It was senior evening, so Johnuel “Boogie” Fland knew his feelings can be operating excessive. And that was earlier than the day even arrived. The day of took issues to an entire different stage.
He was at school that morning when the textual content got here by. It was John Calipari: I’m coming to the sport at the moment. Figuring out the man who had simply recruited him can be within the constructing, the Arkansas commit out of the blue had much more motivation for that evening’s sport. “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 health club 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 Crew, 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 pair 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 under no circumstances shocking displaying from Fland, the 6-3, 175-pound, Bronx-born guard who checks all of the packing containers for an elite flooring basic. 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 good one of many sport’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 enjoying 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 usually loaded Wildcat recruiting class subsequent winter has included loads of stops that allowed him to indicate 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. “Once 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 sport, the place he missed what might have been a game-winning shot. “That second taught me that, you understand, there’s going to be lows,” he says now. “I used to be so used to successful. That was an eye-opener for me. That taught me I gotta get higher.”
The development actually hasn’t stopped, as he’s proven again and again 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 stated I would like to speak extra, be extra vocal—it helps everyone on the ground, and it helps me.”
That shouldn’t be too troublesome. Fland brings the identical vitality to each court docket he steps on, along with his Bronx roots all the time on show.
“New York is completely 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. While you stroll within the health club, they gotta know, Oh, he’s from New York.”
Portrait by Marcus Stevens.
