It was senior night time, so Johnuel “Boogie” Fland knew his feelings can be working excessive. And that was earlier than the day even arrived. The day of took issues to a complete 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 this time. Realizing the man who had simply recruited him can be within the constructing, the Arkansas commit immediately had much more motivation for that night time’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 wished to placed on a present.”
All of it hit even more durable on the fitness center that night time. “I used to be tearing up earlier than the sport, after which as soon as I noticed they have been honoring me for making the McDonald’s All American Staff, the tears got here working 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 prime 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 in no way stunning exhibiting from Fland, the 6-3, 175-pound, Bronx-born guard who checks all of the bins for an elite flooring basic. Explosive and in-control, he dictates tempo as a scorer and playmaker, a ability 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 sport’s most unstoppable photographs.
“In the event you go on YouTube and search my title, 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 after I see that they’re taking part in the drive, it’s straightforward for me to grab again and step again.”
The trail that took Fland from the Bronx to White Plains (the place Stepinac is positioned) and can see him in Lexington main a sometimes loaded Wildcat recruiting class subsequent winter has included loads of stops that allowed him to indicate his ability set and sky-high potential. He’s been among the many finest hoopers at his age stage since anybody can bear in mind. “Once I was in, I believe, second grade, we have been ranked prime 25 within the nation,” he says of his AAU squad. “Yeah, second grade, however it was one thing to us.”
A couple of years later, he led his AAU group to the nationwide championship sport, the place he missed what may have been a game-winning shot. “That second taught me that, , 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 advance 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 night time, 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 courtroom he steps on, together with his Bronx roots all the time on show.
“New York is totally different. When individuals say that, it undoubtedly is true,” he affirm emphatically. “You gotta have some swagger to you. You may’t be stiff. If you stroll within the fitness center, they gotta know, Oh, he’s from New York.”
Portrait by Marcus Stevens.
