six games, finishing just shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds in an NCAA Tournament loss to TCU.
That late-season push, along with a promotion to the starting lineup earlier in the year, were direct results of harnessing the joy brought out in his upbringing.
“You might miss a shot or have a bad game, and joy goes away, but try to keep that joy up always because when I’m playing joyful, like [coach Jake Diebler] told me last year, it helps me play better,” he said. “I could see that. I started scoring more, making impact plays for the team more last year.”
He will open his sophomore season as one of the primary faces of the 2026-27 Buckeyes. He’ll earn preseason consideration for all-Big Ten honors and enter the year with a chance of playing his way into NBA draft contention.
Time will tell how it plays out, but history shows how he will handle it all.
“He is a free spirit,” Kellogg said. “He’s definitely going to make sure everyone in the room feels comfortable, and I’m very grateful for him to be able to pick up on such a characteristic that a lot of people don’t have and something that can’t be taught.”
Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social, on Instagram at @cdadamjardyor on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Value of joy instilled in Ohio State basketball's Amare Bynum from a young age
