Just like Zion Williamson I remember marveling at Zion’s highlights in High-School were he made every player on the court look
like shrimps compared to him. He was throwing down the ball with authority and people in the gym were in awe of what they were witnessing, Zion Williamson has received hype similar to LeBron James did in the early 2000’s prior to the 2003 NBA Draft and Emoni Bates are gathering up the same amount of hype as well. He scored 63 points and hauled down 21 rebounds about a week ago in dedication of the Legend Kobe Bryant who we have lost, my condolences to Kobe Bryant’s family. Emoni Bates has been brought up by his father the right way, no troubles off the court and the kid is on a mission. To say he wants to become the best ever at the age of 15-16 is absolutely insane in my opinion, we saw the amount of pressure Lavar Ball put on his son Lonzo Ball claiming him to be better than Stephen Curry who was the best point guard in the NBA at the moment and reigning 2-time MVP.
The fact that Emoni Bates is willing to put that amount of pressure on himself is pretty impressive, sure the casual NBA fan is not aware of who Emoni Bates is but I sure am. I keep hearing he’s the next Kevin Durant but a Scout said Kevin Durant’s wasn’t the ball handler Emoni Bates is at the same age. I grew up watching Kevin Durant so I could give you my honest opinion on his game, offensively Kevin Durant coming into his rookie season his range was not a problem coming out of Texas, it was his weight and upper body strength. Kevin Durant put on weight over the first 2-3 years of his career and ascended into a Superstar by his 3rd season, he is a 4-time Scoring Champion and League MVP with 2 Titles. We can discredit his move to Golden State all we want but at least he delivered, from a mental stand point I don’t believe Kobe Bryant or Allen Iverson would’ve ever signed with the team that beats them in a series and Emoni Bates has a similar mentality to Kobe and Iverson so there is a difference between Bates and Durant.
I love Emoni Bates’s footwork, he has a fantastic spin move and could make quick decisions mid-air, offensively he will be a machine. The fact that he’ll be a back to the basket scorer with a fade-away jumper tells me he will be an elite perimeter scorer who can score face-up or through the post. This kid has a score first mentality and I could see him averaging 20 ppg easily his first season in the NBA, Zion Williamson is averaging 22 ppg off lay-ins and dunks at the rim pretty much so I believe Emoni Bates won’t take long to start averaging 20 ppg in the NBA. Kobe Bryant took a 3-4 seasons before he became the Superstar we witnessed for almost 2 decades, Emoni Bates will be a Top 5 pick and will get a big role his very first season.
I am looking around the league right now and the era of LeBron James,Kawhi Leonard,Kevin Durant,Stephen Curry,Russell Westbrook,Chris Paul,James Harden will likely last another 3-4 years but with Giannis Antetokoumpo,Luka Doncic,Zion Williamson,Trae Young,Ben Simmons,and Joel Embiid leading the new Era add on Emoni Bates to the list. I think Emoni Bates can become the best player of this decade, he is eligible for the NBA Draft 2022 so he’ll have a good 7 years to compete with the young stars I just mentioned but the sky is the limit. I don’t know the kid personally but I do know when you have a goal and you know how to get there that is all you need and I believe Emoni Bates knows the road that is ahead and will know how to tackle it.
To conclude I know greatness when I see it and Emoni Bates has that written all over him, I would not write a article on a player not worth writing about. Some Superstars in the NBA are all-around players and some are great scorers. When I see Emoni Bates I see the next great scorer in the NBA, the kid wants the pressure and feeds off it. Throughout the game in which he scored 63 points the opposing team was relentlessly scoring even going up 1 late in the game but Emoni Bates just kept coming, he kept driving and scoring at the rim and never stopped attacking that is special stuff. When I watch LeBron James in tight moments I know he will look to make the right play and pass the ball 40 percent of the time, Emoni Bates will be looking to score 90 percent of the time in tight moments which will be the difference. LeBron had to grow into a killer on the court with time, Emoni was born one.
D-NBA 