2023-08-18 02:00:46
Emoni Bates, who has been dubbed “KD 2.0” since high school, however, his NBA road is not smooth. After the glory of high school to the challenge of the NBA, from loss to rebirth, he tried hard to prove that he is not “KD 2.0”, but a unique basketball genius.
「KD 2.0」
Friends who are paying attention to the NBA draft must be familiar with this term. In every draft, as long as there are players taller than 6 feet 9 inches (about 206 centimeters), with a long wingspan and a thin body, with smooth shooting movements and the ability to dribble and cut, it is easy to be crowned with such a title.
After all, everyone hopes that there will be the next Kevin Durant. He has the height of a power forward, but he can cut and break like a small forward, and his shots can be as accurate as a guard. These rare conditions make Kevin Durant a member of the league The offensive killer, the rough stone with similar talents has also become the target of many teams.
Unlike many players who were scouted as “KD 2.0” when they arrived in college, Emoni Bates was already expected by everyone when he was 15 years old.
“I was ranked No. 1 in the country from sixth grade all the way through high school.”
When he was a sophomore in high school, he won the Catley Basketball Player of the Year Award. He is the youngest winner of this award. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and other well-known players are also former winners of this award. You can tell what a great start Bates’ basketball career is off to.
In fact, from the point of view of congenital conditions, the height of high school has exceeded 6 feet 8 inches (about 203 centimeters), and since the age of 3, he has been exposed to his father’s professional basketball training, which gives Bates a very solid basic skill, not just a single He plays hard with his height, but has an excellent dribble that can quickly swing past defenders before double-teaming.
What’s even more rare is that his shooting coordination is very smooth, and he will not be limited by his height and wingspan, which makes his shooting feel “stuck”. . This can be seen from the data. In his freshman season, he averaged 28.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, and even scored 43 points against LeBron James’ son Bronny James. This kind of performance was considered by the media at the time to be the strongest high school student after LeBron James, and the high turret style of play that can dribble was even hailed as the next KD.
It stands to reason that this kind of talent should attract many universities to provide scholarships. However, in fact, many well-known teams are quite conservative, and the reason is quite simple, because Bates is too good.
Due to the rumors at the time, the NBA is likely to cancel the college age limit for the draft in the 2022 season. At that time, Bates, who graduated from high school, has a high probability of choosing to directly challenge the NBA. Maybe he won’t come to school either.
After that, Bates chose to skip his senior year and join Memphis University, intending to play one year in the NCAA under the guidance of former player Penny Hardaway and directly challenge for the NBA draft.
“Just because you can dribble at 6’9″ doesn’t mean you’re the next Penny Hardaway.”
This sentence from ESPN’s ball commentary can be said to be the summary of Bates’ freshman season.
Since Hardaway was a point guard with size in the past, seeing Bates’ potential, he actively wanted to develop him into a point guard. However, Bates’ vision and passing skills have not reached the level of ball control, and his playing style of finding space for his teammates has further restricted his original scoring style, making this point guard experiment ineffective.
The 17-year-old Bates had to play against a lot of bigger and more aggressive college players because of the relegation, which put a lot of pressure on his already thin frame and affected the quality of his offense. . This also affects the time the coach allows him to play. From starting in high school in the past, he only averaged about 23 minutes per game as a freshman.
More importantly, in Bates’s freshman season, he was affected by back injuries and played intermittently throughout the season. This also affected his adaptation to the NCAA game. He only played 18 games, leaving a 9.7 points, 3.3 rebounds. Moreover, unlike the dominating environment in high school, Memphis University played a relatively stable performance after Bates was absent, which made Bates’ positioning even more embarrassing, and also made him choose to transfer after the freshman season.
Those media who originally regarded Bates as the number one high school student in the United States and believed that he was likely to win the NBA No. 1 pick also revised down their evaluation of Bates, thinking that his strength is probably located in the middle and late stages of the first round.
The so-called house leak happened to be raining overnight, and the transfer, incompatibility and other things have not yet come to an end, and Bates has not recovered in the new environment. Another social incident occurred, and Bates was completely labeled as “controversial”. Label.
“I am willing to take responsibility for the mistakes I made.”
“I also hope that everyone will forgive me as I grow up.”
“I know this isn’t the last time I’ll make a mistake.”
“But it’s going to be a big stain on my life.”
“It made me deeply experience the consequences of my own immaturity.”
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