It was senior evening, so Johnuel “Boogie” Fland knew his feelings could be operating excessive. And that was earlier than the day even arrived. The day of took issues to a complete different degree.
He was in school that morning when the textual content got here via. It was John Calipari: I’m coming to the sport in the present day. Realizing the man who had simply recruited him could be within the constructing, the Arkansas commit immediately had much more motivation for that evening’s recreation. “My household was there, my future head coach was there—and only for him to pop up like that was very particular,” Fland says. “I simply needed to placed on a present.”
All of it hit even more durable on the health club that evening. “I used to be tearing up earlier than the sport, after which as soon as I noticed they have been honoring me for making the McDonald’s All American Group, the tears got here operating down,” he says. As soon as the sport tipped, Fland instantly made clear that the emotion of the event wouldn’t derail him from performing on the degree that has made him a top-20 recruit and arguably one of many high level guards within the 2024 class. The road: 29 factors, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and a pair of steals to guide his Archbishop Stepinac (NY) squad to a senior-night dub.
His solely slight disappointment afterward? “Man, I used to be making an attempt to get 50,” Fland says. “I used to be locked in.”
It was a dominant however under no circumstances shocking displaying from Fland, the 6-3, 175-pound, Bronx-born guard who checks all of the containers for an elite ground basic. Explosive and in-control, he dictates tempo as a scorer and playmaker, a talent set made clear by the gamers whose video games he works to emulate: everybody from LeBron and SGA to Ja Morant, Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley. That features working to good one of many recreation’s most unstoppable pictures.
“In the event you go on YouTube and search my title, you’ll see a step-back because the thumbnail. Simply watch what number of step-backs I do,” he says. “I’m so fast, they attempt to play the shot and the drive, and once I see that they’re taking part in the drive, it’s simple for me to grab again and step again.”
The trail that took Fland from the Bronx to White Plains (the place Stepinac is positioned) and can see him in Lexington main a usually loaded Wildcat recruiting class subsequent winter has included loads of stops that allowed him to point out his talent set and sky-high potential. He’s been among the many greatest hoopers at his age degree since anybody can keep in mind. “Once I was in, I feel, second grade, we have been ranked high 25 within the nation,” he says of his AAU squad. “Yeah, second grade, but it surely was one thing to us.”
A couple of years later, he led his AAU crew to the nationwide championship recreation, the place he missed what may have been a game-winning shot. “That second taught me that, you recognize, there’s going to be lows,” he says now. “I used to be so used to profitable. That was an eye-opener for me. That taught me I gotta get higher.”
The advance actually hasn’t stopped, as he’s proven repeatedly in opposition to elite competitors. He was a member of the U17 US nationwide crew that took gold on the 2022 FIBA World Cup and was chosen to affix the stacked US roster for the 2024 Nike Hoop Summit. With that résumé, the place can he nonetheless enhance? “Earlier than Coach Cal left on senior evening, he stated I want to speak extra, be extra vocal—it helps everyone on the ground, and it helps me.”
That shouldn’t be too tough. Fland brings the identical power to each courtroom he steps on, together with his Bronx roots at all times on show.
“New York is completely different. When folks say that, it undoubtedly is true,” he affirm emphatically. “You gotta have some swagger to you. You may’t be stiff. While you stroll within the health club, they gotta know, Oh, he’s from New York.”
Portrait by Marcus Stevens.
