The Spurs' latest hidden gem is a 27-year-old center who learned to play basketball at 18 after leaving the Jehovah's Witness

Dedmon's mother, Gail, was a member of Jehovah's Witness and raised Dewayne and his two sisters under the same faith.

As Sports Illustrated's in 2011, under the religion, "allegiance to anyone or anything but Jehovah is forbidden." According to Ballard, while playing on a sports team was not "expressly forbidden," to play on a team might encourage allegiance to an external factor. Additionally, the Dedmons dedicated multiple hours per week to studies, meetings, and solicitations on Sundays.

Gail, according to Ballard, ultimately decided not to let Dewayne play on anymore sports teams after he got into a spat with a volleyball coach in eighth grade.

However, when Dewayne turned 18, becoming an adult, he knew he could make his own decisions. He told his mother he was going to play on the basketball team.

"At first, she definitely wasn’t a fan," Dedmon told Business Insider. "But like I said, I was 18, so I was an adult, so I could make my own decisions.

"It definitely took some time for her to come around to the fact that I was playing basketball."

Nine years later, Dedmon is helping anchor the San Antonio Spurs' NBA-best defense in the first year after the Tim Duncan Era.

To get to where he is now, Dedmon faced a steep uphill climb into the basketball world that involved learning the game at 18, going to junior college, transferring schools, then surviving cuts and the D-League to make it in the NBA.

During a productive second year at Antelope Valley, Dedmon's name began spreading into the Division I world. Dedmon was a still-growing, raw, athletic center — teams wanted him. He was recruited by and eventually transferred to USC in 2011.

Playing alongside current Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic at USC, Dedmon continued to learn the game and grow into his body. Dedmon served as a practice opponent for Vucevic, the two sharing defensive and offensive lessons for one another, respectively.

After two "nondescript" seasons at USC, as Jeff McDonald of San Antonio Express-News put it, Dedmon declared for the NBA Draft. It was NBA or bust for him — there was no backup plan.

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Despite, as he estimates, 15 or 16 workouts with NBA teams, Dedmon's name didn't get called on draft night. Toward the end of the event, he did receive a call from the Dallas Mavericks, asking him to play on their Summer League team in Las Vegas. He also played for the Miami Heat in the Orlando Summer League. He didn't make either team. From there, he set off on a whirlwind 2013-14 season, hopping between the NBA and D-League, on different teams, in different cities, on short-lived contracts. Dedmon's recollection of the experience sums up the hectic life of a fringe NBA prospect.

Dedmon has turned into the diamond-in-the-rough type of player the Spurs so famously mine around the league. Dedmon has been posting career-highs in minutes per game (17), field-goal percentage (64.8%), points (5.3), and rebounds (6.4) in 63 games for the Spurs, 24 of which he's started.

More importantly, according to NBA.com/Stats, Dedmon improves the Spurs when he's on the floor. With Dedmon on the court, the Spurs allow just 96 points per 100 possessions, five points better than their average on the season. The Spurs have outscored opponents by 11 points per 100 possessions with Dedmon on the court, as opposed to seven points per 100 possessions when he's on the bench.

Still raw and fairly new to the game compared to his contemporaries, Dedmon is learning the ropes from Gregg Popovich.

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Dedmon's play has put the Spurs in a tough position. Though Dedmon says he hasn't thought about his next contract, the Spurs surely have. The second year of Dedmon's contract is a player option. If Dedmon opts out and tests the free-agent market, bidders may be able to out-price what the Spurs can offer. If Dedmon continues to be a defensive presence on the court, he may very well end up changing cities again in pursuit of a more lucrative offer.

Dedmon, however, says he's just preparing for the Spurs playoff run. Currently the second seed in the West, the Spurs may need impactful minutes from Dedmon, an unexpected source of a production for the NBA's most consistent contender. It's the latest leg in a winding journey from walking onto a junior college team.

The Spurs' latest hidden gem is a 27-year-old center who learned to play basketball at 18 after leaving the Jehovah's Witness

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