Thon Maker is at least 23 years old

[Hoopz Afrik]

Random but didn't Shabazz Muhammad lie about his age too?

[UWM_Brew_Buck]

Oh come on, you guys are just jealous that our 19 year old rookie is much older and wiser than your 19 year old rookie

[Gant]

Being 23 instead of 19 shows a lot of maturity.

[SunKing]

Spoiler:

That remind me a dude when I used to live in Ivory Coast younger. When I was in elementary school he was in my class, like born in 1986 or something like that... Then I saw him adding me on FB as a friend, I accept only to see my man was born in 1994 and living with his "mother" (actually a far distant cousin from his actual mother). Just a regular story among others, no harm's done

Is he a footballer ? (soccer)

Random Reddit user = more resourceful than the entire youth basketball system and Milwaukee Bucks organization. I mean how hard is it to dig up published info on the kid, way to perform your due diligence

internet is a scary thing if you know how to use it.
~~~
out topic


he claimed as 19 years old.

Good old Joseph Minala

You can't generalize about that type of stuff, but it's totally a real business driven by fraudulent agents (african as white ones btw).

Same stuff go about some shady eastern and south american players (hm Radamel...) in sports.

[Novocaine]

Like most conspiracy theories on Reddit this one packs a juicy wallop of scandalous details but overlooks the obvious signs that it isn't true.

If he was going to lie about his age, he would lie about his African timeline, not his Australian one which is all documented.

It would be like Shabaaz Muhammad's dad lying about how many years he spent at UCLA. Just doesn't make any sense.

I used to believe in that.

But believing in that now, requires you to believe that he graduated high-school in Australia at age 13, then took a gap year, then came to the US, enrolled in year 8, did high-school again, graduated high-school again, then had another gap year in Canada and is now 19.

No, all it requires you to believe is that a school (it's 7th through 12th, so not even strictly a high school) that holds itself out as an ESL program for incoming foreigners actually does so.

C'mon. Are you still making Ed Smith's case that the yearbook was for a remedial English class? He graduated in 2010 from an ESL program that included Kyle O'Donnell - a winner of the the Academic Excellence award in English (and also 23 years old now)? Not sure what to say if you think that's reasonable or even plausible.

Didn't his agent also said, and was often repeated, that he only started playing ball 5 years ago in Sidney? We know have evidence he was playing basketball in Perth in 2007. So he has at least 9 years of structured basketball, not 5.

Conversely, you would have to believe that all his immigration records were faked to believe the opposite. Think about that for a second: his handlers are smart enough to fake his birthdate on the front side, but then decided to have him make two trips through documented high schools? I'm not buying that

Not in the slightest.

You just need to believe Ed Smith saw Maker playing basketball as a high-school senior in Perth in 2010. Then he simply got a new document from the Sudanese government stating that Thon Maker was actually 13 years old. He moved him to Sidney, then to the US as a 14 years old and the rest is history. Sounds way more plausible than the bizarre ESL program thingy no?

[John Murdoch]

Oh come on, you guys are just jealous that our 19 year old rookie is much older and wiser than your 19 year old rookie

He could pass for Ingrams dad rn bruh

[TGsoGood]

Random but didn't Shabazz Muhammad lie about his age too?

Technically, his father lied. He was 1 year older in his case

http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2013/3/22/4135588/shabazz-muhammad-age-ucla-la-times-nba-draft

[MrBaynes]

Reddit. Enough said.

[rallydurham]

This is probably the strangest lottery pick I've ever seen and I've been following the nba draft closely for longer than Thon Maker has allegedly been alive.

I mean the hype behind this guy has been unbelievable for years. And he looks awful in videos.

Chances this guy is in the nba 4 years from now? I'd be shocked if he ever gets another deal. I woukd imagine he only plays out his 2 guaranteed years.

[HeartBreakKid]

It is funny that people keep defending Maker as if him not being 23 years old doesn't make him a trash pick.

Maker sucks at ball, and is literally living off a mixtape people saw 3 or 4 years ago. This is like 100x worse than the Wiggins hype. The guy AT BEST is a 19 year old, who couldn't dominate Canadian Highschool basketball and has looked horrible (as in he doesn't look like he should even be a pro) when ever he has played against other NBA caliber prospects. He flat out ducked college because he knew no one would touch him in the draft. His upside is massively overrated, people only rate athleticism and size when it comes to ceiling and floor, when IQ and skills still need to be factored to some degree.

[FlatearthZorro]

Well, I do believe this, any1 who's born in a 3rd world country could say he's as old as he wants to be. Just watch the VICE documentary on the African countries and how a white dude bribed the local authorities and they made him out to be either much younger or older than he was(they made him a birth certificate)...


I do not believe Ibaka or Biyombo are 26 or 23, respectively. Biyombo is at the very least 25, Ibaka at least 28 in my opinion, maybe even older.


In European football(you call it soccer), there have been a ton of cases in which African players cheated about their age(Jay Jay Okocha, Tariboo West, the guy from Lazio who said he's 17, looks 40+, I just saw he's posted on the previous page).

[FlatearthZorro]

We saw that a lot in soccer in Europe. In kids under 14 tournament there´s always somme big black dude with deep voice,big beard in one of the bigger teams that say they are 12 years old,and you can see they are 20 years old at least.

That's how African countries' youth teams used to win World cups and then sell the 20+ years old dudes to famous European clubs.

[Foye]

The draft system itself is quite a problem in the NBA because there's such a huge disparity in salary. First pick gets > 5 mil. per year. 30th pick barely over a million.

So for players from abroad there's definitely a huge incentive to lie about their ages to ensure they are guaranteed a couple millions more.

[Foye]

We saw that a lot in soccer in Europe. In kids under 14 tournament there´s always somme big black dude with deep voice,big beard in one of the bigger teams that say they are 12 years old,and you can see they are 20 years old at least.

That's how African countries' youth teams used to win World cups and then sell the 20+ years old dudes to famous European clubs.

Happens everywhere.

Remember as a youth soccer player (I was like 15 when I started to play for my local u19 team)...we were playing against sh*tloads of teams that had guys in there who looked like they were about to turn 30 soon. Some teams literally didn't have enough youth players it seemed and would throw anyone out there willing to play.
I was this little skinny kid and they forced me to play against bears. It did help my development as a player though.

[Slartibartfast]

23 Jump Street: The Thon Maker Story.

[Braggins]

Then you have Biyombo who somebody showed apparently was more like 26-27 right now, not 23.

Except that this absolutely never happened. The only evidence ever presented for Biyombo not being his listed age was a rumor before the draft that some GMs were concerned about his age, with the only given reason being simply that he is from the Congo. He also had a bone age test done in Spain when he initially moved there from the Congo that concluded that his age at the time was 16-17, but almost certainly not older than that. His listed age at that time of the test was 16. This is nothing more than a story that people believe because people like stories.

I'm not taking sides, but they did a study in India on epiphyseal fusion in the wrist, and there wasn't 100% fusion for males until the 20 - 21 age group. Also, this information was from Biyombo's agent who presumably paid a doctor of his choosing and arranged the entire thing alone w/ no involvement from an impartial party. So it's not really conclusive evidence.

Thats fair, but the point still remains that there is no positive evidence that he is older than his listed age. Only the rumor. Even if the bone age test evidence is shaky at best, it is still more than the evidence to the contrary. He also didn't look particular old when he was entering the league, so until we have something more substantial to go on I'm going to take issue with anyone acting like it is a foregone conclusion that he lied about his age. It takes many leaps of faith to draw that conclusion based on the information we have.

[sogood]

Throwback pic from his playing days in the AAU.

[Tave]

I used to believe in that.

But believing in that now, requires you to believe that he graduated high-school in Australia at age 13, then took a gap year, then came to the US, enrolled in year 8, did high-school again, graduated high-school again, then had another gap year in Canada and is now 19.

No, all it requires you to believe is that a school (it's 7th through 12th, so not even strictly a high school) that holds itself out as an ESL program for incoming foreigners actually does so.

C'mon. Are you still making Ed Smith's case that the yearbook was for a remedial English class? He graduated in 2010 from an ESL program that included Kyle O'Donnell - a winner of the the Academic Excellence award in English (and also 23 years old now)? Not sure what to say if you think that's reasonable or even plausible.

Didn't his agent also said, and was often repeated, that he only started playing ball 5 years ago in Sidney? We know have evidence he was playing basketball in Perth in 2007. So he has at least 9 years of structured basketball, not 5.

Conversely, you would have to believe that all his immigration records were faked to believe the opposite. Think about that for a second: his handlers are smart enough to fake his birthdate on the front side, but then decided to have him make two trips through documented high schools? I'm not buying that

Not in the slightest.

You just need to believe Ed Smith saw Maker playing basketball as a high-school senior in Perth in 2010. Then he simply got a new document from the Sudanese government stating that Thon Maker was actually 13 years old. He moved him to Sidney, then to the US as a 14 years old and the rest is history. Sounds way more plausible than the bizarre ESL program thingy no?

In this case it's completely immaterial what Sudan or Smith are saying his birthdate is: all that matters is when he immigrated to Australia, because it's the Australian timeline at issue. If immigration records reflect that he arrived in Australia 4 years prior to when his camp claims, well then there's your answer.

[Novocaine]

No, all it requires you to believe is that a school (it's 7th through 12th, so not even strictly a high school) that holds itself out as an ESL program for incoming foreigners actually does so.

C'mon. Are you still making Ed Smith's case that the yearbook was for a remedial English class? He graduated in 2010 from an ESL program that included Kyle O'Donnell - a winner of the the Academic Excellence award in English (and also 23 years old now)? Not sure what to say if you think that's reasonable or even plausible.

Didn't his agent also said, and was often repeated, that he only started playing ball 5 years ago in Sidney? We know have evidence he was playing basketball in Perth in 2007. So he has at least 9 years of structured basketball, not 5.

Conversely, you would have to believe that all his immigration records were faked to believe the opposite. Think about that for a second: his handlers are smart enough to fake his birthdate on the front side, but then decided to have him make two trips through documented high schools? I'm not buying that

Not in the slightest.

You just need to believe Ed Smith saw Maker playing basketball as a high-school senior in Perth in 2010. Then he simply got a new document from the Sudanese government stating that Thon Maker was actually 13 years old. He moved him to Sidney, then to the US as a 14 years old and the rest is history. Sounds way more plausible than the bizarre ESL program thingy no?

In this case it's completely immaterial what Sudan or Smith are saying his birthdate is: all that matters is when he immigrated to Australia, because it's the Australian timeline at issue. If immigration records reflect that he arrived in Australia 4 years prior to when his camp claims, well then there's your answer.

He emigrated to Australia as a 10 years old, graduated from high-school in Perth as a 17 years old, then his age record was "corrected" because Smith got a birth certificate from Sudan stating he had been born in 1997, the next year he was in Sidney as a 13 years older and the following one he was starting high-school again in the US. This seems to be the most plausible explanation to me.

[Novocaine]

It is funny that people keep defending Maker as if him not being 23 years old doesn't make him a trash pick.

Maker sucks at ball, and is literally living off a mixtape people saw 3 or 4 years ago. This is like 100x worse than the Wiggins hype. The guy AT BEST is a 19 year old, who couldn't dominate Canadian Highschool basketball and has looked horrible (as in he doesn't look like he should even be a pro) when ever he has played against other NBA caliber prospects. He flat out ducked college because he knew no one would touch him in the draft. His upside is massively overrated, people only rate athleticism and size when it comes to ceiling and floor, when IQ and skills still need to be factored to some degree.

Yeah. I think the most impressive con here isn't even the age one. It's getting a guy who looked so underwhelming just last April playing against chubby kids who won't even sniff NCAA basketball, let alone pro ball, drafted in the lottery.