Henderson, Scoot (2004- )

Subterms

    Latest story

    75 Shares179 Views

    Inside the NBA’s Version of Comic-Con

    by

    Promoted as a celebration of the league’s cultural relevance, the convention also highlighted the N.B.A.’s business ambitions.Somewhere under the lights of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center over the weekend, the Jabbawockeez danced during a television special that could have been an email as part of the “most culturally relevant basketball experience on the planet.”That’s what the signs called it, anyway. It was the first-ever N.B.A. Con, the league’s riff on Comic-Con. The basketball-themed Lollapalooza was a three-day smorgasbord of fashion, music and basketball.But seen through another lens, the convention was an intriguing window into how the league sees itself as a business.The first-ever N.B.A. Con drew more than 25,000 attendees.Bridget Bennett for The New York TimesThe event was a three-day festival of fashion, music and basketball. There were also arcade games.Bridget Bennett for The New York TimesFor the N.B.A., stars are bigger than the games — cultural presences far beyond the floor. The N.B.A. took advantage of that by holding the convention during its summer league in Las Vegas, when scores of stakeholders from the union, retired players, owners, general managers, players, sponsors and fans descend on Nevada.“When you ask people about the N.B.A., for them, it’s not a company,” said Mark Tatum, the league’s deputy commissioner. “It’s life. It’s their culture. The N.B.A. is this culture of music and fashion and entertainment and style.”More than 25,000 fans attended, mostly paying $30 to $250 to get in. But really, cultural relevance is priceless, especially when sponsored by Michelob Ultra. (They were there too.)The convention floor was set up to evoke the spirit of New York City, with park benches, Jenga, cornhole and pickleball courts. There were neighborhoods titled the Drip, the Collection, the Network, the Park and the Convos.The Drip, where sponsors set up shop, was the real core of the convention.Sure, a convention does help the league reach fans in a way it otherwise wouldn’t at a time when LeBron James isn’t playing every night. On Saturday, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver detailed a new in-season tournament during a bloated television special. But throwing an N.B.A. Con meant the league also created an opportunity for new intellectual property. It sold N.B.A. Con merchandise and created a new Twitter account, though the account had fewer than 2,000 followers on Monday compared with nearly 44 million on the league account.There was an AT&T booth, where a sign read, “Step into the spotlight and show off your fire fit.” Fans lined up and shot slow-motion videos of their outfits under a fancy spotlight.Attendees swarmed the former Knicks star Carmelo Anthony for photos and autographs.Bridget Bennett for The New York TimesAnother booth, run by a memorabilia company, MeiGray, sold game-worn jerseys. Its main podium showed a mannequin wearing a jersey that Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic wore in Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals last month. It sold for $150,000. Next to that was a smaller podium with a jersey that Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler wore during Game 3 of that series. It sold for $17,500. To the victors — the Nuggets — go the bigger boxes and higher prices.Tucked in a back corner of the convention space was an exhibit called “Rings Culture,” from the jewelry store Jason of Beverly Hills. It displayed several replicas of championship rings. It might’ve been the perfect place for a heist in a movie like “Ocean’s Eleven.”The night before the convention, the N.B.A. held a walk-through for journalists. Tristan Jass, a YouTuber known for trick basketball shots, displayed some of his skills on a temporary court. But before doing so, he described his ascension to fame.“When you ask people about the N.B.A., for them, it’s not a company,” said the league’s deputy commissioner. “It’s life. It’s their culture.”Bridget Bennett for The New York TimesFans measured their vertical leaps near the Drip, an area of the convention where sponsors sold merchandise.Bridget Bennett for The New York Times“We just left a trail of inspiration around the world,” Jass told the crowd.His first shot was a heave from a spot adjacent to the court behind a chain-link fence. He missed the first two attempts, but hit the third. It was impressive. His second shot was a full-court launch from the opposite corner. This one didn’t go as well. After at least 20 misses, some observers — the uninspired ones, clearly — moved on to the rest of the tour. When a shot rimmed out, Jass muttered, “Those ones hurt.”The biggest draw for the weekend was a panel discussion with Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar moderated by Isiah Thomas, the former Detroit Pistons star. There were a couple hundred seats, but a long overflow line for viewers trying to catch a glimpse of a basketball torch being passed. Wembanyama was the much-heralded No. 1 pick in the N.B.A. draft last month.There was a larger backdrop too: Abdul-Jabbar’s conversation with Wembanyama in that 30-minute panel was more time than he had spent chatting with James in the last two decades combined. Last month, Abdul-Jabbar told reporters in Los Angeles that he had “never had a chance really to talk to LeBron, other than two or three minutes.”At N.B.A. Con, Abdul-Jabbar said he was struck by how much the game had changed.“The different duties and what is expected of various players in various positions,” he said. “It’s really been through a tremendous change, and for more than a few minutes, I just sat there and wondered, ‘Would I be able to compete?’”Abdul-Jabbar spent 20 seasons in the N.B.A. and retired in 1989 as the career scoring leader. James surpassed his record in February.“Sure would have been nice, though, to be able to fly from city to city in a charter jet like these guys do,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I didn’t get to do that. I could have played longer.”To that end, the convention served not just as a branding exercise for the N.B.A., but also the players themselves. Scoot Henderson, the 19-year-old who was drafted third by the Portland Trail Blazers last month, is part of a new generation of stars with a marketing reach that players from Abdul-Jabbar’s era would find unrecognizable. Most players are active on social media, which has given them expanded ways to build an audience. Henderson was interviewed in a panel by the former Knicks star Carmelo Anthony — delivering a signal that the league viewed Henderson as next in the star lineage.“I’ve been thinking about myself as a business for a minute,” Henderson said afterward. “The name. A corporation — that’s who I am.”Most fans paid $30 to $250 to get into N.B.A. Con.Bridget Bennett for The New York Times More

    More stories

    • 88 Shares169 Views

      in Basket

      NBA Draft Preview: 5 Players to Know

      by

      Wembanyama, the French star, is expected to be the top pick. But prospects like Anthony Black of Arkansas and Iowa’s Kris Murray can help teams, too.The only mystery surrounding the top pick in this year’s N.B.A. draft was resolved a month ago. On May 16, the San Antonio Spurs won the draft lottery, giving them the opportunity — or, perhaps more aptly, the obligation — to select Victor Wembanyama with the first overall pick.Wembanyama, a 7-foot-4 French superstar, is perhaps the most-hyped N.B.A. prospect since LeBron James, and for good reason: He shoots the ball like a modern lead guard and blocks it like a classic paint-patrolling center. Within his eight-foot wingspan, Wembanyama has just about every skill N.B.A. teams seek in a franchise player.“There is no better environment for him than the Spurs,” said Jonathan Givony, a draft analyst for ESPN. He added: “Everyone around him is thrilled for him. I don’t see the Spurs messing this up.”But while Wembanyama, 19, is the draft’s ultimate prize, there are plenty of potentially franchise-altering prospects throughout the lottery — the celebrated top 14 picks — and even into the second round.“There are tiers to this draft,” Givony said. “Victor is in a tier of his own. Then it’s Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson after that. And from there, it really opens up.”Miller, a forward from Alabama, and Henderson, a guard from the N.B.A. G League’s Ignite, are expected to be drafted within the first few picks.Here are five other players to know in the 2023 N.B.A. draft.Basketball is Anthony Black’s first love, but his first scholarship offers came from football teams.Nelson Chenault/USA Today Sports, via ReutersAnthony Black6-6, 210 pounds, guard, ArkansasAnthony Black’s first college scholarship offers came from football teams. As a sophomore wide receiver for Coppell High School in Texas, Black hauled in 39 passes for 762 yards and eight touchdowns. His play got the attention of powerhouse programs like Arkansas, Baylor and Cincinnati. But basketball was his first love.“No doubt I would have made it to the N.F.L. if I would have focused on football,” Black, 19, said. “I was pretty raw with it. I didn’t get to reach my potential. Once I started getting basketball offers during my sophomore year, that became my focus.”Black was born into an athletic family: His mother was a scholarship athlete at Baylor in soccer; his father, in basketball. But they never pushed him to become a Bear, which is how he wound up at Arkansas, where he averaged 12.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists in one season. He became a more confident and reliable shooter as the season wore on, but the reason he’s projected as a potential top-10 pick is his defense. He puts great pressure on the ball and can even defend big men because of his strength and size.“Defense is what I’ve always hung my hat on,” Black said. “I was always the best defender on the team, or in the league or in my area. I sometimes haven’t been aggressive enough on offense so that I could be more active on defense. To me, getting scored on is pretty embarrassing.”Jordan Hawkins helped guide the Huskies to their fifth basketball title.Soobum Im/Getty ImagesJordan Hawkins6-4, 186 pounds, guard, ConnecticutDuring the 2022 N.C.A.A. Division I men’s basketball tournament, Jordan Hawkins watched from the sideline as New Mexico State, a 12th seed, upset his fifth-seeded Connecticut Huskies in the round of 64. In the postgame locker room, Hawkins told Coach Dan Hurley, “This will not happen again next year.”He spent the summer getting basketball advice from UConn alumni and N.B.A. greats like Richard Hamilton and Ray Allen. He also prioritized his mental strength, beginning a daily meditation practice with the Calm app. All that work paid off. After posting one of his worst performances of the season — 5 points on 11 shots — in UConn’s second-round loss to Marquette in the Big East tournament, Hawkins pledged to play better during the N.C.A.A. tournament.“The best players show up in March,” Hawkins, 21, said. “I wanted to prove that I was one of the best players at my position — and of the best players, period, in the country.”In the N.C.A.A. tournament, Hawkins was named the most outstanding player in the West Regional after averaging 22 points per game and sinking nine total 3-pointers against Arkansas and Gonzaga. (He shot 38.8 percent from 3 for the season.)Before the team’s Final Four matchup against Miami, Hawkins contracted a stomach bug. He threw up more than a dozen times before the game and almost passed out during the first half. But he remembered the promise he had made to his coach. He helped guide the Huskies to their fifth basketball title.“That’s what I’m bringing with me to the N.B.A.,” he said. “I have the confidence that I’m a great defender, and I believe that I’m the best shooter in the draft. But more than that, I know how to buy into my role and work hard and win championships.”GG Jackson has a combination of size and skill that’s hard to find.L.G. Patterson/Associated PressGG Jackson6-8, 214 pounds, forward, South CarolinaIn a seven-month stretch last year, GG Jackson became the No. 1 player in the class of 2023, committed to North Carolina, decommitted from North Carolina, reclassified to the class of 2022 and committed to South Carolina. It was a tumultuous time for a player who had yet to turn 18, but by the start of the college basketball season, Jackson believed he had made the right decision.“The coaches told me I had the power to uplift a lot of people in my home state by staying in South Carolina,” he said. “Plus, staying so close to home made my mom happy.”Jackson posted a respectable 15.4 points per game this season, but he made just 38.4 percent of his shots. He also publicly criticized his coaches on Instagram Live after a loss to Arkansas in February. Jackson apologized, and he said he owned up to the outburst during meetings with N.B.A. teams. Although he’s not projected to be a top-10 pick, he has a combination of size and skill that is hard to find and that could persuade a team to select him in the first round.“I remember where I came from in basketball,” Jackson said. “I was a frail kid who had to wear goggles. I got to that No. 1 spot, but now I’m starting back over. I’m not the bad guy that people perceive me to be. I’m serious about the player and person I want to become.”Kris Murray averaged 20.2 points per game last season at Iowa.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesKris Murray6-8, 213 pounds, forward, IowaWhile Keegan Murray matriculated to the N.B.A. last June, his twin brother, Kris, decided to stay at Iowa for another season. When the Hawkeyes came together for a workout a few weeks later, Kris came to a realization: This would be the first practice without his brother.“I knew I could be an N.B.A. player eventually, but going back to college gave me the chance to make a name for myself,” Murray, 22, said. “Basketball-wise, I got to be the focal point of our team. I got to lead our team, to be on top of the scouting reports for other teams, to be the guy everyone’s trying to stop. That was an invaluable experience for me.”It was also a successful experience. Murray doubled his points and his minutes over the previous season but maintained his field-goal percentage and improved as a passer and rebounder. His 20.2 points per game were slightly behind Keegan’s 23.5 the season prior.“He gives me crap, and I give him crap,” Kris said, referring to his brother. “But we really like to gang up on our dad.”Their father, Kenyon Murray, averaged a mere 9.9 points per game during his four-year run with the Hawkeyes in the mid-1990s.In April, Kris watched Keegan start for the Sacramento Kings in a first-round playoff game win over the Golden State Warriors. And in May, the brothers got to spend a week together training and preparing for the next N.B.A. season.“I feel like my player comparison in the draft is pretty obvious,” Kris said. “It might be a little bit lazy, but it’s pretty accurate.”Rayan Rupert’s (left) goal is to be one of the best players in the league.Emily Barker/Getty ImagesRayan Rupert6-6, 193 pounds, forward, FranceRayan Rupert, 19, was born into one of the best basketball families in France: His father, Thierry, was a former captain of the French national team; his sister, Iliana, won a W.N.B.A. championship last summer with the Las Vegas Aces. Thierry died when Rayan was 8, but he instilled in his children a love for the game that he had dedicated his life to.“For me and my sister, it’s important to represent the Rupert name,” Rayan said. “I’m very proud of my father. At the same time, I want to have my own career. I want people to know me not only as the son of Thierry, but also as Rayan.”After playing at the prestigious French academy INSEP for four years, Rupert signed with the New Zealand Breakers as part of the N.B.L.’s Next Stars development program. He was following in the footsteps of his best friend, Ousmane Dieng, who went from INSEP to the Breakers to the Oklahoma City Thunder as the 11th overall pick in last year’s N.B.A. draft.He’s part of a movement of French players who have turned into first-round N.B.A. draft prospects, and he has known Wembanyama since he was 12. But for now, he’s more concerned with making a name for himself.“I’m very happy for Victor and for all the French players in this class,” he said. “But my goal is to be one of the best players in this league. That’s my only focus.” More

    • 163 Shares99 Views

      in Basket

      NBA Draft Lottery: Spurs Get No. 1 Pick and Right to Select Wembanyama

      by

      The top pick is widely expected to be Victor Wembanyama, a 19-year-old French basketball star.The San Antonio Spurs won the 2023 N.B.A. draft lottery on Tuesday, giving them the No. 1 pick in June’s draft and the right to select the most anticipated prospect since LeBron James: the 19-year-old French star Victor Wembanyama.Peter J. Holt, the chairman of the Spurs, jumped up to celebrate the moment it became apparent the Spurs had obtained the top pick. The lottery was held in Chicago, and the draft order was revealed during an ESPN broadcast.“I might faint,” Holt said on the broadcast. “I’m so excited. The city of San Antonio, our fans, man — we just have so many people that love the Spurs so we’re pumped.”The No. 2 pick went to the Charlotte Hornets, the third to the Portland Trail Blazers and the fourth to the Houston Rockets.Wembanyama, in an interview from France, told ESPN: “My heart is beating. I got everyone I love, everyone I know around me. It’s really a special moment I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”A 7-foot-3 center with an eight-foot wingspan, Wembanyama can handle the ball and shoot like a guard. He plays for Metropolitans 92, a professional French league team, where he is averaging 21.6 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. The N.B.A. G League hosted his team for a two-game exhibition near Las Vegas in October, and the N.B.A. has broadcast some of his games. The hype about him rivals that surrounding James in 2003, when the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him No. 1 overall out of high school.“He clearly, you know, appears to be a generational talent,” N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver said on ESPN before the lottery. “And, you know, there’s lots of other examples of generational talents who come in this league who’ve met expectations and some who haven’t. But I have no reason to believe he won’t.”Wembanyama is certainly not the only potentially franchise-altering prospect available in this year’s draft, set for June 22 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Scoot Henderson, a 19-year-old guard who played for the G League Ignite and faced Wembanyama in the October exhibitions, is widely expected to be drafted at No. 2 overall. Henderson averaged 16.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists in 19 games with the Ignite this season.For the Spurs, this is the third time they have won the lottery. In 1997, they used the No. 1 pick to select Tim Duncan, who became one of the best big men in N.B.A. history. Ten years before, they also picked a big man in David Robinson, a 10-time All-Star. Both players are in the Basketball Hall of Fame.The draft order is decided by a lottery that grants teams with worse regular-season records better odds for the No. 1 pick. This system has led to teams being accused of tanking — not prioritizing winning to position themselves for high draft picks. The three teams with the best chance — 14 percent — to get the top pick this year were San Antonio, Houston and Detroit, which got the fifth pick. The 11 other teams in the lottery had lessened odds, ranging from Charlotte at 13 percent to the New Orleans Pelicans at 0.5 percent.In recent years, the N.B.A. has moved to curb tanking by introducing a postseason play-in tournament to decide the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference and by flattening the chances for the No. 1 pick among the three worst teams.But with Wembanyama’s N.B.A. arrival on the horizon, Silver told reporters in the fall, “I know that many of our N.B.A. teams are salivating at the notion that potentially through our lottery, they can get him, so they should all still compete very hard next season.”The N.B.A. fined the Dallas Mavericks $750,000 last month for resting several players in the final days of the season even though the team still had a chance to make the play-in tournament. They missed the playoffs and received the No. 10 pick through the lottery. They had a 3 percent chance of getting No. 1.They weren’t as lucky as San Antonio.The Spurs’ Gregg Popovich is the longest tenured coach in the N.B.A. He took over in December 1996 and has since led the Spurs to five championships, most recently in 2014. But in recent years, the Spurs have been rebuilding and stockpiling young talent. The team has not made the playoffs since 2019. They were tied with Houston for the worst record in the Western Conference this season at 22-60. Wembanyama could immediately change that.“I’m trying to win a ring ASAP,” Wembanyama told ESPN on Tuesday. “So be ready.” More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Basket

      Top N.B.A. Prospects Skip College, but Not Stardom

      by

      The N.B.A.’s biggest stars often make their names during the N.C.A.A. tournament. But this year’s top draft picks may be players who found the spotlight elsewhere.As children, the twin brothers Amen and Ausar Thompson adopted their father’s favorite sports teams. That made them Cleveland Cavaliers fans, then Miami Heat fans, then Cavs fans again as they followed LeBron James’s journey through the N.B.A. But when it came to men’s college basketball, there was no wandering around. They rooted for Kentucky.When they were 12, they were especially attached to the Wildcats’ 2014-15 team, which had the twins Aaron and Andrew Harrison and entered the N.C.A.A. tournament with a 34-0 record. The team was so talent-laden that Devin Booker, a future All-N.B.A. guard, had to come off the bench.In the Harrisons, the Thompson twins saw a model for forming a ferocious college backcourt on their path toward their dream of playing in the N.B.A. They could even imagine that path threading through Lexington, Ky. That April, Amen cried when Wisconsin wrecked the Wildcats’ perfect season by beating Kentucky in the Final Four.But the Thompson twins, now 20, never went to Kentucky — or any college. Instead, they signed lucrative deals to play with Overtime Elite, a semiprofessional basketball league for N.B.A. prospects based in Atlanta. For the past two years, Amen and Ausar have been two of the program’s premier stars. They recently finished their final season by winning O.T.E.’s playoffs with their team, the City Reapers.“The games were so intense,” Ausar said, “it felt like the N.C.A.A. tournament. I feel like O.T.E. got the first March Madness of 2023.”Amen Thompson had been a fan of the University of Kentucky since he was a child, but the lure of O.T.E. took him away from the traditional college path to the pros.Adam Hagy/Overtime EliteWhen the first round of the Division I men’s basketball tournament tips off on Thursday, the brothers will be back home in Florida. They’re taking a week off before diving into training ahead of the 2023 N.B.A. draft in June, when they’re expected to be among the first 10 players picked. And they won’t be the only top-tier prospects missing out on the real March Madness.In some mock drafts, the top four predicted picks are Victor Wembanyama of France, Scoot Henderson of the N.B.A.’s G League Ignite and the Thompson twins. If those predictions are right, it would be the first time since 2001 — and only the second time in N.B.A. draft history — that a college basketball player wasn’t selected among the top four picks.“It really shows how many options are available to players now,” Ausar said. “There’s not just one way to make it to the league. You don’t have to do the same thing that everyone else is doing to get where you want to go.”During the N.B.A.’s so-called prep-to-pro generation, dozens of players were drafted out of high school, including Kevin Garnett in 1995 and Kobe Bryant in 1996. In 2001, three of the first four picks were plucked out of the high school ranks: Kwame Brown (No. 1), Tyson Chandler (No. 2) and Eddy Curry (No. 4). Pau Gasol, the No. 3 pick, was selected out of Spain. None of the projected top four picks in this year’s draft had even been born.While the prep-to-pro generation lasted only a decade before the N.B.A. added an age limit to the draft, these new alternative paths look more permanent. The N.B.A. has invested heavily in developing amateur talent, from its international N.B.A. Academy program with outposts in Australia, India, Mexico and Senegal, to the Ignite team, which is part of its developmental G League in the United States. O.T.E. is also well funded and backed by top N.B.A. players. And the N.B.A. may reopen the draft to high school players in 2024 as part of a new collective bargaining agreement that is being negotiated now.For the foreseeable future, most prospects will still come from N.C.A.A. Division I basketball, but the pool for the top of the draft may continue to tilt toward the alternatives.Drafts are notoriously difficult to predict, but one near certainty has emerged this year: Wembanyama will be the first pick. A 7-foot-3 center with an eight-foot wingspan and the ball-handling skills and shooting range of a guard, Wembanyama is considered a generational talent. His grandfather and his mother were professional basketball players in France, and he has been involved in French developmental leagues since he was 7.Victor Wembanyama of France is widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in June’s draft because of his unusual combination of size and guard-like skills.James Hill for The New York Times“I’m going to miss France, for sure,” he told The New York Times in October. “But I’ve worked all my life for this, so I’m really just thankful and grateful.”Wembanyama’s route to the N.B.A. was most likely never going to include a pit stop at an American college. But the roster of his current team, Metropolitans 92 in France’s top league, includes five former Division I players. Although the team was composed primarily to help develop and showcase Wembanyama’s N.B.A. skills, it has made a surprising push to second place. Wembanyama — who is averaging 21.7, 9.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks a game — is why.In October, Wembanyama got his first taste of playing pro basketball in America when Metropolitans 92 faced off against the G League Ignite team in a two-game exhibition series in Henderson, Nev., where the Ignite play their home games. In the first game, Wembanyama finished with 37 points, 5 blocks, 4 rebounds and 1 steal. Henderson, an aggressive guard, scored 28 points and added 9 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals en route to an Ignite win. But in the second game, the collision between the draft’s top two prospects took an all-too-literal turn when they ran into each other near the 3-point line.Henderson left the game with a knee injury, and he has been hobbled by other injuries this season, but he has been a force on the court. In 19 games with Ignite, he has averaged 16.5 points, 6.8 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game.Growing up in Georgia as a two-sport athlete, Henderson had only one rooting interest at the college level: football. He could have played for any college basketball team in the country and considered signing with Georgia or Auburn before ultimately inking a two-year, $1 million deal with Ignite.“Playing with Ignite allowed me to get the grown-man bump,” Henderson said. “I’m going up against guys who have been up in the league and want to get back up again. They know pro basketball inside and out. They know all the angles. I wouldn’t have learned how to play against guys like these if I’d gone to college.”Henderson has three sisters who played Division I basketball, but none of them made the N.C.A.A. tournament. He said he’s never filled out a bracket, but he always enjoys watching the games. He even remembers jumping around in his living room when Villanova’s Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer-beating, game-winning shot in the 2016 national championship against North Carolina. But he joked that his only regret about college now is that he didn’t get a chance to play for the back-to-back national champion Georgia football team.Scoot Henderson in action during the Rising Stars Game as part of the N.B.A.’s All-Star Weekend in February.Alex Goodlett/Getty Images“This is the future, man,” Henderson said. “Coming to the N.B.A. from overseas. Coming to the N.B.A. from O.T.E. Coming to the N.B.A. from Ignite. All the guys at the top this year bet on themselves and took their own paths. I commend everybody for doing their own thing.”Ignite’s regular-season schedule doesn’t end until the second weekend of the N.C.A.A. tournament, but the team has shut Henderson down so that he can focus on training for the draft. He said he’ll tune into the tournament when he can — partly to enjoy the games and partly to scout the other top prospects who will be playing in it.With his season wrapped up, Henderson will move back to Georgia, where his family owns a gym, Next Play 360. That will put him just a 25-minute drive away from the Thompson twins, who will be training at O.T.E. in hopes of overtaking him in the draft order.“I like that we get to train before everyone else,” Amen said. “Some of the guys playing are going to be our competition next year, and I get to see what they do. We’re not rooting for any teams, but I hope we get to watch some good basketball.” More

    • 150 Shares149 Views

      in Basket

      Teenage Ballers Can Cash in Earlier Than Ever. But at What Cost?

      by

      Male players as young as 16 have many options to play high-level basketball before the N.B.A. without going to college — and get paid big money to do it.In February, Ramses Melendez, who goes by RJ, announced his college decision in a video posted to his social media accounts. A 4-star forward in the class of 2021, Melendez followed a typical formula for the video: a highlight reel and then a jersey reveal. He strayed from the script for a moment, though, when he acknowledged in a voice-over that “it wasn’t easy to make this decision.”A couple of months later, an unusual phone call made that decision even more difficult.On the other end of the line was Timothy Fuller, a former college basketball coach and the director of recruiting for a new league, Overtime Elite. Backed by investors ranging from the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to the Nets All-Star forward Kevin Durant, Overtime Elite aims to be an alternative to college as a path to the N.B.A. for high-level high school basketball players as young as 16.Fuller had seen Melendez play, and he wanted to offer him a spot in the nascent league. Fuller told Melendez that Overtime would help him prepare for the pros. Fuller also told Melendez that, unlike college, the league could pay him.A lot.Melendez declined to reveal a dollar figure during a recent interview at Rucker Park in New York City, where he was preparing to play in the Omni Elite tournament. But he did say that it was in line with Overtime’s other announced deals.In May, Overtime signed Matt and Ryan Bewley, twin brothers in Florida who are rising high school juniors, to two-year deals reportedly worth at least $1 million apiece. The league has since signed another set of Florida basketball twins for an undisclosed sum, and its leaders have said that it will eventually acquire 30 players who are each making a minimum annual salary of $100,000.“The money was nice, but it wasn’t the most important factor in my decision,” Melendez said. “I want my next step to get me ready to play in the N.B.A. I asked myself: What’s the best way to get there?”This year’s N.B.A. draft, whose order was announced last week with Detroit landing the top pick, isn’t likely to feature any players from the newest alternative paths when it takes place on July 29. But the 2022 draft will be a different story, and players and coaches from middle school to college have taken notice — and taken action.For top-flight high school basketball players, recruiting has often been a high-wire walk without much of a safety net. These teenagers have to discern the trustworthiness of college coaches who text and call them relentlessly, promising playing time and a sure path to the pros. And they have to be wary of boosters and agents and other unscrupulous characters who often offer money and benefits that run afoul of N.C.A.A. rules and the law.Now the best men’s players also have to decide whether it’s worth it to forfeit their college eligibility by turning pro during or immediately after high school.Because of the N.B.A.’s so-called one-and-done rule, American players must be 19 years old and one year removed from their high school graduating class to be eligible to be drafted. But no rule says they must attend college during that year. These new leagues are hoping to lure top players away from the N.C.A.A. with something colleges can’t match: a salary.In addition to Overtime Elite, there is also the N.B.A.’s own elite developmental team, the G League Ignite, which pays top players far and above the salaries for the G League’s regular teams. There is the Professional Collegiate League, which is backed by former Obama administration officials and aims to place 96 players on eight teams this fall. Those players will be compensated up to $150,000 each and receive a lifetime academic scholarship.And there are also overseas professional leagues, from Australia to Europe to China, pursuing American high school stars.“Before it was just, ‘What college am I going to?’” said Samson Johnson, a center from New Jersey who has committed to play for Connecticut in 2021-22. “Now there’s a lot of leagues, and it’s hard to keep up with all this new information. How can you be sure what’s real? It’s risky.”Among top prospects, the G League Ignite team has become the most attractive alternative to college. The G League enjoys the N.B.A.’s backing, and it also has proved it can develop N.B.A. draft prospects.Last year, the Ignite team inked the 5-star guard Jalen Green to a $500,000 contract. Despite playing a shortened season because of the coronavirus pandemic, Green is still considered a top-five pick for this year’s N.B.A. draft in July.Seeing other players succeed in the G League was part of the reason Scoot Henderson decided to graduate from high school early and sign a two-year, $1 million deal with the Ignite.“I wanted to be myself, and I wanted to own myself,” Scoot Henderson said. “With the G League, I get to play at a high level every night.”Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York TimesHenderson had garnered interest from a professional league in China, from Overtime and from just about every college basketball powerhouse in the country.His decision came down to college or the Ignite team, which offered money, competition and the opportunity to sign endorsements. Despite some scattered progress on names, images and likeness reforms, it remains unclear whether N.C.A.A. athletes will be able to sign endorsement deals this year.“I wanted to be myself, and I wanted to own myself,” Henderson said. “With the G League, I get to play at a high level every night. I can also run camps and sign autographs and sponsor products.”Henderson had an added benefit while weighing his options. His A.A.U. coach, Parrish Johnson, is a longtime friend of Ignite Coach Brian Shaw.But not every elite high school player is so lucky. The N.C.A.A. doesn’t allow high school players to have contacts with agents, so they have to rely on the advice of coaches and family members who are not often familiar with the nuances of professional athletic contracts.Darrell Miller’s son, Brandon, is a top-15 prospect in the class of 2022. Whenever Darrell learns about a new league, he pulls out his laptop and starts Googling. Sometimes he’ll find himself with a dozen tabs open as they’re waiting at the airport for a flight to another A.A.U. tournament.“The scary part is: You just don’t know,” he said. “These are start-ups. They look really nice. They have the coaches. They have the board members. But then you get this feeling: What if? What if that check doesn’t clear? What if my son’s stock drops? If you’re a professional athlete, you’re not allowed to make the same mistakes you can as a college kid. If you choose the wrong college, you can transfer. If you choose the wrong pro league, what’s your backup plan?”Some high school and A.A.U. coaches, who are often players’ closest confidants, are also uncomfortable with their roles.“Your biggest nightmare as a coach is to push a kid in a certain direction and have it not work out,” said Vonzell Thomas, who coaches the A.A.U. team Southern Assault. “Then for the rest of that kid’s life, whenever he thinks of you, he’ll think: That’s the guy who screwed up my life. You never want your name to come up when a kid gets asked why he didn’t make it.”Melendez discussed the Overtime offer with his parents and coaches. They looked at the contract together. Ultimately, he decided to turn the league down and stick with his decision to play at Illinois. It felt, for now, like the safer decision.“I said no because I’ve heard some N.B.A. players talk about how they regret not playing in college,” he said. “I don’t want to find myself in that situation. I didn’t want to wake up next year and feel like I’d made a big mistake. These leagues may turn out to be great opportunities, but I want to be able to see some history first. I want to make sure it works. These decisions change your entire life.” More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Basket

      Scoot Henderson Has Options. He’s Choosing G League Ignite.

      by

      Crystal Henderson remembers her youngest son, Scoot, running down the basketball court at 5 years old with a gigantic, toothless smile and eyes searching for the approval of his watching parents and siblings.Now, Scoot Henderson, who turned 17 in February, has reclassified to graduate high school a year early and will join the professional ranks with the G League Ignite.Listed on 247 Sports Composite as the third-ranked point guard of the 2022 class before his reclassification, he would become the first player to spend two years with the G League Ignite, a team designed to offer elite prospects an alternative to playing in college or overseas before becoming eligible for the N.B.A. draft. He played point guard as a freshman at Georgia’s Kell High School, while his brother C.J. manned shooting guard as a senior.“I’ve been around my brother who is three years older than me, and his friends are my friends,” Scoot told The New York Times, adding, “Being around older people, the vets on my team, it’ll play out perfectly just getting that knowledge from them too.”Few modern American basketball players have made the jump to professionalism at Henderson’s age or even had the ability to consider the possibility. The N.B.A. has mandated that players be at least 19 years old and one year removed from their high school graduation since disallowing high school players following the 2005 draft.The developmental leagues, where players can earn money right away, have made college a less attractive option for some players coming out of high school. Some states have moved to allow college athletes to earn money through endorsements, and the N.C.A.A. has said it wants to ease some restrictions, but at its core men’s college players only have their costs of attendance guaranteed. The Ignite team pays players as much as $500,000.“You know how every kid has their own path?” Henderson said. “My main goal was just to get to the N.B.A. and be there for a very long time. The fact that I have an opportunity to go there and I’m one step away from it, it’s just huge. And I took that opportunity.”Scoot Henderson training with his father, Chris. “I’m extremely happy for him, because I’m tough,” Chris said.Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York TimesJeremy Tyler signed with Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Super League after his junior year of high school in 2009. Eight years later, LaMelo Ball signed to play in the Lithuanian Basketball League following his sophomore year of high school.The debate over changing eligibility requirements to once again allow recent high school players who are at least 18 years old into the N.B.A. has resurfaced as elite prospects cycle through college for pit-stop solitary seasons or consider playing professionally overseas.In the meantime, the N.B.A. created the Ignite team, which has already drawn the ire of some college coaches. The team is headed by Brian Shaw, a former longtime N.B.A. player and Denver Nuggets head coach. Jonathan Kuminga was 17 when he signed to play with the Ignite during its truncated inaugural season. Because of his October birthday, Kuminga is draft eligible and is expected to be an early lottery selection.Henderson will remain a member of the Ignite longer than if he had gone to college for a season at Georgia or Auburn, his two finalists.“He can take his time a little bit,” said Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the G League’s president. “There’s no expectation that he has to get everything accomplished in a short amount of time. That takes a little bit of the whatever you want to call it — the anxiety, the pressure, the anticipation — of how he enters this. I think he can really enter it with a growth mind-set.”Shaw described Henderson’s attacking style of play as “kind of similar to like a Russell Westbrook,” who is one of Henderson’s favorite players, as is Kobe Bryant, one of Shaw’s former teammates.“I think that just gives him more time to develop and to prepare for his journey and his lifelong dream to play in the N.B.A.” Shaw said. “This is a new situation, and we’re evolving kind of with the teams and this unique situation.”The Ignite team is not a traditional G League member. Based in Walnut Creek, Calif., a city about 15 miles east of Oakland, the team plays against G League opponents and scrimmages against international teams. The players receive a scholarship to Arizona State University to enroll in online courses and are taught life skills like community involvement and how to handle taxes and interviews. Top prospects like Jaden Hardy, Michael Foster and Fanbo Zeng have already committed to this year’s team.Henderson’s father, Chris, and mother, Crystal, are familiar with shepherding young athletes.“So many kids go by and don’t get recognized for their hard work,” Crystal Henderson said. “Parents need to understand it’s a system. You need a great support system. You need to listen to other people. And I find that other sports do that. Tennis does that. Golf does that. Baseball does that. They have a community.”She continued: “I think it’s interesting that those kids get to go pro, but the basketball kids don’t get to go pro. And so I think it’s very important that we continue to educate and have programs like Ignite, and even Overtime Elite, where if that’s your kid’s path, that’s your kid’s path. And I’ll be an advocate for my son for whatever he wanted to do.”The family moved from Hempstead, N.Y., to Marietta, Ga., shortly before Scoot was born. He has six tightknit older siblings. Five played in college, including his sisters Onyx and China (Cal State Fullerton) and Diamond (Tennessee Tech and Syracuse). Their youngest sister, Moochie, is one of the top-ranked point guards in the class of 2023.Scoot Henderson, center, with his family. His mother, Crystal, is on his right, and his father, Chris, is on his left.Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times“Our goal is to stick together,” Crystal said. “I tell them: ‘If you each have a dollar, you’re going to starve and die. But if you put your dollar together, you got $7 and you can eat and be very successful.”Chris has been a coach for years, receiving his basketball education on Long Island courts.“I’m extremely happy for him, because I’m tough,” he said of Scoot, with a smile. “I ain’t going to lie — I’m tough. I ain’t a walk in the park, and just for him to go through that, it’s been a lot.”Along the way, Chris went from waking up Scoot to play basketball to having Scoot asking to head to the court early. In November 2018, the Hendersons opened Next Play 360, a gym near their home with an emphasis on academic and athletic development.Last summer, Scoot began considering playing overseas, and in December, he started planning to reclassify to the Class of 2021 from the Class 2022 and finished high school with a grade-point average of 3.5.Abdur-Rahim said Henderson had been within the G League’s “overall ecosystem” for a while through his participation with U.S.A. Basketball and elite camps. The conversations began after Henderson reclassified.“We want to be an option,” Abdur-Rahim said, adding: “In his case, evaluating him from a maturity standpoint, overall structure and support standpoint and just his talent, we positioned him as good as anyone in the class ahead or a year ahead of him. So, it fit.”The Hendersons are still debating which, if any, of the family members will travel with Scoot to California.“Honestly, it hasn’t hit me just yet, but I feel like once I get my bags packed and we start going on a plane to go over there, it’ll hit me soon,” Scoot Henderson said. More