Just about every summer day, Nate Ament would take the short walk through the muggy heat from his family’s home to the blacktop court at Coles Elementary in Manassas. It was 2020, and basketball, a new sport for the teenager, scratched his competitive itch during the coronavirus pandemic.
He just couldn’t beat his brother.
Frederick, two years older, held what seemed like an insurmountable physical advantage over 13-year-old Nate, who would leave the court disgruntled and sometimes in tears. After a loss, he would refuse to talk to his sibling the rest of the day. But above all, he would work.
If they went together at 7 a.m. and Frederick won that day, Nate would be there the next morning at 6:30. He started staying late, working on his shooting, dribbling - whatever it took.
Then one day, it finally happened. Nate won.
“Oh my gosh - dude, it felt so good,” Ament said. “Easily one of the most rewarding feelings I’ve ever had.”
A backboard and rim are just about the only commonalities between the court at Coles and the places basketball takes Ament these days. His focus is far greater now than a sibling rivalry - think shoe deals, the NBA draft and talk of becoming the next great basketball star from Virginia.
Ament isn’t just a five-star recruit - the 6-foot-9 forward is one of the top players in the country, with ESPN, 247Sports and On3 ranking him fourth in this senior class. He was named Virginia’s Gatorade and MaxPreps player of the year. He won a gold medal with the United States U-18 national squad and a state championship with his high school team, Highland School.
On Tuesday night, Ament will be in New York to play in the McDonald’s all-American game, sharing the court with 23 of the nation’s top high school seniors. He will garner special attention as the nation’s top unsigned senior, still weighing his college decision late in the cycle. In February, he named five finalists: Arkansas, Duke, Kentucky, Louisville, and Tennessee.
Ask him about everything that’s come his way the past few years, and Ament will answer with a calm confidence. It’s a routine by now. But ask him about the first time he finally bested his brother, and he’ll beam.
“I was salty, I’m going to be honest. I was like, damn, now I know how it feels,” Frederick said. “All right - maybe still I’m a little bit salty.”
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‘There’s no future pros out here’
Chauncey Beckett felt his phone vibrate and pulled it from his pocket. A basketball trainer in Northern Virginia, Beckett saw a text from former Bishop O’Connell guard Paul Lewis, who was soon to play at Vanderbilt. Lewis said Beckett needed to check out a young player from the area: I think I’ve got a future pro.
“I was like, man, we all live in Manassas. There’s no future pros out here that nobody knows about,” Beckett remembers. “And he was like, ‘All right, I’m going to send him to your gym.’”
Ament, then a freshman, showed up for a workout. Beckett was immediately impressed by his fluidity and skill for a player of his age and size. When established players like NBA veteran Justin Anderson or Paul VI stars Patrick Ngongba II and DeShawn Harris-Smith came by the gym, Ament held his own.
“I told him he really had a chance to do something with this,” Beckett said. “Like, if this is what you really want to do, let's lock in and we can see how far we can take this thing.”
Beckett sent Ament’s highlights to every college coach he could, telling them he was providing an early look at one of the best players in the class. They drove across the ...
