By Asia Nail,
The Truth Reporter
Some names live on in highlight reels, frozen in time, soaring toward the rim or knocking down a jumper at the buzzer. For folks in Toledo, Kelvin Ransey is one of those names.
He was the kid from Macomber High who went on to become the point guard who lit up The Ohio State in the late ’70s, battled Magic Johnson and Isaiah Thomas in the Big Ten, and later held his own against NBA legends during the ’80s. That could have been the entire story: the rise, the career, the cheers. But if you sit with Ransey, you learn that basketball was only the opening chapter.
He played in the golden era of basketball, squaring off against giants like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Julius “Dr. J” Erving. Ask Ransey today about his proudest achievement, and he won’t point to the box scores or the packed arenas. He’ll tell you about his faith, his family and a life lived walking with God.
A Local Star Who Made It
Let’s be honest: not many kids from the neighborhood make it to the NBA. Very, very few, in fact. People dream about it, hoop outside until the streetlights come on, but the odds are brutal. Ransey beat those odds.
“Every stage of my career, I was up against the best. In high school it was guys like Truman Claytor, [Terry] Crosby and [Jim] Leonard —tough competition night after night,” recalls Ransey.
At Ohio State, he didn’t just blend in—he stood out. Four years starting at point guard, going head-to-head with future Hall of Famers every night. The Big Ten in those days was no joke. He laughs now when he remembers it: “By the time I got to the league, I had already been through the fire.”
Drafted fourth overall in 1980, he technically belonged to the Chicago Bulls. But before he even touched a Bulls jersey, he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers. That’s the business side of basketball most fans don’t see. One minute you’re drafted by one team, the next you’re living in another city. He rolled with it.
In Portland, Dallas and later New Jersey, Ransey carved out six solid seasons. He learned valuable lessons that taught him resilience and the value of consistent hard work. At his peak, he averaged 16 points and seven assists, a stat most guards would be proud to claim. He held his own against legends. Still, if you ask him, the numbers aren’t what stick.
“I was grateful, but I always knew basketball wasn’t the end-all,” he says. “Even when I was at the top of my game, I knew God had something else for me.”
Dreams, Challenges, and God’s Grace
Perhaps his life offers a deeper lesson: success isn’t always easy to define. Ransey knows firsthand that dreams can come true (though sometimes they don’t), but he’s learned that when we stay in the will of God, those dreams are most likely to be fulfilled.
“So that’s what I’ve been doing all my life,” he says. “I’ve been journeying in the will of God, and He just happened to use basketball for His glory.”
A Different Kind of Call
There’s something fascinating about athletes who walk away. Some keep chasing the spotlight until it fades on its own. Ransey stepped back earlier than most. He left the league in 1986, returned home, and began the slow, often unglamorous path of ministry.
Was it easy? Not at all. He admits there were days he missed the energy of the crowd, the adrenaline of competition. But the pull toward God’s will was stronger.
“I grew up in church. My parents raised me on faith. So when basketball ended, it wasn’t hard to recognize the voice of God saying, ‘Now it’s time for something new.’”
He founded Spirit of Excellence Ministries in Tupelo, Mississippi, and poured into it the same grit he once used to run fast breaks. There’s an interesting connection there: the discipline that made him a standout on the court is the same discipline that makes him a steady preacher. Excellence was never just about points or wins. It was about giving your best, whatever the arena.
The Valley No One Wants to Walk
If the NBA prepared him for anything, maybe it was endurance. Because the greatest test of his faith didn’t come on the court. It came in 2018, when, without warning, his daughter passed away from an aneurysm at just 28 years old.
There’s no easy way to write that sentence, and there’s no easy way to live it either. For a moment, Ransey admits, he almost gave up. He considered quitting ministry. The grief was suffocating.
And yet, when it came time to preach her funeral, he did it. Not because of his own strength, but because, in his words, “God held me together.” His daughter’s last words—“I thank God I’m saved”—still ring in his heart.
“Those words,” he says and stops, “are the reason I can go on. I know I’ll see her again.”
It’s one thing to talk about faith in the abstract. It’s another to stand in the middle of pain that raw and say, “I still trust You, Lord.” That’s the kind of faith people can feel when Ransey preaches.
Advice for the Next Generation
If you’re a young athlete today, scrolling through highlight reels and dreaming of the draft, Ransey’s story might sound complicated. On one hand, he’s proof dreams can come true. At the same time, he is a reminder that talent and fame do not solve everything.
What would he tell young athletes right now? He doesn’t hesitate. “Dream big. Work hard. But make sure you’re grounded in something deeper than playing ball. Because the game will end. The cameras will fade. You need something eternal to hold on to.”
He’s honest, too, about what his own parents could and couldn’t do. They raised him right, they loved him fiercely, but they didn’t always have the words or resources to guide him through life at the highest levels. “I had to figure a lot out the hard way. But God was gracious. He never let me go.”
The Book That Almost Didn’t Get Written
Ransey has authored works before, but his new book, From the NBA to the Pulpit: A Journey in the Will of God, feels like his most personal. It took three years to finish. There were moments he almost shelved it altogether.
“Writing a book isn’t glamorous,” he laughs. “You aren’t in front of a big audience. You’re alone, staring at words, trying to get them right. I wanted to quit a couple of times. But God reminded me, like in basketball—dig deep, push through, finish.”
The book traces his life from Toledo’s streets to NBA arenas to Mississippi pulpits. It doesn’t shy away from pain, but it doesn’t wallow in it either. Instead, it keeps pointing back, again and again, to the hand of God shaping the story.
And fittingly, the book signing will be in Toledo, at the old Macomber High School building, the very gym where it all began. There’s something poetic about that: a homecoming, standing where the first chapter began and sharing the testimony of everything that’s followed.
What Really Lasts
Ransey doesn’t talk much about specific games unless you press him. What he talks about most is character. “People say, ‘He never changed.’ That’s honorable, and that’s what matters most to me. God’s character didn’t change. So why should I?”
In a culture obsessed with reinvention, there is something almost radical, about steady faithfulness. Success, after all, is fleeting. Records get broken. Jerseys fade. The applause dies down. What lasts is how you loved, how you stayed true and how you walked with God when no one was looking.
What His Journey Teaches Us
Not everyone will play in the NBA. Not everyone will preach in Mississippi. But everyone will face moments when life doesn’t go as planned. Everyone will stand in the tension between what success was supposed to look like and what God is quietly shaping instead.
Kelvin Ransey’s journey doesn’t give easy answers, but it does point to a way through: lean on God. Work with excellence. Remain humble. And when loss knocks the wind out of you, cling to the hope that there’s more beyond this life.
It’s not a highlight-reel-only kind of story. It’s deeper than that. And maybe that’s why it matters so much.
Kelvin Ransey’s new book, From the NBA to the Pulpit: A Journey in the Will of God, will be released this November. His hometown signing is scheduled for November 4 at the old Macomber High School building in Toledo.