It was senior evening, so Johnuel “Boogie” Fland knew his feelings could be operating excessive. And that was earlier than the day even arrived. The day of took issues to an entire different stage.
He was in school that morning when the textual content got here by means of. It was John Calipari: I’m coming to the sport as we speak. Realizing the man who had simply recruited him could be within the constructing, the Arkansas commit all of a sudden had much more motivation for that evening’s recreation. “My household was there, my future head coach was there—and only for him to pop up like that was very particular,” Fland says. “I simply needed to placed on a present.”
All of it hit even tougher on the gymnasium that evening. “I used to be tearing up earlier than the sport, after which as soon as I noticed they had been honoring me for making the McDonald’s All American Workforce, the tears got here operating down,” he says. As soon as the sport tipped, Fland instantly made clear that the emotion of the event wouldn’t derail him from performing on the stage that has made him a top-20 recruit and arguably one of many high level guards within the 2024 class. The road: 29 factors, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and a couple of steals to steer his Archbishop Stepinac (NY) squad to a senior-night dub.
His solely slight disappointment afterward? “Man, I used to be attempting to get 50,” Fland says. “I used to be locked in.”
It was a dominant however by no means stunning displaying from Fland, the 6-3, 175-pound, Bronx-born guard who checks all of the containers for an elite ground common. Explosive and in-control, he dictates tempo as a scorer and playmaker, a talent set made clear by the gamers whose video games he works to emulate: everybody from LeBron and SGA to Ja Morant, Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley. That features working to excellent one of many recreation’s most unstoppable photographs.
“For those who go on YouTube and search my identify, you’ll see a step-back because the thumbnail. Simply watch what number of step-backs I do,” he says. “I’m so fast, they attempt to play the shot and the drive, and once I see that they’re taking part in the drive, it’s simple for me to grab again and step again.”
The trail that took Fland from the Bronx to White Plains (the place Stepinac is situated) and can see him in Lexington main a sometimes loaded Wildcat recruiting class subsequent winter has included loads of stops that allowed him to point out his talent set and sky-high potential. He’s been among the many finest hoopers at his age stage since anybody can keep in mind. “After I was in, I believe, second grade, we had been ranked high 25 within the nation,” he says of his AAU squad. “Yeah, second grade, nevertheless it was one thing to us.”
A number of years later, he led his AAU group to the nationwide championship recreation, the place he missed what might have been a game-winning shot. “That second taught me that, you realize, there’s going to be lows,” he says now. “I used to be so used to profitable. That was an eye-opener for me. That taught me I gotta get higher.”
The advance actually hasn’t stopped, as he’s proven repeatedly towards elite competitors. He was a member of the U17 US nationwide group that took gold on the 2022 FIBA World Cup and was chosen to hitch the stacked US roster for the 2024 Nike Hoop Summit. With that résumé, the place can he nonetheless enhance? “Earlier than Coach Cal left on senior evening, he mentioned I want to speak extra, be extra vocal—it helps all people on the ground, and it helps me.”
That shouldn’t be too tough. Fland brings the identical power to each court docket he steps on, together with his Bronx roots at all times on show.
“New York is totally different. When folks say that, it undoubtedly is true,” he affirm emphatically. “You gotta have some swagger to you. You possibly can’t be stiff. If you stroll within the gymnasium, they gotta know, Oh, he’s from New York.”
Portrait by Marcus Stevens.
