Tyran Stokes’ talent, much like his 6-foot-7, 230-pound frame, is overwhelming.
The Louisville, Ky., native — who announced Tuesday he’ll play college ball next season at Kansas, choosing the Jayhawks over other finalists Kentucky and Oregon — can get to the rim at will, using a combination of skill, size and strength to dominate defenders in the paint.
For years, college coaches and NBA scouts have drooled over the potential of Stokes, a likely 2027 lottery pick. At 18, he’s already won three gold medals with USA Basketball and starred in a Nike commercial. He is repped by one of the most experienced agents in the game (Aaron Goodwin, who originally signed LeBron James) and has more than 500,000 social media followers.
“He’s just so physically gifted,” one college assistant coach told The Athletic last summer, granted anonymity because NCAA rules prohibit coaches from talking publicly about recruits. “LeBron looks like a fish out of water in terms of strength and physicality in the NBA, and that’s what Stokes is going to look like in college. … You just can’t stay in front of him.”
Asked why Stokes is the most coveted recruit in the country, one SEC assistant gave a puzzled look to a reporter, and responded: “Have you seen him?”
Stokes, a McDonald’s All-American, is widely considered the type of player who can change a program or a franchise — if he can get out of his own way.
Those who tune into the grassroots game aren’t always impressed by Stokes’ attitude. In January at an annual high school showcase event, Stokes and his high school assistant coach, 20-year-NBA veteran Jamal Crawford, got into a heated bickering match in the middle of a marquee game, broadcast on NBATV, that ended with Stokes on the bench. Same old Stokes, onlookers must’ve thought — or was it?
There’s been tension around Stokes almost as soon as he came on the scene.
While there’s no doubting his ability, his attitude is another story. It’s been clear that his talent makes him worth the trouble to high-level college programs, but for years, college coaches and scouts have also wondered if his perceived attitude problems will hinder his ability to lead a team.
Should it — will it — matter?
Kansas is a blue blood remaking its roster after an underwhelming season. Coach Bill Self knows Stokes could carry a team on a deep NCAA Tournament run. Other recent top prospects, including BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Duke’s Cameron Boozer and Kansas’ Darryn Peterson starred as freshmen but couldn’t lift their teams to the Final Four. Can Stokes, who already is being scrutinized?
Tyran Stokes said he plans on playing one season of college ball before going to the NBA. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
Last summer at Peach Jam, the premier tournament of the grassroots circuit, Stokes didn’t get back on defense after turnovers and missed shots and snapped at teammates and coaches. He did nothing to hide, or quell, his temper after his Oakland Soldiers team was upset in pool play. His outburst after the loss prompted whispers about if he would stay and play in the final days of the event (he did).
In December at the Les Schwab Invitational, a holiday tournament played annually in Portland, Ore., Rainier Beach — the Seattle school where Stokes transferred before the season — got beat in the quarterfinals by a local team. He was outplayed by kids who had maybe 1/15th of his raw talent and whined to officials.
Most who grumble about Stokes’ attitude do it without attaching their names. Anonymous scouting reports trashing teenagers are catnip in this industry. But as I’ve watched him over the last nine months, I’ve wanted to ask Stokes directly about the chatter swirling around him.
To Stokes’ credit, he doesn’t shy from blunt questions. In December, I asked about the narrative that he has a bad attitude. He didn’t scoff, but answered thoughtfully. “I’m still a kid growing up, still trying to figure out life,” Stokes said. “Off the court, I’m going through stuff. … I’m trying to figure that out, how to manage things.”
He declined to speak to his ending at Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks, the Los Angeles prep school where he played his junior season before suddenly withdrawing in early November, offering a “no comment.”
Stokes said that if “you ask my coaches, teammates, everyone that I’m around, they know I’m a great guy, they know how fun I can be.” A lot of people watch him from a distance, but that doesn’t mean they actually know him.
So I asked people who do, starting with Jason Crowe Jr., Stokes’ teammate with the Oakland Soldiers and at the recent Hoop Summit in Portland, a high school showcase that pits Team USA against a World Select roster in front of dozens of NBA scouts.
“Everybody’s gonna have something to say about the most known person — it comes with the territory of being the top player,” Crowe said. “If you know him, and I’ve known him a very long time, he’s been through a lot in life.”
Tyran and his mom, Keaira, grew up together, Keaira said, after she had him while in high school. Tyran understood early on that he was the man of their household.
When Tyran was 6, Keaira went outside to grab something from the car. Tyran, hearing a door latch, figured his mom had gone to bed for the night. He went around their house, locking all the doors and windows — and locking Keaira out in the process. With Tyran conked out, Keaira banged on the door and windows. When Tyran finally woke up and let her in, he explained that he thought as the last person up, it was his job to keep them safe.
For years Tyran played up a grade or two. Because of his size, it was easy to forget that he wasn’t the same age, and therefore didn’t show the same maturity as his peers. That’s true now, too. When he charges down the floor leading the fast break and scores through three or four defenders, you think, “He must be a full-grown man.” Then he laughs, and you catch a glimpse of his mouthful of braces.
Keaira says her son has “a hard shell, but is soft as cotton on the inside.” When it comes to the chatter about her son, “I just take it as, they can’t pick apart his game, so they’ve got to pick apart his character,” she said. And yet, her instinct is to protect and defend her baby boy — which is why she’s sometimes wanted to respond to cynical online comments. Tyran talks her out of it.
She knows he’s a ruthless competitor — Keaira, an amateur boxer who took up the sport at 14, insisted on raising a tough kid. Tyran is the ultimate alpha who, when he wants, plays with an unmatched ferocity. He acknowledged that sometimes that competitive nature overtakes him.
“I love to compete,” he said. “I don’t think anyone likes losing, but if you lose and you’re smiling after, that don’t sit right with me. Regardless of if it’s Uno, Connect 4, basketball, whatever — if I lose, it’s gonna hurt.”
He left the next part unsaid: It better hurt you, too.
It’s easy, in the name, image and likeness era, to criticize teenage millionaires. Top-ranked freshmen in college hoops can command in the range of $5 million — so they need to be treated like big boys, right?
Though, about that incoming payday, Stokes told me that regardless of where he chose, “the money’s gonna come.” College is merely the next step on his way to the NBA.
“I don’t want to be in college for two, three years,” he said. “I want to go somewhere I can develop in a year and get out.”
Does any of this excuse when Stokes doesn’t play hard, or snaps at his teammate (or coach) when he’s frustrated? Of course not, and he knows that. He proudly told me that during the Washington state tournament this year, when he led Rainier Beach to its second straight championship, capping a season that included scoring a career-high 63 points in a February game and a 29-1 record. “I got compliments from referees, saying how good I’ve been (acting) this season.”
Sometimes when Stokes loses his cool on the court it’s reminiscent of a kid in elementary school acting out because they’re not being challenged academically. Great players learn how to elevate their teammates, not shut down because those teammates aren’t as skilled. But that’s a learned art, and Stokes still has time to develop it, especially if Kansas and Self will coach him hard.
“When you don’t get on his ass, he knows you don’t care,” Keaira said. “He’s drawn to that — he doesn’t stray from the hard coach.”
Crawford, whose son J.J. plays at Rainier Beach, saw that first hand. Six months of being in the gym with Stokes every day gave Crawford a special appreciation of Stokes — “He processes the game at a different level,” Crawford said — and his evolving maturity.
Stokes and Crawford’s public shouting match took place late in the first half of Rainier Beach’s game against Mater Dei during the Hoophall West showcase. Stokes hit a 3, then started running his mouth. Crawford, furious about Stokes’ lack of defense, shouted at him from the bench. They barked at each other from across the court. Stokes got subbed out with two minutes to play in the first half — then sat on the bench for the start of the second.
“Here’s this basketball prodigy and this is probably the first time he’s ever come off the bench,” Crawford said. “And he responded. I had so many people, including NBA scouts, say, ‘Wow, we didn’t know you could coach him hard, we didn’t know you could hold him accountable.’
“That was a blowup that turned into a blessing and a breakthrough. We went to dinner that night and his mom told me, ‘This is all he wants, to be coached.’”
Because he’s guarded and keeps a tight circle — Stokes walks into the gym with no entourage, unusual for a top high school athlete — many assume he’s an egotistical jerk.
But those who have put in time to earn his trust get to see a different version. The one who quietly bought shoes and a winter coat for two Rainier Beach students in need. The one who will sign autographs for hours, posing for pictures with little kids.
There are still times Stokes reverts back to his worst tendencies on the basketball court. But Crawford said “the right people” have noticed Stokes’ growth. They saw it during Hoop Summit, when Stokes scored 15 and helped Team USA to a 102-100 overtime win against the World Select team, celebrating a teammate’s steal and score with more enthusiasm than any of his own dunks, hollering and chest bumping.
As the U.S. struggled to find a rhythm early, he spent dead balls running over to the bench to talk through defensive schemes with the staff, often finishing his coaches’ sentences. When coaches ripped Team USA for not playing defense, Stokes was the one in the huddle encouraging his teammates, assuring them they were OK, then snagging a steal the next possession.
Was this a different player, or was he just being looked at differently? And which version will he be at Kansas?
