Thon Maker is at least 23 years old

[Cactus Jack]

I don't understand how his determined age in Australia and on his visa was 6 at 2003 (1997 birth year), but somehow he'd be in the same graduating class as students that are ~23 right now.

[John Murdoch]

Eh Biyombo is 30

[Nolan]

Don't know if anyone has seen this yet but it's an interesting take on the pictures:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747505873543651328[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747506029269815296[/tweet]

[Dustin5566]

The Bucks and the press need to call up that school in Perth and order a copy of the 2010 yearbook.

If hes in there then hes full of ****. If hes not hes legit.

This is very easy.

I HAVE to suspect he Bucks did due diligence, right?

[T-d0t]

The Bucks problem now

[Scout Taron]

Don't know if anyone has seen this yet but it's an interesting take on the pictures:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747505873543651328[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747506029269815296[/tweet]

The handler lied, if you google the school, it's a normal high school.

https://www.aranmore.wa.edu.au/

Honestly wouldn't surprise me if Givony is tweeting all this stuff in exchange for inside info. He's been vouching really really hard for Maker's age and really trying to make this story go away. A lot of effort for someone he's not related to.

[Fairview4Life]

Don't know if anyone has seen this yet but it's an interesting take on the pictures:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747505873543651328[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747506029269815296[/tweet]

The handler lied, if you google the school, it's a normal high school.

https://www.aranmore.wa.edu.au/

Honestly wouldn't surprise me if Givony is tweeting all this stuff in exchange for inside info. He's been vouching really really hard for Maker's age and really trying to make this story go away. A lot of effort for someone he's not related to.

https://www.aranmore.wa.edu.au/curriculum/eal/d

EaL/D

English as an additional Language/ Dialect (EaL/D) is a specialised learning area for students who do not have English as their first language, or for whom Standard Australian English is an additional dialect.

The learning area focuses on the key skills of speaking, writing, listening, reading and viewing with grammar and vocabulary also given emphasis. Attention is placed on understanding the culture of Australia while still recognising the importance of maintaining their own unique culture and language.

Aranmore’s EaL/D students come from a wide range of countries and nearly every continent, some of which include: China, South Sudan, Italy, Vietnam, Chile, and Afghanistan – just to name a few.

EaL/D students prior learning in English and educational backgrounds are wide-ranging, with some students having studied English for only a few months, whereas others have studied English for several. Many students have attended continuous schooling in other countries, whilst others may have experienced gaps in their education.

For WACE and ATAR, EaL/D is considered equivalent to English, therefore eligible EaL/D students sitting at ATAR level may use their mark for university entrance.

There's probably a reason why the yearbook seems to jump from A-C to M last names on the following page too.

[Scout Taron]

Don't know if anyone has seen this yet but it's an interesting take on the pictures:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747505873543651328[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747506029269815296[/tweet]

The handler lied, if you google the school, it's a normal high school.

https://www.aranmore.wa.edu.au/

Honestly wouldn't surprise me if Givony is tweeting all this stuff in exchange for inside info. He's been vouching really really hard for Maker's age and really trying to make this story go away. A lot of effort for someone he's not related to.

https://www.aranmore.wa.edu.au/curriculum/eal/d

EaL/D

English as an additional Language/ Dialect (EaL/D) is a specialised learning area for students who do not have English as their first language, or for whom Standard Australian English is an additional dialect.

The learning area focuses on the key skills of speaking, writing, listening, reading and viewing with grammar and vocabulary also given emphasis. Attention is placed on understanding the culture of Australia while still recognising the importance of maintaining their own unique culture and language.

Aranmore’s EaL/D students come from a wide range of countries and nearly every continent, some of which include: China, South Sudan, Italy, Vietnam, Chile, and Afghanistan – just to name a few.

EaL/D students prior learning in English and educational backgrounds are wide-ranging, with some students having studied English for only a few months, whereas others have studied English for several. Many students have attended continuous schooling in other countries, whilst others may have experienced gaps in their education.

For WACE and ATAR, EaL/D is considered equivalent to English, therefore eligible EaL/D students sitting at ATAR level may use their mark for university entrance.

There's probably a reason why the yearbook seems to jump from A-C to M last names on the following page too.

Oh wow interesting. But, based on what it's saying, it seems like that is just a series of replacement courses for English in the curriculum (he'd still have to take other high school level subjects they have listed), and he'd have to graduate from this school at age 13 to match up with his claimed age, right? Still doesn't seem like the full truth.

[ZeppelinPage]

An Aussie on the Bucks board had this to say a few days ago about it all, apparently it's not uncommon:

1. Thon attended Aranmore College in Perth- it is a standard 7-12 High School (State schools in WA are 8-12, although they're moving to 7-12 to align with civilised society). His attendance there is confirmed by his teacher in this article.

2. Aranmore is where the year book photo is from, you can follow the link above if you like and you'll see it's the same uniform (kids attending a state school aren't going to be wearing a tie, even for a goddamn photo!). The school isn't that far from Mirrabooka (which is a suburb of Perth).

3. The school runs a program for new arrivals to the country to help them integrate into Australian schooling, if you'd like to consider enrolling you can find out more here. I put a call in to an expert who works at a similar school running a similar program on this side of the country (my mother!) who confirmed these programs commonly run as a year agnostic thing (so all years may be in the same class), she pointed out in addition it's not unheard of to accept kids outside of the regular age range for the school (her school is 7-12 but currently has a student in the program who agewise would normally be in Year 6).

So I think you can probably remove at least the assumption he was at a minimum in Year 8 based on point 1, and may want to consider that if his picture is in a class group with folks a few years older than him then it might not really mean much based on point 3.

[Fairview4Life]

It sounds like a specialized program for kids from all kinds of ages and backgrounds, and not just for kids at that school to supplement their education.

[oaktownwarriors87]

I wonder if it's the same Reddit "detectives" that "found" the Boston Bomber

[Black Jack]

He's 23 going on 24. That's a big failure on the Bucks part for drafting him so high. Maybe they figured that this draft was weak as hell anyway, so why not take a 7'1 kid with length who could at least block some shots? They are length whores after all with their players (which isn't a bad thing really).

Yeah those Bucks sure are size queens

[Novocaine]

I think Maker is probably older than 19 years old, because that's extremely common with refugees and he's looked pretty much the same for the last 3/4 years, but I don't give credence to this high-school based theory.

I could see a couple of years being shaved off his age when he arrived in Australia, but not when he was already 19 and had been in Australia for more than a decade. There would be way too many registers by then.

[Narcist]

Don't know if anyone has seen this yet but it's an interesting take on the pictures:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747505873543651328[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/747506029269815296[/tweet]

Yeah that sounds like bs tbh it's not going to matter. That was a reach at ten regardless of his age. bucks really wanted em..let's see what they get.

[axeman23]

Actually what doesn't add up is people claiming a random internet poster would know more about this than both the US government and a bunch of people literally paid to do this.

I'd add that it doesn't say in the yearbook he's in the graduating class. It just has him at the school that year.

If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but going off a reddit post isn't proving something to me.

in australia, yearbook's are only for the graduating class (year 12)

Everywhere? And is there a definitive source that every Aussie yearbook is only for 1 class? Not a single school does otherwise? This is just too shady.

Not sure about every school in Australia. But my High school in Brisbane, we got a year book EVERY year, with EVERY class's photo in it.

[Torres]

they need to make these kids sign contracts which state if they lie about any info, their contracts are void

[King of Canada]

Can't we get him carbon dated?

[Old Man Game]

How did they not catch this earlier? The guy has been a known commodity for awhile.

Sent from my KFFOWI using RealGM mobile app

[Chest Rockwell]

I am rooting for this guy now. Gotta love someone who can hustle an NBA franchise into taking him at 10 with all these question marks.

If this wasn`t an issue, the Bucks or the Maker-Camp would have released some statement to make this go away. But instead the Bucks FO tells the fans to f-off on twitter. Seems fishy..

[Vibranium]

I am rooting for this guy now. Gotta love someone who can hustle an NBA franchise into taking him at 10 with all these question marks.

If this wasn`t an issue, the Bucks or the Maker-Camp would have released some statement to make this go away. But instead the Bucks FO tells the fans to f-off on twitter. Seems fishy..

It'd be funny if he ended up being the GOAT.