PORTLAND — Youth basketball can be more business than game, especially at the highest levels. Top players jump high schools — sometimes moving across the country, sometimes from another country — to find perceived better development opportunities. Top AAU programs are expensive. The best players have NIL money pouring in and people — not always trustworthy people — in their ear telling them how to monetize their social media or make a quick buck another way. It can be disorienting for teenagers making life-altering decisions.
Malachi Moreno is a welcome throwback.
The 6'11" center never left his home, his family and friends in Georgetown, Kentucky, population 37,000. There were offers to move, go anywhere and everywhere, and chase the almighty dollar (and potential future dollars). He chose home. From that comfort zone, Moreno won the state championship with the guys he grew up with, was named 2024-25 Kentucky Mr. Basketball — plus earned an invite to the Nike Hoop Summit this weekend in Portland.
Kentucky commit Malachi Moreno (#24) celebrates with the Warhawk student section after winning the state championship: #BBN#KentuckyWildcats#MalachiMorenopic.twitter.com/O7o5x4W50T
— Kai McClelland (@fourwal1) March 30, 2025
" It was the place that built me and made me who I was," Moreno told NBC Sports about Georgetown. "Being given opportunities like [Nike Hoop Summit], it gives me an opportunity to represent where I'm from, and just to show like you can be from a small town and still accomplish great things."
Family and Friends
The ties that bound Moreno to Kentucky — and will continue to bind him as he is committed to play for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats next season, just 15 miles down the I-75 — are friends and family.
"I'm glad Malachi stayed home," his mother, Sarah, said. "It allowed him to actually enjoy his senior year, and it allowed him to be a kid for his final year of high school experience. All those high school things that's a lost art, sometimes, when you get into these high elite things."
"He wasn't ready to let go of going to prom, being with his childhood best friends, to try and chase the dream they've all had for so long," Malachi's brother Michael (who played at Eastern Kentucky, 2019-2024) added. "So ultimately, he's proven to himself that things can be done from Kentucky."
"It's a lot of fun just being with kids you grew up with," Moreno said. "You just get to enjoy life and just enjoy high school with them... and not feel pressured to perform every day.
"Like, I can go play a game and the next day go to school and I'll be fine. Nobody's coming up to me talking about, 'You need to work on this, this and this.' They're like, 'Oh, how's your day going? Let's hang out this weekend,' some kind of things like that. Those are things I enjoy really well."
Moreno's foundation is built on a rock of a family.
"They've been with me every step of the journey," Moreno said. "Through the hard times, through the good times, they've always been with me. ...
