OT: Thon Maker is actually 23 years old

[Lord Eder]

Can someone explain this to me?

From the general board thread:


This article says the VISA granted to him by Australia in 2002(?) states his birth year was 1997. So at that time the Australian government thought he was 5-6 years old. Somehow they got him to grade 9 by 2007 and graduating highschool by 2010, according to Reddit? So they took a Sudanese refugee who needed English lessons and who they thought was 5 years old, and stuck him in classes with 10 year olds?

That...does not seem likely to me.

Wouldn't be surprised if there was a clerical error and his birth year is actually 1992.

A clerical error at what stage though? When Australia issued him his VISA, did it say 1997 like this article says? If so, any school he went to is going to get that documentation and put him in an age appropriate class. They aren't going to toss a kid that the government says is 5 years old and who doesn't speak english, right into grade 5. If the paper made the error when writing the article this year and his VISA said 1992, that is something the US and Canadian governments would have known immediately and he would not have been 'repeating' highschool here, and the NBA and Bucks would have found out immediately and he wouldn't have been in the draft as a 19 year old.

The two pages of the year book don't even really make sense. On the left hand side you have kids named A, B and C. Then suddenly on the right page your into kids with named M. Not to mention the 2 different alignments. It could be a page that was cut out and pasted in that spot. You look up that school and you'll find out it's a school that takes students from grade 7 to grade 12. I'm not saying that it's all false, but that very well could be his school photo page from grade 7, cut out and pasted beside the grade 12 graduates.

[EJaggit]

" WHY ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT ONLY BLACK GUYS HAVE LIED ABOUT THEIR AGE. THE SUBTLE RACISM IS REAL"


It's unfortunate though. But he's still young and could make an impact.

[TheGoodDoctor]

Whatever happened to the 30 year old that was playing high school ball? He was arrested, and then what...?

When they looked at his driver's license they released him as a juvenile.

[dozendonuts]

If he graduated high school in 2010 he'd actually be 24, born in 1992.

[DrCoach]

The Real Question is why Stevn A smith is in his graduating class at the top right

[TheGoodDoctor]

Finding out stuff like this should make it where teams can void contracts or pay league minimum as a penalty for lying about their age. It really isn't fair to a team that they waste their pick on a player way behind what they were lead to believe.

This makes the pick even more atrocious.

[Tortiglioni]

Nothing beats Solomon Alabi. He was at least 40 when he was drafted by the Raptors.

[Wo1verine]

Needs to be disciplined for sure.

That's BS that he'd lie **** POS ( should this be true)

[omar36]

i still dont get how one can manage to hide their age from Australia to Canada.

did the Canadian hs even bother to check? im 99% sure austraila has records as good as ours.
its quite possible thats another thon maker.

im sure a billion dollar organization picking 10th in the lottery would do their due diligence.

[TorontoBaller]

and did he have a girlfriend?
cuz, that might just be statutory rape... just saying... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[MessiahUjiri]

Nothing beats Solomon Alabi. He was at least 40 when he was drafted by the Raptors.

I'm pretty sure Aaron Gray was at least 45.

Remember the time Kobe used him as a screen and score on us?

[TheGoodDoctor]

Maybe there are like 80 Thon Makers out of Sudan, I mean how many Mamadou N'diayes are there

Unless all 80 have the same face then this is pretty damning evidence.

I used to support Thon but f that. Screw a kid trying to manipulate the system.

[RyderMike]

Wouldn't be surprised if there was a clerical error and his birth year is actually 1992.

A clerical error at what stage though? When Australia issued him his VISA, did it say 1997 like this article says? If so, any school he went to is going to get that documentation and put him in an age appropriate class. They aren't going to toss a kid that the government says is 5 years old and who doesn't speak english, right into grade 5. If the paper made the error when writing the article this year and his VISA said 1992, that is something the US and Canadian governments would have known immediately and he would not have been 'repeating' highschool here, and the NBA and Bucks would have found out immediately and he wouldn't have been in the draft as a 19 year old.

The two pages of the year book don't even really make sense. On the left hand side you have kids named A, B and C. Then suddenly on the right page your into kids with named M. Not to mention the 2 different alignments. It could be a page that was cut out and pasted in that spot. You look up that school and you'll find out it's a school that takes students from grade 7 to grade 12. I'm not saying that it's all false, but that very well could be his school photo page from grade 7, cut out and pasted beside the grade 12 graduates.

That was from the original posted photo last week, many people stated that, however check the first post in this thread and it makes it easier to understand, the original photo just showed the bottom, so the A-D kids are on the left page, and the E-L kids are above Maker and weren't in the original photo last week because it wasn't part on the picture.

[bluerap23]

This was all over the internet before the draft. I'm sure Milwaukee did their research.

[Dr Positivity]

This looks pretty bad. While it's unlikely the Bucks couldn't find the same information a reddit user did, especially considering they were the very same team that drafted Yi, it's possible they wanted to draft him even at 23-24.

[David-Kornel]

Also, the school the yearbook is from has an extensive ESL program that includes kids from all sorts of age groups. So he could have, for example, graduated from an ESL program in 2010 from that school and not have been an 18 year old. That is what his guardian told Givony today.

So according to this theory a 5 year old kid arriving in Australia would be in an ESL program 8 years after? He would have been in an English speaking country almost twice as long as he was alive before arriving (as a 5 year old child). And you don't think that's a credibility stretch?

[artsncrafts]

Remember when reddit identified the Boston bomber(s)?

Unsourced internet pictures from random people aren't actually proof of anything. We have been discussing this since the day of the draft: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1456865

I mean this is pretty convincing lol https://vid.me/ncxK

a few thing are weird about this,

the pages dont line up, the names arent in order and also there is random tape or something around his picture

not saying its a lie, but this video isnt great proof.

[BismackonLebron]

The bigger question outside of basketball is what kind of person does this make Thon Maker. This shows to me he is not trustworthy and above all else most likely a pedophile. If he's 23-24 now and attended 5 years of high school that would put him in grade 9 when he was 18-19. The girls in his class would only have been 14 and the legal age of consent in Canada is 16 I believe.

If this scandal continues to go viral and some ex classmates that were duped by Thon read about this he may be in some really serious legal trouble and face stat rape charges.

Of course if he's innocent and actually 19, which seems unlikely than I and many others owe him an apology. He'd also have a good case to sue the guy that has been slandering him with the yearbook photos.

I hope the law makers (pun intended) investigate further into this along with the Nba. I'm tired of guys lying about their age to trick nba teams, it's very unethical. If he is guilty I'd like to see an example made out of him. I don't care how hard an up bringing he's had. Lying about your age to steal millions and rape young girls is NOT ok.

[RyderMike]

Well that is obviously this Thon Maker. This article clearly references Susan Chuot, who people saw on the original picture on draft night and found out she was a 23 professional athlete in the AFL. She knows Thon in this article, and they are both in that picture.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/index.html?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_RED&mode=premium&dest=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/australians-dance-through-hoops-to-top-nba-draft/news-story/14c76f851812a82085483ebb75a7fc8d&memtype=anonymous

[The_Hater]

I mean 23 still isn't old and he can still become a decent player but i don't think he has that star potential. If you send most 23 year olds in the NBA back to highschool (in canada) they would avg 40ppg lol

Umm, the difference between 19 and 23 in terms of development is massive. Instead of being the 10th overall pick, maker would have certainly would have gone Undrafted. Having played against high school kids instead of dominating the NCAA at age 23, his lost developmental years wouldn't likely project to an NBA player.

This is the 2nd time the Bucks have picked a player who was found to be several years older than his actual age after the draft. We all remember a so-called 18 year old, 6th overall bust named YI Jianlian?