... As the first free throw swished through the net, Bagley’s father, Marvin Jr., walked past halfcourt. The Phamily is his team — he’s listed as the director and head coach, though he doesn’t sit on the bench. Instead, Marvin Jr. sits in the stands, where he yells out substitutions and videotapes everything. He’s emotional on the sidelines, kicking the bleachers earlier in this game when a call didn’t go his way. He wanted this first win of the season as badly as anyone.
While the Houston Hoops player released his second free throw, Marvin Jr. let out a noise that sounded like a bird call. He was trying to distract the teenager at the line shooting the free throw. Coach K took notice. You could tell by his cringe. ...
Marvin Bagley III was a star from the moment he started playing for Corona del Sol High School in Tempe, Ariz. He averaged 19.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per game as a freshman and led the program to its fourth straight state championship.
Five months after that, he was gone.
Bagley’s father accepted an assistant coaching job at Hillcrest Academy, a startup program that would play a national basketball schedule while players attended school at nearby Starshine Academy in Phoenix. Marvin and his younger brother Marcus transferred in. DeAndre Ayton, a top-two recruit in the class of 2017, joined them.
Just a few short months later, the Bagleys were gone again.
The NCAA questioned the courses the players were taking at Starshine Academy and Hillcrest, which was not a part of a state athletic association, couldn’t be nationally ranked. When ESPN pulled a Hillcrest game against Thon Maker and Athlete Institute in Canada from its airwaves in November of 2015, the Bagleys bounced later that month.
The Bagleys packed their bags for California and enrolled in Sierra Canyon High School, the same swanky private school that Kendall and Kylie Jenner and Will Smith’s daughter Willow attended.
When the Bagleys arrived, the California Interscholastic Federation ruled him ineligible for the season because of a rule that bans out-of-state transfers that are “athletically motivated.” Marvin Bagley III had changed schools three times in two states in less than six months and still wasn’t allowed to play basketball as a sophomore. ...
There’s another oddity on Bagley’s road to become the top-rated high school player in America. He is one of very few players of his caliber to not play for USA Basketball. ...
Bagley was invited to play for USA Basketball, he just never showed up after making the team in October of 2014. ...
There’s a reason Bagley’s father always carries that video camera. He’s supposedly collecting footage for a documentary about his son’s life. ...