YouTube Gold: The Next Great One On The Horizon?

This kid is immensely promising

This is very rare in basketball but every so often, someone comes along at a young age who people start talking about.

The first guy like that was Wilt Chamberlain, who awed even in high school. Then there was Lew Alcindor, now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Around the turn of the century, everyone understood that LeBron James was on track to be a Hall of Fame player. And in our time, Victor Wembanyana arrived in the NBA, hailed as an alien due to his spectacular size and gifts, and now, Cooper Flagg has been hailed as a generational talent.

Of course, more often than not these guys don’t pan out, but that only whets the appetite for those that do.

So the question now is this: is Mohamed Dabone the next Great One?

Dabone is just 12 and is already 6-10. Here’s what Jonathan Givony said about him on X:

“Mohamed Dabone’s impressive combination of explosiveness, skill and defensive versatility were on full display at the Euroleague NextGen Finals in Abu Dhabi. The 6’10 Burkina Faso-born Barcelona product won’t be NBA draft-eligible until 2030.“

Check the video out. He’s really well ahead of schedule.

The problem with projecting a 12-year-old, no matter how much of a prodigy he is, is that you can’t know a) how much he will continue to improve and b) it’s impossible to know who will emerge later. Just look at Cedric Coward - everyone missed on that guy.

Even so, there’s no telling just how far the native of Burkina Faso will go or, for that matter, if he’s done growing, and there’s no denying that this guy is way ahead of schedule. We’ll have to wait and see how he advances in the next five years, but for a kid who’s 6-10 and just 13?

This is spectacular.