Tag: Andy Enfield

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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The Wait and Weight for Bronny James

A fan wearing a white LeBron James Lakers jersey arrives well over an hour before tip-off. Another man sports a wine-colored LeBron Cavaliers jersey here at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, California. There are plenty of other James replicas on this Wednesday night in early February: James’s yellow Lakers jersey. His purple one. His black one. But everyone in the building is here to see a different James, Bronny James, the King’s eldest son and USC’s 19-year-old freshman guard. Bronny sprints out of the tunnel alongside his teammates to warm up ahead of their matchup against Cal. Drake and 21 Savage’s “Circo Loco” is blasting, but it appears Bronny can hardly hear it. He has white earbuds in, blocking out the noise. Blocking out the student marching band, drumming and screaming and clapping. It’s Cal’s first sellout since 2017, and it isn’t because of the competitiveness between the two teams; at the time, the injury-marred Trojans had dropped six of their past seven games, dwelling at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings. Fans came to see Bronny.

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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There’s no prospect like evan mobley

Evan Mobley’s family had a fish tank, filled mostly with oscar and African cichlids variations. One afternoon, his father Eric returned home and went to feed them. As he was facing the tank and preparing the fish flakes, a loud noise startled him. “WHOOP!”
He craned his neck and saw a pair of long legs whiz behind him. Eric realized those legs belonged to his youngest son. Evan, then a sixth grader and already taller than 6 feet, had performed a backflip over the marble floor in their house, shaking the ground upon landing on his feet. It could have been his head. Evan was thrilled. Eric was terrified.“Did you just do a backflip?!” Eric said. “Yeah, Dad!” Evan squealed. “Please don’t ever do that again,” Eric said, trying to maintain composure. “That is not safe.” Eric knew then: His son was different.

Bleacher Report by Mirin Fader
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IT’S ONYEKA OKONGWU’S TIME TO SHINE

Onyeka Okongwu walks into USC’s locker room and finds his cubby in the far corner. He touches the band around his wrist, black with green letters—NNAMDI OKONGWU #21, WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU—and kisses it. He takes a seat, clasps his hands, shuts his eyes and begins to pray. In these moments, Nnamdi, his older brother is there. With him. In his chair, in his locker. On the whiteboard, on the door. Inside his sneakers, inside his jersey. Onyeka can feel it. Feel him. Nnamdi died in 2014 after suffering a brain injury from a skateboarding accident. He was 17 years old, a promising basketball player himself. “I think about him every day,” says Onyeka, now 19. Some days he wants to talk about it. Some days he doesn’t.