From can't-miss to the second round: Emoni Bates has another chance to prove he is special

If you’ve ever seen Emoni Bates feign his body forward only to take a dribble behind his back before draining a step back 3 over a now-out-of-sorts defender, you’d think, “Now that’s an NBA player.”

If you’ve ever seen Emoni Bates do all of that, yet rather than rise and fire, dip his shoulder back toward the basket, cross up the defender with his left hand and drive to the rim before using a church-music soft flick of the wrist to lay it in, you’d say, “Now that’s a great NBA player.”

Six-foot-nine and uncommonly talented, there is a reason Bates was the top-ranked recruit in his class starting in middle school.

There’s a reason his father was able to create his own high school team in Ypsilanti, Michigan — complete with shoe deals and ESPN appearances. There’s a reason why no one really blinked when he was called "the next LeBron James." There’s a reason why he was on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" at the age of 15.

“Born For This,” the cover read.

The thing is, if you watched Emoni Bates do almost anything other than the above the last few years — as his career spun off course — then you’d also understand why the former can’t-miss lottery pick fell all the way to 49th overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Regardless of draft order, the prodigy is now a pro and everything that got him here — the good, the bad and the ugly — is behind him. No more hurdles. No more excuses. No more waiting. It's up to him now. It actually always was.

Whether Bates, now 19, is ready to seize the opportunity in front of him remains to be seen. He says all the right things. He conveys all the right messages. Yet that has always been the case.

Words don’t matter now. Actions do.

Bates has been in too big a hurry for too long. Now he needs to be patient. He needs to focus on the little things, namely making an up-and-coming team that didn’t need much, but could use the kind of bursts of scoring he has proven capable of providing.

Bates’ history has been told. Child star. Big expectations. Led Ypsilanti Lincoln to its first state title as a freshman and likely would have again as a sophomore if not for COVID and the cancellation of the tournament.

As a junior his father created his own team, Ypsi Prep, which only played 10 games on a national schedule. Emoni finished top five for Naismith Prep Player of the Year anyway.

He soon reclassified as a senior to speed his ascent to the NBA. He chose to play at the University of Memphis and learn under Penny Hardaway, himself a lanky, talented point guard.

Penny was a worker though. For Emoni, nothing worked. On the court. Off the court. There were family, friend and confidence issues. There was competition for playing time. There were injuries. There was immaturity. It all doomed him to just 18 games and 9.7 points per game.

The NBA wasn’t an option, so he transferred to hometown Eastern Michigan in an effort to reboot the process. Before the season began, he was arrested on a gun charge, which was pleaded down.

At Eastern, it was a mixed bag. In an early season game against Michigan, he scored 30 and was the most talented player on a court that included Wolverines Jett Howard (11th overall selection Thursday) and Kobe Bufkin (15th overall).

“Talented,” of course, is not necessarily “best.”

That’s always been an issue for Bates. He scored 43 points — including 29 consecutive for EMU — in a game against Toledo last year. His team lost anyway. His 19.2 points per game looked impressive. EMU’s 8-23 record did not.

As the season went on, well-coached opponents learned to force him out of his comfort zone and into shooting struggles. In two games against Akron, for example, he was held to 4-of-25 shooting (and 1-of-14 from 3).

The result was not the NBA Draft night he once envisioned — green rooms and hugs from commissioner Adam Silver. Bates was an afterthought, a second-round gamble by a Cavaliers team that didn’t even have a first-round selection.

The thing is, none of it matters now. The draft has no bearing on anything any longer, not in a league currently lorded over by two-time MVP and NBA champion Nikola Jokic, the 41st overall selection of the 2014 NBA Draft.

If you can play, you can play. If you can prove it, you can stay. Now is the time for Bates to show not merely who he is but what he wants to be.

No more distractions. No more family or friends to please (hopefully). It’s just him and the one NBA team that believed in him, that still saw something in him, that was willing to give him a chance to come in and work.

Bates has been pulled in so many directions, taken down so many paths, been asked to serve as a profit center based on his potential for so long that this might be refreshing. Just play.

He can do things that few can. If he can do the other things, the little things, the team things, the unselfish things, the mature things, the things that ask a kid to be a man and a prospect to be a pro, then his journey will be something of an inspirational story. If not, then not.

"Born for this," Sports Illustrated once declared. The magazine wasn’t wrong.

It’s just time for Emoni Bates to prove it.