Thon Maker is at least 23 years old

[City of Trees]

It matters because if Thon is 19 and makes no improvement to his game in 4 years then he's probably considered a bust... by that logic Thon could be looked at as a bust- if he really is 23.

I'm not saying he is a bust but you have to admit the Bucks envisioned a different player at 23.
Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[RussellandFlow]

Not sure if posted, but there is a video of the guy flipping through the pages. Looks pretty legit to me.

https://vid.me/ncxK

[Devin 1L]

You guys are looking at this all wrong...

The Bucks just got an athletic seven footer going into his prime locked into a rookie scale contract.

Well played, Bucks. Well played.

[Devin 1L]

Think about how many people say that Ibaka is declining in his mid-late twenties because he lied about his age and he's really over 30 (despite there being no evidence at all for this other than his declining statistics) and yet there's no one saying the same thing about Kevin Love, another power forward declining in his mid-late twenties. It'd make an awful lot of sense if Kevin Love was losing athleticism because he's really 32, but no one would ever say or think that because he's not from Africa.

Yeah, it's because Kevin Love isn't from Africa.

Not because his Uncle was a **** Beach Boy and he'd been in the spotlight his whole life.

[Latrell]

Hey, at least he passed the "must be 1 year removed from high school" requirement, just overshot it by about 4 years

Maybe Thon's camp knew that NCAA schools would actually look into this more carefully than the Bucks and they would spoil everything.

[minnytola1960]

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]

Not buying this excuse for a second. At least three of the other students on that page have been confirmed to be 23 via Facebook. If what his handler said is true, we would see students of all ages around Thon on that yearbook page. The odds that all three students that have had their ages confirmed would just so happen to be 23 is extremely low. Add on to that that 23 year olds just so happen to conveniently line up with the 2010 graduation year and I'm calling BS.

Not saying that page isn't for just ESL students, it's just incredibly likely they are all graduating from high school period, not just the program.

[AussieCeltic]

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.

Underrated comment!

[SKR]

[sacking123]

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.

Underrated comment!

No it's not an underrated comment. How on earth does that fit with the drama queens in here that just crave for this kind of thing to be true.

[naabzor]

There is no proof he is 23 and that book is not a proof either. Move on.

[Dez]

From reddit

i've placed the images behind spoiler tags cos they fill the screen

Spoiler:

video to prove these images weren't shopped

another user claims to have graduated from Aranmore in 2007, shows thon maker was in year 9 (age 14-15), even shows the girl directly to his left (in the 2010 yearbook) in the front row

Spoiler:

Rough timeline of his journey from Perth schoolboy to NBA lottery pick
200x-2010
Thon Maker is enrolled in Aranmore Catholic College, a high school in Perth. He was part of the 2010 graduating class.

2010-2011
During this time he was discovered by Edmund Smith (should actually be Edward Smith, poster made a mistake), an extremely shady talent scout who worked mainly with Sudanese kids and had a reputation for being controlling. He saw Thon’s size, athleticism and potential but also knew it would never work with him being 18 already and still so raw and skinny.

2011
In early 2011, Thon Maker resurfaced as a 14 year old prodigy in Sydney where he joined the local club, St George Saints, an U/16 Division 2 squad. He didn’t attend school at this time and just played basketball, away from anyone who had previously known him and was a way to build credibility around his age. I suspect his age was somehow changed in the transition from Perth to Sydney.

Late 2011-2012
He had gone to camps in the US by this time and the highlight reels of the amazing “8th grader” had started to emerge.

2012-2015
Maker began 8th grade in the 2011-2012 season. Afterwards he was bounced around various schools, at least 3 in the US and a couple as well in Canada.

2016
Edmund Smith’s plan had succeeded and this was the first of his projects to get him a cut of NBA salary.
After hearing John Hammond’s responses on the radio I suspect he knew or suspected Thon was older, he just didn’t care. He connected personally with Thon and was willing to invest in his strong intangibles and it was an age range he could work with. Only time will tell if he made the right move. Obviously, being a raw 21-23 year old is completely different from being raw at 19.

TLDR: Thon Maker graduated high school in 2010 in Australia and 6 years later was drafted fresh out of high school. There is strong evidence to suggest Thon Maker could be as old as 23
Discussion is encouraged, happy for others to point out the flaws in this
edit: bonus anecdotal evidence found on the web, some from years back which support these claims

more anecdotal evidence:

Spoiler:

here's a FB of someone in that school graduation book who's 23 yo

Spoiler:

susan chuot's facebook

You posted the yearbook photo with names blurred out and then post a photo of that same yearbook with the names left untouched.

Solid job, I'm sure those people will be thrilled with the creeps that will attract.

[Dr Aki]

...entire OP...

You posted the yearbook photo with names blurred out and then post a photo of that same yearbook with the names left untouched.

Solid job, I'm sure those people will be thrilled with the creeps that will attract.

well i wasn't the one who made the photos, this be all over reddit for at least 24 hours anyway

and we all know that the blurred names only attracts the argument that the "photo is doctored" anyway

[Dr Aki]

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

Underrated comment!

No it's not an underrated comment. How on earth does that fit with the drama queens in here that just crave for this kind of thing to be true.

just updated the OP with a photo of the corner of the page that states all the kids shown in the original photos are all year 12 students, that should shut down any talk of an age-agnostic program english program



pause the video at 0:11 https://vid.me/ncxK

[MagicStarwipe]

Maybe he graduated from the school in Perth when he was 13

[thamadkant]

Ah reddit, the reliable source for personal and confidential information on NBA players.

it might be reddit, but it's also pretty damning

You can be liable for litigation for all the photos you leaked out with un-blurred names. You are exposing innocent people by showing their faces and their names without them knowing or without permission. Not saying it will happen, but you if one of those people decide to take action you might be exposed to any litigation.



2nd, I'm from Australia.
I have a younger sister who just graduated high school (Year 12 here), she is 17 years old... she has a friend who is from China and is only 15 years old, a very young "Year 12" student.


What I'm saying is, since Thon Maker was a migrant who probably didn't have proper documents, he could of been a "young" Year 12 student... or a 17~18 year old Year 12 student. He wasnt born in Australia, so his birth certificate is not certified by any Australian hospitals.



Milwaukee Bucks did their due diligence, they have scouts and people who would spent days or weeks chasing up all the information.
A Reddit (I'm a redditor too and I saw this over there last week) person posting his Year book is not enough proof, He too could be liable for litigation if people are negatively affected by them being identified without permission.


Let's say, Maker is 23 years old indeed...
His 7'1 height and 7'3 wingsoan are "real"... can't fake that.
His abilities are "real".... he has shown it to scouts and in game.
His interview went well enough to show he has the right attitude....

Worst case, if he is 23 years old, is that he is still pretty skilled for his size, there arent many 7 footers who does what can, especially in the modern game.

[Peja Stojakovic]

why shouldn't i believe what thon's handlers say or what the bucks believe or what givony believes? that he attended an esl program at a particular hs, graduated into regular stream, and is more or less the age he purports to be? australia must have some kind of health card, permanent residence card, or social insurance number that incorporates his birth date. the only opportunity to fudge would have been when he came over from sudan in '03

[Novocaine]

Ah reddit, the reliable source for personal and confidential information on NBA players.

it might be reddit, but it's also pretty damning

You can be liable for litigation for all the photos you leaked out with un-blurred names. You are exposing innocent people by showing their faces and their names without them knowing or without permission. Not saying it will happen, but you if one of those people decide to take action you might be exposed to any litigation.



2nd, I'm from Australia.
I have a younger sister who just graduated high school (Year 12 here), she is 17 years old... she has a friend who is from China and is only 15 years old, a very young "Year 12" student.


What I'm saying is, since Thon Maker was a migrant who probably didn't have proper documents, he could of been a "young" Year 12 student... or a 17~18 year old Year 12 student. He wasnt born in Australia, so his birth certificate is not certified by any Australian hospitals.



Milwaukee Bucks did their due diligence, they have scouts and people who would spent days or weeks chasing up all the information.
A Reddit (I'm a redditor too and I saw this over there last week) person posting his Year book is not enough proof, He too could be liable for litigation if people are negatively affected by them being identified without permission.


Let's say, Maker is 23 years old indeed...
His 7'1 height and 7'3 wingsoan are "real"... can't fake that.
His abilities are "real".... he has shown it to scouts and in game.
His interview went well enough to show he has the right attitude....

Worst case, if he is 23 years old, is that he is still pretty skilled for his size, there arent many 7 footers who does what can, especially in the modern game.

What exactly can he do that is that special? Shooting 30% from the high-school 3 point line, hitting one 3pta per game while also having six turnovers per game? There's nothing remotely special about Thon Maker's on court production so far, regardless if he's 19 or 23.

The league needs to investigate this.

If he's actually 23, then the pick was fraudulent - 23 years old international players aren't eligible for the draft, they're free-agents. They need to vacate the Bucks pick. And the immigration services should probably look into the situation as well.

The league needs to act because, if, and again, if, he's actually 23 years old, shady characters like his caretaker need to be discouraged from pulling this sort of shenanigans. If you're letting him get away with it, the message you're giving him and others like him is basically "it's all fine, we'll whistle and look at the other side". In the long run, it doesn't benefit anyone, and it mostly hurts lots of these kids who are promised the world by unscrupulous human traffickers.

[Novocaine]

why shouldn't i believe what thon's handlers say or what the bucks believe or what givony believes? that he attended an esl program at a particular hs, graduated into regular stream, and is more or less the age he purports to be? australia must have some kind of health card, permanent residence card, or social insurance number that incorporates his birth date. the only opportunity to fudge would have been when he came over from sudan in '03

After reading more upon the issue, I disagree. Two possibilities: he might have taken upon the identify of another Thon Maker, 4 years younger, after graduating from high-school in Australia, then moving to Sidney and shortly afterwards the US as that "new", younger, Thon Maker. Or he might have been originally registered as being born in 1993 and after this shoddy character Smith "scouted" him, he got a birth certificate from Sudan stating that he was actually born in 1997.

In any case, there's enough circunstancial evidence to warrant a deeper investigation by the league. It's time to discourage guys like Smith from abusing the draft process if he actually falsified the kids's age.

[zronv7]

This is similar to Ibaka, his age is listed at 26 but is clearly around 30, his decline in the floor even shows

[Prez]

Knowingly taking an underdeveloped 23 year old 10th is the most Bucks thing ever. Reeks of Hammond arrogantly wanting to one up the league, blinded trying to recreate the magic he found in the Giannis pick, at all costs.