Thon Maker, a sudanese born Basketball player, was this years #10 NBA draft pick. He first reached the spotlights in 2012 when videos of a 7 foot 8th grader with unbelievable athletic abilities started to surface. With his combination of length and skill at the supposed age of 14 many people were certain we was destined for stardom.
But as is the case with many african born athletes, there was lots of speculation surrounding his true age for years. Many Australians claimed to know that he was older than advertised but nobody was ever able to really provide any proof to the matter. Until 4 days ago, when a random Redditor provided a snapshot of a graduation photo of a Perth High School Yearbook from 2010. Meaning that Thon Maker was actually around 17-18 years old in 2010, and not 13 according to his official date of birth (1997)
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/commen...hon/d4ksbb2?context=3&st=ipyolsrs&sh=5a322921
People managed to track down some of the other students in the photo and they are all 23 now.
People were still sceptical and thought it could be a photoshop, but then another Bucks fan managed to track down a student from that High School who has that same yearbook and who then provided this video as evidence that it is indeed not photoshopped
https://vid.me/ncxK
And then someone also posted this 2007 yearbook photo of Thon when he was in 9th grade
So evidently he was in the 9th grade in 2007 and in the 12th grade in 2010 despite his date of birth officially being 1997.
A timeline for the confused:
2007: Thon is in 9th grade, as can be seen in the photo
2010: Thon graduates High School in Australia, so he is 17-18 years old in 2010
2011: Thon is discovered by a shady agent called Edmund Smith who moves him to Sydney
2011: in 2011 Thon resurfaces as a 14 year old Basketball progidy from Sydney, despite as we now know graduating from High School the year before
2011-2012: He moves to the US and enrolls in the 8th grade
2016: Thon Maker gets drafted for his high potential due to his size, length and skill at the age of 19. But as we now know, he is actually 23-24 years old who played against kids 5 years younger than him for the past 4 years.
This begs the question: How the hell did nobody in the NBA and especially nobody in the Bucks organisation figure this out when a random Redditor could? Especially because there were rumours about his age for years.
Also, what will happen to him now? Will the NBA allow him to play in the NBA?
This is essentially no different than landing a job by lying about having a master degree when you actually just started college.
Does the NBA view the yearbook photos as proof? Will he have to change his official date of birth? Will it have legal consequences as he lied about his age on his visa and enrolled in the 8th grade as a grown ass man?
Reddit post with a summary
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/commen...e_probably_far_older/?st=ipyomnhr&sh=be3b05c2
But as is the case with many african born athletes, there was lots of speculation surrounding his true age for years. Many Australians claimed to know that he was older than advertised but nobody was ever able to really provide any proof to the matter. Until 4 days ago, when a random Redditor provided a snapshot of a graduation photo of a Perth High School Yearbook from 2010. Meaning that Thon Maker was actually around 17-18 years old in 2010, and not 13 according to his official date of birth (1997)
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/commen...hon/d4ksbb2?context=3&st=ipyolsrs&sh=5a322921
People managed to track down some of the other students in the photo and they are all 23 now.
People were still sceptical and thought it could be a photoshop, but then another Bucks fan managed to track down a student from that High School who has that same yearbook and who then provided this video as evidence that it is indeed not photoshopped
https://vid.me/ncxK
And then someone also posted this 2007 yearbook photo of Thon when he was in 9th grade
So evidently he was in the 9th grade in 2007 and in the 12th grade in 2010 despite his date of birth officially being 1997.
A timeline for the confused:
2007: Thon is in 9th grade, as can be seen in the photo
2010: Thon graduates High School in Australia, so he is 17-18 years old in 2010
2011: Thon is discovered by a shady agent called Edmund Smith who moves him to Sydney
2011: in 2011 Thon resurfaces as a 14 year old Basketball progidy from Sydney, despite as we now know graduating from High School the year before
2011-2012: He moves to the US and enrolls in the 8th grade
2016: Thon Maker gets drafted for his high potential due to his size, length and skill at the age of 19. But as we now know, he is actually 23-24 years old who played against kids 5 years younger than him for the past 4 years.
This begs the question: How the hell did nobody in the NBA and especially nobody in the Bucks organisation figure this out when a random Redditor could? Especially because there were rumours about his age for years.
Also, what will happen to him now? Will the NBA allow him to play in the NBA?
This is essentially no different than landing a job by lying about having a master degree when you actually just started college.
Does the NBA view the yearbook photos as proof? Will he have to change his official date of birth? Will it have legal consequences as he lied about his age on his visa and enrolled in the 8th grade as a grown ass man?
Reddit post with a summary
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/commen...e_probably_far_older/?st=ipyomnhr&sh=be3b05c2
