Daily Campus: Inside Isiaha Mike’s Rise, Leadership, Future
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:33 pmFrom the Daily Campus:
“Destined To Do”: Inside Isiaha Mike’s Rise, Leadership and Future
KEVIN REYNOLDS
It might have been between gyms late at night in Toronto, searching for a court with a permit space, that Isiaha Mike found his self-ordained “destiny.” As a 14-year-old kid driving around with his AAU coach, playing in a program that did not even have enough players to field a team, he did not know if he would play college basketball or, much less, be on the precipice of a professional career. Back then, all Mike was focused on was getting on the floor, talking on defense, leading — something in which he found solace.
In a 6-foot-5 frame even as a middle schooler, Mike stayed up late in the gym mostly to overcome his lack of skill. The training sessions, which were largely defined by the bloody lips he would get from the ball slicing through his hands as he tried to catch, came long before he would eventually place himself on the top 10 career three-point percentage list at SMU, shooting at 37.3 percent. With him and “Coach Jermaine,” as Mike calls his first AAU coach in Canada now, those extra sessions were about expanding his game beyond the only thing that kept him on the floor: defense.
To read this article in its entirety, CLICK HERE.
“Destined To Do”: Inside Isiaha Mike’s Rise, Leadership and Future
KEVIN REYNOLDS
It might have been between gyms late at night in Toronto, searching for a court with a permit space, that Isiaha Mike found his self-ordained “destiny.” As a 14-year-old kid driving around with his AAU coach, playing in a program that did not even have enough players to field a team, he did not know if he would play college basketball or, much less, be on the precipice of a professional career. Back then, all Mike was focused on was getting on the floor, talking on defense, leading — something in which he found solace.
In a 6-foot-5 frame even as a middle schooler, Mike stayed up late in the gym mostly to overcome his lack of skill. The training sessions, which were largely defined by the bloody lips he would get from the ball slicing through his hands as he tried to catch, came long before he would eventually place himself on the top 10 career three-point percentage list at SMU, shooting at 37.3 percent. With him and “Coach Jermaine,” as Mike calls his first AAU coach in Canada now, those extra sessions were about expanding his game beyond the only thing that kept him on the floor: defense.
To read this article in its entirety, CLICK HERE.