Blue and White

SAM MALLER/THE PLAYERS' TRIBUNE

A year from now I’ll be wearing blue and white. But before I tell you where I’m going, I have to tell you why.

Some people say basketball is about having God-given talent. About how fast you are. How high you jump or what your ranking is. They talk about mixtapes and social media followers. They talk about how many points this guy dropped and who dunked on who.

But you know what? None of that matters.

Basketball isn’t just a thing I do. It is not my hobby. Basketball is my heartbeat.

My parents always say: You can have all the dreams and all the talent in the world. But without work? None of that stuff matters.

People say I’m laid back. They say I’m quiet. But they don’t see what’s most important. They don’t see the work. To me, basketball is about what you do when no one’s watching. The way I see it, I’m not a prospect. I’m a work in progress. There’s always more to learn.

And that’s why I’m going somewhere that I can be challenged as a leader, challenged as a student, challenged to grow up, on and off the court.

That’s why I’ll be attending Duke University.

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