Image via Complex Original
1.
Brandon Ingram is a consensus top-two player in this year’s NBA Draft. And for a lot of people, that's all they know about the 18-year-old basketball prodigy.
For those that don't even know that much, he was a pivotal part of the Duke’s run to the Sweet 16 last season, a smooth-shooting small forward who averaged 17.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.0 assists. As a thin 6’9” wing player with long arms, Ingram has drawn comparisons to Kevin Durant and possesses the kind of upside that makes NBA executives drool.
If we’re indeed about to be blessed with the next KD, you should probably do yourself a favor and learn a little bit about him before the Lakers (most likely) snatch him up with the No. 2 pick. Lucky for you, we did the work. Here are 12 Things You Didn’t Know About Brandon Ingram.
2.He grew up a Duke fan.
Kinston, N.C. is typically regarded as UNC territory. There aren’t many Duke fans in town. But that may change now due to its most famous export.
Ingram said he always rooted for Duke as a kid and his fandom was a major factor in his decision to go there.
"My decision to go to Duke wasn't a surprise to people who really knew me because I was always a Duke fan growing up," Ingram said.
3.His mentor is Jerry Stackhouse.
Two-time NBA All-Star Jerry Stackhouse first became acquainted with the Ingram family as a teenager on the playgrounds of Kinston. Stackhouse was far above most of the players his age growing up, so the teenager wanted to play with the older, better guys.
One of those guys was Donald Ingram, Brandon’s dad. The two have stayed friends, and Stackhouse eventually mentored Brandon on his road to the NBA. They remained close when Ingram was at Duke—despite Stackhouse’s loyalties to his alma mater, North Carolina.
4.One Lakers fan has an easy way to improve his jumpshot.
Dylan Ward made a 12-minute YouTube video titled “Your Hair Is In The Way Of Your Natural Shooting Stroke,” just so Brandon Ingram would get the memo ahead of his May workout with the Lakers.
“I’ve been noticing how low [Ingram’s] form is,” says Ward. “He’s [6’9”] and he has problems shooting over people sometimes. So I had this theory and I wanted to get it out as soon as possible, so I played around with [the video] for a week.”
5.Lil Herb is his favorite pregame listen.
According to dukeblueplanet.com, Herb is his favorite guy to bump pregame. Maybe Herb will drop a mixtape titled “Ballin’ Like I’m Ingram,” after his last one, “Ballin’ Like I’m Kobe” went viral.
6.He won a North Carolina state championship in each of his four years in high school.
Ingram won not one, not two, not three, but four state championships in high school making him and teammate Darrell Dunn the only players in the history of North Carolina high school hoops to win four state titles. This is impressive in any state, let alone a state that produced Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry, and Chris Paul.
7.He rocked KD VIII’s on the Cameron court last season.
Ingram, along with the rest of the Blue Devils, wore Durant's latest signature sneaker on the court last season. It’s interesting that Duke went with this sneaker over that of fellow Nike signee and Duke product Kyrie Irving. But it’s easy to see why it was his choice considering...
8.His favorite team is the Thunder and Durant is his favorite player.
Ingram says he models his game after Durant. So it should come with little surprise that he roots for Durant’s team, the Thunder, over his hometown Charlotte Hornets.
9.J. Cole is one of his favorite rappers.
Like many (some?) hip-hop fans, J. Cole appears to be a favorite of Ingram's. He tweeted out the lyrics to “Intro” April 2015.
10.He’s a pretty good artist.
Ingram is drawing contact on the court and drawing pictures off of it.
Ingram’s is particularly fond of sketching NBA players, including James Harden and Jimmy Butler.
11.When he's not balling, he'd like to go fishing.
While NBA executives are fishing for potential stars like Ingram, Ingram could be fishing for bass. Ingram often tweets about his fishing exploits on Twitter.
12.He posed with a friend on Instagram who was wearing a Lakers jersey.
Sign of things to come? Was this intentional? Is this proof of the Illuminati? Probably, maybe, and probably not. But this picture, which was posted in May, set the Internet ablaze with rumors and speculation that Ingram was headed to Los Angeles.
13.He puts in work at all hours of the day.
Even back in his high school days, when he was averaging 24.3 points and 10.4 boards per game during his senior season, Ingram wasn't above getting up a couple hundred more shots into the early morning hours.
“After a rare conference loss last year at Goldsboro High, Ingram worked on his shot from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., after the bus arrived back," Ingram’s high school coach, Perry Tyndall, told The Los Angeles Times.
He was also known to stay late at the Teachers Memorial Recreation Center in Kinston where his father served as the rec director, often times "[taking] 800 shots, staying an hour past its 9 p.m. closing time."