Too shy to pose for a picture with the hometown hero, Jamez Simmons burrows his face in his father’s armpit to hide.
“You sure you don’t want a picture with him?” James Simmons asks his 10-year-old son, “He’s going to be famous one day.”
The timid Jamez digs his head deeper into his dad.
Brandon Ingram stands just feet away from the young Kinston High School basketball fan, his towering 6-foot-9 frame peeking over the bleachers of Viking Gym. You can tell he’s there, and not solely by his physical presence.
Eyes shift, as do conversations.
Ingram, from the moment a single person catches a glimpse of the Kinston basketball star, is the center of attention on any given night in the school’s gymnasium.
“A lot of out-of-towners come and say, ‘That’s that Brandon kid right there,’ ” James Simmons says. “By the time the game is over, they’re saying the same thing a lot us are saying: ‘That kid is special.’”
***
N.C. State was the first college basketball program to display interest in Ingram. It was his older brother’s connection. Bo Ingram, who now plays professionally in Mexico, was a standout at Kinston High in the late 2000s, so recruiters knew a younger Ingram was making his way up through the pipeline.
“Kinston High had that reputation of producing quality players,” said Donald Ingram, the father of Brandon and Bo. “(Recruiters) start looking at kids early, especially kids that have a lot of talent. A lot of times, coaches will ask by word of mouth.
“With Kinston having the reputation of going back and forth to playoffs, regional finals and state finals, the door is already open.”
Bo Ingram was part of Kinston’s 2008 championship run, the program’s first basketball title since 1965. The success of those early championship teams resonated with the today’s Kinston players who watched, and Brandon Ingram was one. He studied their triumph, their leadership, their talent, their zeal. It’s what he mirrored to guide the Vikings to their fourth straight 2A championship last season.
But long before he shined inside Viking Gym, he stood out at Martin C. Freeman Center, better known as Teachers Memorial Gymnasium.
Donald Ingram said he noticed the advanced skill set of his younger son early.
“In the fourth or fifth grade, we tried to get him to play rec ball,” Donald Ingram said of Brandon. “At the time, he was interested in playing ball but was a little shy in front of people. So we just had to get that out of him, and I didn’t force him. Finally, we had a basketball tournament at the gym. He ended up playing, and he played well.
“At that point, I saw how in tune he was with the game.”
Brandon Ingram’s early days of playing were amassed at Teachers, fueled by his sheer talent for the game. As he further cultivated his love for basketball, he approached his father, as a Rochelle Middle School player, about how to draw interest from college scouts.
His earnestness for the sport was “realized around seventh grade,” Brandon said, “(by) actually talking with my dad about how players get looked at. I was going by his source because I know he’s been there before.”
Ingram was a sophomore when N.C. State made an official offer.
Then, the NCAA was in the process of changing recruiting rules, which would allow coaches to build relationships with recruits by contacting them directly.
“It used to be you couldn’t make contact until the end of the junior year,” Donald Ingram said before the start of the 2014-15 basketball season. “That would have been right now. The way it worked was we could send as many phone calls, they just couldn’t text or call us back. They went through coach a lot, because sometimes talking directly to me is like talking directly to him, so they didn’t want to violate any rules.
“The rule changed that year, which helped out a lot. An entire year early made the difference in his progression in recruitment. It put him in the spotlight and on the radar an entire year early.”
***
Reflecting back on his recruiting journey, Brandon Ingram can recall the moment things beacme serious.
He was participating in the NBPA Top 100 camp the summer of 2012 when the recruiting rules changed. On June 15, 2012, the NCAA started to allow coaches to send recruits unlimited texts, phone calls and private messages via social media sites.
“My phone started buzzing at 12 (midnight),” Ingram said, signifying just the beginning of an exhilarating recruitment for the wiry wing.
“It is a tough decision,” Ingram said in September after narrowing his college bids to Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, N.C. State, UCLA and UNC. He originally had 15 offers. “You can’t just go off a school’s history or anything like that. It doesn’t matter; it’s what happening now.”
Ingram, who grew up a Duke fan, signed with the Blue Devils only days later, cementing one of the most significant choices of his basketball career.
“It becomes a big decision for young guys,” N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said during a Kinston High practice before the season, “if you think about where they spend their college years, could potentially meet someone they may marry one day, what the education does for them and the rest of their lives.”
Gottfried added “from a basketball perspective, playing for the right school and the right program, especially with the NBA as a possibility” are additional considerations of prospects.
Before determining he’d play for Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, some of the country’s top programs battled to entice Ingram, the most sought-after recruit in North Carolina at the time.
His suitors came to watch him practice, observing more intimately the perimeter-oriented scorer in order to add ammunition to their recruiting campaigns. Ingram admired how well coaches knew his game, how well they analyzed it.
They would show up to games, making their efforts visible.
And their presentations during in-home visits captivated so effectively it added strain to an already-demanding decision.
***
Ingram’s family hosted a string of coaching staffs in September and again in April.
On Sept. 9, 2014, UNC coach Roy Williams visited Ingram’s Kinston home at midnight, being the first to show how dedicated he was to getting Ingram to Carolina. When Ingram, who must slightly tilt his head to walk through his living room door, wrapped up his day at school later that evening, Gottfried made his case.
Since the Wolfpack offered Ingram first, he kept them on his final list to show his appreciation to a program that’s been with him from Day 1.
As Donald Ingram talked about the visits, he had respectful remarks about each: from Kansas’ elaborate private plane to the honor of having coaches, such as Coach K, you see on television on your couch. Duke and Kansas were Brandon’s favorites throughout his senior season.
“You can tell these guys are professional and have been in the business,” Donald Ingram said following some of the visits. “Nobody promised anything; it’s all about how hard Brandon works. He comes in and does the work: the sky’s the limit.
“It’s all going to be on him.”
After a deeper connection with six coaches and their staffs who saw him through his
double-double averaging season that ended with a career title sweep, championship MVP honors and several Player of the Year recognitions, Ingram was impressed to discover how much more the programs had to offer.
In mid-April, he set his decision timeline for the 27th, hosting coaches during the NCAA live period. Duke, his school of choice, came twice during the final stretch to land Ingram.
“You’ve been with them so many times, you don’t think you can get any new information,” Brandon said, “but I think that’s what stood out. This whole process is kind of hard to turn these coaches down because every person sells everything so well.
“At the end of the day, I’m just going where my heart tells me to go.”
And that was to Durham.
***
Ingram has posed for countless photos and signed hundreds of autographs throughout his unique journey to becoming a college basketball player.
During Raleigh’s HighSchoolOT.com Holiday Invitational his senior season, a tournament he played in all four years of high school, his appearance was just as commanding there as it was in his home gym. Heads turned as he walked on or off the court at Raleigh Broughton High School.
After Kinston took third place in the tourney in December, a teenage girl followed behind Ingram as he walked back to the locker room, calling out, “Number 13! Number 13!”
When Ingram turned around, she asked for a picture, to which he kindly provided. She revealed to a friend she wasn’t even sure who he was but “he’s going to be somebody.”
Dozens more of these moments followed.
After games, Ingram signed shoes, pictures and anything else he was presented with by raving basketball fans, young and old. He was even the topic of discussion outside of the Kinston area. Out-of-county crowds didn’t concern itself with whether or not Kinston won, because most times it was a given — people just wanted to know about its star.
“How many points did Brandon Ingram score?”
“Where do you think he’s going to school?”
“He’s going to Duke.”
“No, man; he’s going to Carolina.”
Ingram’s recruitment rocked the city of Kinston, and he was bombarded daily with questions — from the community, from the media, from strangers.
“He don’t act like it bothers him,” Donald Ingram said. “He gets hit with that same question every day, and it gets overwhelming; you just want to get the process over with.”
But Brandon found a safe haven within the walls of Kinston High School, just as Reggie Bullock, Jerry Stackhouse and his older brother did.
And he truly enjoyed playing alongside each of his teammates, who were mostly his childhood friends. He loved the student body at Kinston, because it allowed him to function as just a normal teenager.
***
Throughout a taxing recruitment, Ingram has always found time to say how much he longed to remain “a regular kid.”
And that’s what he was able to be in the classroom and in the locker room, alleviating the glaring limelight that came along with being a five-star recruit — something that didn’t outweigh his ultimate senior-year goal: a state championship.
“He made our season the most important thing,” Kinston coach Perry Tyndall said. “I think his teammates realize, man, he’s getting recruited by all these great schools, but yet this season is of upmost importance to him. His teammates have been great about letting him be just another guy. He can be himself. They don’t see the Brandon Ingram who’s getting recruited by everybody, it’s the Brandon Ingram who’s been our friend my whole life.
“He’s always wanted his teammates along for the ride.”
Although premier NCAA coaches could often be spotted in Viking Gym, their presence wasn’t up for discussion among the team. For the players, Ingram included, it was all about Kinston basketball during the season.
When Ingram was selected to the 2015 McDonald’s All American Games on Jan. 28, he briefly recognized the accomplishment and poured his focus right back into the team.
As if the city of Kinston needed more reasons to appreciate the basketball program, Ingram and even all of the incessant speculation surrounding his recruitment were truly inspirations in a crime-laced town, where one in three Kinstonians live below the federal poverty line. It gave people something to talk about, something to think about, something bigger to root for and a reason to unite.
***
After warming up to Ingram, Jamez Simmons finally took that picture.
“Truth be told, his hero is Jeremiah (Fields) because he’s short, but he fell in love with Brandon also,” James Simmons said of his son. “He’d be at home and be like, ‘B.I. from the corner!’ and he also has his hair cut like Brandon’s now.
“It’s rubbed off tremendously on my son.”
Only 3.4 percent of some 541,054 high school boys’ basketball players will have a chance to compete in college, according to NCAA.org. The number shrinks 2.4 percent when estimating the probability of those who will play Division I.
A small 1 percent of high school players will go from prep basketball to D-I programs.
There was never a strain of doubt that Ingram would play in college.
“It’s a good feeling to get recruited, and it’s always good to feel wanted by somebody,” he said, the 17-year-old’s sentiments proved by the coaches who fought tirelessly to get him.
With Coach K, Williams and Bill Self making appearances at Kinston games last season, Ingram wasn’t a bit fazed. He just played his game, the driving force attracting top programs to Kinston, keeping the city on the map in a positive light.
Ingram recorded a 5-by-5 against Greene Central in an Eastern Carolina 2A conference game in January, and Kansas’ Self was there to see the show. He couldn’t help but smile as the Kinston star connected from the top of the key en route to 25 points that night.
***
Before the team finished 26-4, Ingram missed a few early practices nursing a slight ankle injury. While his teammates practiced, he couldn’t put the ball down, dribbling along the sideline throughout.
And while Kinston only dropped four games his senior year, Ingram deplored losing each. In the HighschoolOT.com holiday tourney, 4A powerhouse Raleigh Millbrook and its stifling double team held him to a season-low five points.
He wasn’t happy.
He erupted for 34 in the next game.
Ingram disliked the feeling associated with losing, riding back to town on a quiet bus. It was a Saturday night, and he threw up the last shot hoping to reverse the outcome against the Cougars. Losing didn’t fit him; he didn’t want to experience it again.
And so he didn’t.
“This was my second impression of Brandon and coming into (it), I questioned his competitiveness,” said Goldsboro News-Argus sportswriter Allen Etzler. He covered Kinston’s 79-77 Goldsboro setback. “The first time I saw him against Eastern Wayne, (Kinston) dominated the game and Brandon was sort of passive for most of the game, so I was curious if he had the killer instinct.
“Obviously he made me look foolish.
“I don’t know that I’ve seen a kid balance basketball IQ and competiveness the way Brandon does. He is always willing to make the best basketball play and completely trusts his teammates to make shots. The image that stands out for me was watching him come out of a timeout (against Goldsboro) with 2 seconds left, down four and having to go the length of the floor, and he was fully expecting to win the game. He made the shot at the buzzer, and you could see that there was frustration there, because it wasn’t enough. Probably what impressed me more than anything … was the tweet afterward where he said he was going to the gym. It was 11 p.m. on a Saturday. He could have done what most teenage kids do and gone to hang with his friends and had a good time … but instead he’s in the gym, because he’s not going to let his team lose again.”
***
Ingram, who finished his Kinston career with 107 wins, showered in 41 points against South Lenoir in the next game, as the team rode a 13-game winning streak to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2A title.
Those few losses strengthened the group and drove Ingram to some of his best high school basketball.
As his spotlight grew brighter after the season, he rose in the national standings. He was one of the top recruits in the nation that was uncommitted when he sparkled at the McDonald’s All American Games in Chicago and appeared in the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Ore. That undecided factor made
his silky long-range jumpers that much more intriguing as the regular signing period approached.
People wanted to know where the 6-9 Viking, who has a 7-3 wingspan with the ability to run the floor, score from any place on the court, be it a 3-pointer or dislodging defenders to throw down a dunk, and battle to rip down rebounds, was headed.
All eyes were on Ingram, on Kinston, as he was elevated from the No. 12 player in the nation to No. 3.
“I always had confidence in myself,” Ingram said in Teachers gym days before the big announcement. “I had proven myself enough; well, I thought I proved myself, but I didn’t think people saw me. As I got out, I showed what I could do. As I went on these trips, I was just trying to play as hard as I can each time I stepped on the floor.”
***
On April 25, Ingram was at home with his father when the decision came to him.
He sent Donald, who was sleeping at the time, a text message.
“I told him that I was ready to make my decision,” Brandon said. “I told him I had a hard feeling I wanted to go to Duke.”
Two nerve-wrecking days passed before Ingram, clad in a black suit and a bow tie to match, stood before nearly 1,000 raving basketball and Kinston fans and pulled out that hat.
“My personal opinion, he’s the best thing to come out of Kinston, to me, in my eyes,” James Simmons said. “I followed Reggie a little bit when he was being recruited, but I never experienced the recruitment that Brandon’s getting. It’s amazing.”
Before the world knew where Ingram was headed, Simmons, who used to guard Ingram during workouts in his early days at Teachers, was willing to go the distance to continue watching a classic hometown idol.
“I’m a Carolina fan,” Simmons said, “but if he goes to Duke, I’ll probably be the first to switch over.
“And that’s saying a lot.”
Bullock was the last highly-recruited basketball player to come through Kinston High. A 2010 graduate and two-time state champion, he committed to Carolina as a sophomore.
One of the questions surrounding Ingram’s recruitment was whether or not he’d follow in the footsteps of former Viking greats, such as Bullock and his mentor Stackhouse, who both played for the Tar Heels.
“I’ve heard people say things about that,” Ingram said early in his senior year, “but I haven’t really even thought about that. Either way, I think it’ll still be my own path in my mind. It’s always ways to be different. Even if I chose Carolina, I can still be different.”
Ingram came close to picking UNC in the fall, but the allegations from the school’s academic scandal deterred the family.
They tracked closely the lawsuit and didn’t feel comfortable “signing so early,” Donald Ingram said.
“We felt like we gave Carolina ample time, like an additional five months to see if the NCAA would lift the ban or allegations,” he said. “They didn’t, so we just had to make a move.”
***
On the evening of April 27, Viking Gym exploded with emotions ranging from joy to shock to even some silent anger, when Ingram revealed the Duke Blue cap, DUKE thickly embroidered in white letters across the base.
“In the end, it seemed like everybody was tugging this way, tugging that way,” Joann Ingram said. “I don’t know how a 17-year-old, I’m 51-years old, how he could make that decision. They were all good schools, they really were. We’re very grateful that he stuck with something that’s going to advance him in his life.
“I know at the end, it was a little stressful for him, but he went with his heart and that’s all we could ask for.”
Ingram said Krzyzewski watched a live feed from Las Vegas on decision day, calling the coveted five-star standout later that evening.
And Ingram, as promised, personally contacted the other five coaches.
“They respected it,” he said. “Of course, they’re not going to be smiling about it, but they knew they had to move on.”
Duke’s final face-to-face presentation hooked Ingram. He said the coaching staff walked him through some of the plays and what to expect of his varying roles. Because of his immense versatility on the floor, Ingram is expected to immediately be an impact player, with his city behind him.
***
Though Kinston is a mix of Duke and Carolina fans, preserving one of the greatest college basketball rivalries of all time, both sides continue to support Ingram, who is mentally preparing for his next chapter.
“They always say the offseason is the best season,” Brandon said. “I’ll get in the gym with my dad, my trainer and also Jerry Stackhouse. I’m going to get in there, work my butt off and hopefully be the best freshman I can be in college basketball.”
His father even charged people to stay a “Brandon Ingram fan” regardless of his decision.
To support Ingram, Kinston’s basketball warrior of four years, a star clad in a No. 13 jersey, and his decision is to support the city he calls home.
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 and Jessika.Morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
THE CHOICES
*DUKE
5 national championships (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015)
16 Final Fours
39 NCAA tournament appearances
KANSAS
3 national championships (1952, 1988, 2008)
14 Final Fours
44 NCAA tournament appearances
KENTUCKY
8 national championships (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1999, 2012)
17 Finals Fours
55 NCAA tournament appearances
UNC
5 national championships (1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009)
18 Final Fours
46 NCAA tournament appearances
UCLA
11 national championships (1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1995)
18 Final Fours
47 NCAA tournament appearances
N.C. STATE
Source: ESPN.com
Estimated Probability of competing in men’s college basketball
High School Players
541, 054
NCAA Participants
18,320
Overall % HS to NCAA
3.4
Overall % HS to NCAA Division I
1
Overall % HS to NCAA Division II
1
Overall % HS to NCAA Division III
1.4
Source: NCAA.org
Climbing the ladder
Freshman Year 2011-12
Championship game: 10 points, 2 rebounds
Sophomore Year 2012-13
12.4 PPG, 3.9 RPG
Championship game: 12 points, 4 rebounds
Junior Year 2013-14
19.5 PPG, 9.1 RPG
Championship game: 28 points, 16 rebounds
Senior Year 2014-15
24.3 PPG, 10.4 RPG
Championship game: 28 points, 10 rebounds
Source: Free Press archives
