He will not fly across the country to feast on inferior competition for a dash of prestige. He would rather stay home and improve his game or rest. How do you teach a kid to make the right basketball play when the best option for his team is always that he shoot? He does not want him to get bored. In seventh grade Emoni signed his first autograph, for a little kid, and got his first D-I offer, from DePaul.
He was already so good that he was not surprised by either. But too much exposure can mess with the chemistry experiment. The easy solution is to let him be a typical kid, but people take advantage of typical kids. Emoni is not just a product of this era of basketball. He is a product of this era of the business of basketball. He has played more ball for Bates than for Lincoln.
If he is in that position, I want to make sure he is in control with everything he does. Kid gets left off the varsity at Laney High in Wilmington, N. Man-child from Philly towers over every-body, gets tabbed the Stilt and the Big Dipper, and scores points in a single NBA game, but is remembered largely for the times he lost.
The Emoni Bates story may read like a novel someday. Right now, it feels like a comic book. He is Spider-Man: Something bit him at a young age, stretched his limbs and turned him into an angry, supernatural hoops phenomenon. There were early signs he was not like the rest of us.
When he was four, Edith worried she would lose him in the wave pool at Rolling Hills County Park, but Emoni instinctively understood how to get his head back above water while avoiding the inner tubes.
He had never taken swimming lessons. The first time he put on ice skates, at a birthday party when he was nine, he just stepped on the ice and took off. He never lost his balance. Sit down with him, and he is a sweet kid, talking so fast and softly you might miss a word or two.
Try to guard him, though, and he transforms. He is Emoni Bates off the court and Norman Bates on it. At pounds he is impossibly skinny but craves contact. He will match you elbow for elbow, dagger for dagger. He says Jordan is the best player ever, not just because of rings or points but because the NBA was nasty back then: two-armed fouls, clotheslines, the occasional brawl.
The two guys he would love to meet are Bryant and Allen Iverson. They were not the two best players, but they were the ones who thirsted for blood, and this is how Emoni plays.
Emoni knows he should gain weight; how many people wear size 14 shoes and have a inch waist? He loves chicken fingers, hamburgers and fries, cookies. For now, he eats like a typical teenager.
Turkey with mayo. String cheese. Chili Cheese Fritos. His dad packed it. Tim Duncan played four. These days, the best players are, of course, collegiate one-and-dones. And Bates is widely expected to be the poster man-child of the next era. There are good reasons for this. Everything Bates does is projectable. This is why most college coaches have not bothered to call.
Emoni understands the reasoning, but he is still miffed. Maybe the coaches are right. But here is some more history: When Emoni was in eighth grade, he skipped the Clague Middle School basketball season.
He was too good for it. He was dunking on everyone. Bates could play three more years at Lincoln, play all his senior-year games at EMU and then go pro. He could sign with Nike in a year, end his high school playing career and wait for the draft.
And there is a real chance that he reclassifies, finishes high school in three years, plays one year of college ball and then becomes the No. Basketball at the highest level is not just a game. It is a form of self-expression.
Personalities are revealed through creative passes, ferocious drives or fear of the big shot. Michael Jordan wanted to rule the world.
LeBron James wants his buddies involved, but he wants to be in control. Tim Duncan played like Tim Duncan. Thanks to modern technology, Emoni Bates can easily study basketball art history. He admires elements from each of the greats. Every Emoni game features a few distinctive brushstrokes to make hoops aficionados swoon.
When he dribbles at the top of the key, the ball rarely goes above his knees. His crossover is obscene. During one Lincoln game last year, he missed a three-pointer, grabbed the rebound and threw it down.
Another time, he bobbled an alley-oop, hung on the rim with his right hand, caught the ball with his left, and lobbed it in for a swish.
It was preposterous. It was also obvious goaltending. The great ones draw outside the lines. See Bates enough, and you may laugh at the absurdity of his skills. While he waited for an SI photographer to set up this cover shoot, he hit 22 straight three-pointers from the top of the key.
During another workout, he made out of threes, or He expects to launch lefty threes in a game soon. He did a degree dunk recently, and he is working on a windmill, but most of his jams are angry. He says he does not love playing defense, but he is so long, athletic and competitive that he will probably become great at it. His goal this year is to be a better teammate. Enjoy the show, Ypsilanti. Lake had been suspended for the Arizona State game after getting into a physical altercation with a player on the sideline the week prior.
Detroit has still yet to win a game, but Sunday's clash against the Steelers came down to the final play in overtime. Newton was flagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty for his celebration after the first touchdown.
Mayfield left the game with 73 passing yards, one interception and one touchdown. Jayhawks fans made their voices heard in a 57—56 overtime win against Texas on Saturday. Georgia remains No. The Washington DE suffered the injury midway through the second quarter of Sunday's contest vs. Home High School. SI Recommends.
With the start of the fall semester rapidly approaching, Bates committed to Memphis on Wednesday, the Free Press has confirmed.
Earlier this month, Bates, 17, said he was considering the G League as well as Memphis, Michigan State and Oregon and he would reclassify from the graduating class to the class. His popularity on social media, along with the NCAA's recent relaxation of name, image and likeness compensation rules , could make him one of college sports' top earners.
Here's what else he learned this past season. Isaiah Todd decomitted from Michigan and averaged 12 points per game off the bench He was a second-round pick in the draft. Bates, a 6-foot-9 forward, has long been considered the top prospect in his class and possibly the top American prospect period. As a freshman, he led Ypsilanti Lincoln to a state title then became the first sophomore to win the Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Duren, though, has overtaken Bates on Sports' latest rankings.
After averaging about 25 points a game at his father's Ypsi Prep program, Bates has participated some on the travel circuit this summer. He and his Ypsi Prep teammates played this winter against some of the top prep teams across the country, including future Michigan guard Frankie Collins and fellow five-star underclassman Mikey Willams , who just signed a lucrative NIL deal himself.
Here's how you can gain access to our most exclusive content. Elgin Bates has previously said Ypsi Prep — which rostered other Division I recruits and partners with an NCAA-approved schooling program — will continue to train young basketball players regardless of his son's plans for the upcoming season.
In order to be eligible to play NCAA basketball, players must have complete high school courses and be enrolled for class at the university they are attending.
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