This story seems in SLAM 252. Get your copy now.
Rising up the youngest of 4 siblings, Nate Ament did all the pieces his brothers did. It’s why relating to sports activities, soccer was the very first thing he gravitated to. His older brothers performed it, so he did, too. And when his third oldest brother Frederick began to select up basketball, Nate was greater than sport.
By the point he was 10, the quickly rising Manassas, VA, native realized that he was going to be too tall to remain on the pitch. So hoops it was. It began out as 1s and 2s on the native elementary faculty. After a two-minute stroll, Nate and his brothers have been on the blacktop, assembly up with Nate’s classmates and Frederick’s buddies from highschool. The battles have been enjoyable, but it surely was delight that Nate was searching for, even in center faculty.
“The half that I fell in love with was with the ability to play a sport the place you’ll be able to take somebody 1-on-1 and you’ll attempt to beat them, not simply offensively however defensively,” Nate says. “With the ability to have a matchup is with the ability to say, I’m gonna guard you the entire sport. I’m gonna cease you from scoring on me. I’m gonna be sure that my staff wins. So, I actually fell in love with the competitiveness of it.”
Seven years later, that may, love and willpower serves as the muse of Nate’s sport, a sport that has seen him blossom right into a consensus top-5 participant within the Class of 2025 and the No. 1 participant within the state of Virginia. Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, UConn, Virginia and plenty of, many others have stamped the five-star do-it-all wing as a future difference-maker for his or her squads.
Between the 3SSB circuit and his tape out at Highland Excessive Faculty, it’s straightforward to categorise Ament as the trendy NBA archetype. He’s a prolonged 6-9 ahead who’s constantly fine-tuning the framework of his three-level scoring. The locks on protection are there, too. Thoughts you, with a deal with and quickness to interrupt down defenders in transition and off the wing. Dimension-ups, step-back treys and low-post fades, it’s all his sport.
“From after I first began taking part in basketball to now, I knew that you simply simply must be constant, at all times getting within the fitness center. In something I did, I simply knew that I needed to be one of the best,” Nate says. “I simply stored it constant. I knew that I had the capabilities to be among the finest within the nation. However for me, it was simply vital to not rush issues and to remain affected person with my journey, as a result of my journey’s totally different than anybody else’s.”
As of late, the sport has taken him from the gleaming lights of Occasions Sq. to the gold medal podium on the FIBA AmeriCup with the U18 USA Staff. And to cap off a summer season pushed by years of dedication to his craft, he took house the Terrence Clarke Spalding MVP Award and the dub on the SLAM Summer time Basic Vol. 6. Whereas he netted contested jumpers and rose as much as meet the rim quite a lot of instances whereas taking part in on the Rucker Park, recollections from his days on the blacktop resurfaced. He needed to get one of the best of his matchup, similar to his brothers.
“They attempt to be one of the best at all the pieces they’ll do, whether or not that’s sports activities, whether or not that’s faculty, life or something. I strive to try this with basketball as nicely,” he says. “They’re form of my motivation. I play laborious for them. Not only for my brothers, however for my complete household, simply to make it possible for I’m representing the identify on the again of my jersey in the easiest way attainable.”
Portraits by Marcus Stevens.
