Christopher Gunn believes his son has superpowers. Two to be exact.

Superpower No. 1: Confidence. 

The kind of confidence necessary to drain a school-record nine three-pointers with a jammed thumb and a splint on your shooting hand. The kind of confidence that can’t be faked by someone who holds five high-major scholarship offers and ultimately chose his home-state Hoosiers.

Confidence, at least according to his dad, courses through the veins of Lawrence North junior and Indiana commit CJ Gunn. Something that, no matter how much you practice or try, cannot be learned. Only earned. A gift, perhaps.

“What I mean by superpowers is just gifts that (CJ’s) been blessed with, just in life,” Christopher said. “He’s chosen to apply these powers to basketball.”

On the court, Gunn’s confidence shines for a Lawrence North (20-2) team that is ranked No. 3 in all of Class 4A and has only lost two games this season -- against No. 1 Homestead and No. 2 Carmel. And as the IHSAA Tournament commences in just a matter of days, the Wildcats will need every bit of Gunn’s confident shooting stroke to make a run at the state crown.

But Gunn doesn’t want to be the center of attention. Never has, probably never will. In fact, with a team as loaded with athletic freaks as Lawrence North (i.e. Kayden Beatty, DJ Hughes, Shamar Avance, Donaven McCulley), Gunn doesn’t mind playing from the shadows. He’ll let his performance do the talking instead.

Take, for example, Gunn’s otherworldly performance against Fort Wayne Snider on Feb. 23. A school-record nine three-pointers? For a junior? With a shooting hand that’s been hurt once before and re-aggravated all the same? How?

Confidence. That’s how.

“Whenever I see one go in, that really builds my confidence,” CJ said. “I think I really just catch a flame and I shoot from wherever I want and I know I can’t be stopped.”

The flame, as he calls it, has been slow-burning for years, but only recently has the public got a true glimpse of the slim and slender, 6-foot-5 combo guard. Though his three-level scoring ability and smooth shot form is what had numerous schools drooling over his potential, it’s only the first stage of an ever-evolving skillset.

While last offseason was dedicated to Gunn’s jump shot, next offseason will emphasize his guard skills. That is, better ball-handling, a larger cache of dribble moves, polished footwork, and whatever else is necessary for eventual Big Ten basketball. 

But don’t think for a second that Gunn is doing this for himself. All the training and all the hours spent in the gym, he doesn’t do it so he can score 30 points a night. He does it for his teammates.

“With a different attitude, he could be more ball dominant, more of an alpha male, so to speak,” Christopher said, “but that’s just not how CJ goes about his business. So to me, those are things that behind the scenes folks don’t know."

“To me, I’m biased, but I think he could go out and get 25 to 30 (points) most nights; it may not result in a team victory, though. They wouldn’t be sitting with just two losses.”

To a certain degree, Christopher is right. Gunn, if he wanted, could probably be among the five or 10 scorers in the state. However, he understands that’s not his role on the Wildcats, and he’s more than okay with that. It’s something he learned to accept long before his meteoric rise in the recruiting world.

As a sophomore at Lawrence North in 2019-20, Gunn bided his time on the bench. With so many upperclassmen logging minutes ahead of him, Gunn had no choice but to prove himself and prove why this underclassman deserved to play.

“Last year, when I first transferred over to Lawrence North and I came off the bench, I think it helped me with building my character, fighting for my own spot,” CJ said.

And fight, he did. All the way into a starting role and now among Lawrence North’s most important players as it vies for a state title.

While some may simply point to Gunn’s pure talent as the reason for his success, there’s certainly one person who attributes much of it to something else.

A gift.

A superpower, if you will.

Confidence.

“He’s probably the most confident person I know,” Christopher said. “His ability to really channel that confidence in a way that it’s more on display for the public, is one of the things I’ve been most pleased to see him do.”

***

Superpower No. 2: Compassion.

Christopher still reminisces about the times when CJ was small enough to sit in his lap. They’d play together, laugh together, grow together. But that was then and this is now, with CJ all grown up and Christopher looking on.

“I still remember -- he’s my little guy, my little son -- so I remember him sitting in my lap or going to play and having different conversations,” Christopher said. “And now, he’s a young man where he is self-sufficient.”

“On some days I miss where it was he and I, or he and I and his mom and sister doing things. But now he’s self-sufficient, and that’s what I’m most proud of.”

Perhaps the best and scariest moments in a parents’ life is watching their child grow up. 

All the long car rides with mom and dad to basketball practice and games; not necessary anymore. CJ got his own car about six months ago and drives himself to most places now. 

All the bloodshed and tears between brother and sister due to brutal one-on-one games at the park; gone. CJ’s sister, Lauren, isn’t around much for that anymore as she embarks on her freshman season at Valparaiso. And in all honesty, Christopher admits, it was probably for the better that he made CJ and Lauren stop playing against each other when they were about 10 years old. Less blood to clean up, less tears to dry.

Yet, those pickup games are still engrained in CJ’s head to this day. It instilled in him a devotion to basketball that perhaps no coach or teammate ever could.

“Ever since I was little, when I was about two or three years old, I always loved playing basketball,” CJ said. “I think playing against my sister is what really helped me just develop that dog instinct.”

Hand-in-hand with that dog instinct, though, is a commitment to family. To compassion.

Even now, Christopher likes to tease CJ about Lauren being the only family member with a state title. It’s true, she won the 2019 IHSAA Class 4A Title at Lawrence North. As much as it motivates CJ to top his sister’s accomplishments, he’s also proud of her. It goes both ways. Because in the Gunn household, they all push each other to do better and be better.

Off the court, Christopher knows his son has so much more to offer. As a student-athlete, academics and family come first for CJ, but it’s all in the name of love and compassion.

“He’s always been a good student, but it’s not without us making sure he’s focusing in the right areas,” Christopher said. “And so to see him grow and mature to the point where he’s able to do things almost autonomously on his own, is probably what I’m most proud of.”

The compassion learned away from basketball manifests itself back onto the hardwood. Gunn cares about his teammates deeply. Even when he and his teammates may not see eye-to-eye on some things, Gunn said, as soon as the game tips off, none of that matters anymore.

And while Gunn may never be the most vocal leader on the court, he instead leads by example, through his actions and through his demeanor.

“You wouldn’t know this, but he thinks a lot about others,” Christopher said. “He’s kind of a servant leader and likes to be a team player.

“He’s just a real team player, and I’ve been proud of how his game has evolved to the point where he’s been able to show that (compassion) through his play.”

It’s with this compassion that Gunn is quickly building a case for one of Lawrence North’s greatest players ever. To him, the thought of his jersey number hanging on the wall when his high school career is a thing of the past, would mean so much more than just basketball.

It would represent the player that CJ Gunn was and the young man Lawrence North helped him grow to be.

It would represent the tenacity that CJ Gunn played every game with.

It would represent the two superpowers that CJ Gunn was blessed with, and the family that helped him realize those gifts.

“When I leave high school, I just want to be a role model,” CJ said, “who built a future and can come back and see my number up on the wall and have kids look up to me and want to be like me.

“I just want to leave my name on the school and just be the person who was known as a team-player, caring, and that I gave it my all every time I stepped on the court. I feel like that’s what’s most important.”