This story appears in SLAM 252.
Growing up the youngest of four siblings, Nate Ament did everything his brothers did. It’s why when it comes to sports, soccer was the first thing he gravitated to. His older brothers played it, so he did, too. And when his third oldest brother Frederick started to pick up basketball, Nate was more than game.
By the time he was 10, the rapidly growing Manassas, VA, native realized that he was going to be too tall to stay on the pitch. So hoops it was. It started out as 1s and 2s at the local elementary school. After a two-minute walk, Nate and his brothers were on the blacktop, meeting up with Nate’s classmates and Frederick’s friends from high school. The battles were fun, but it was pride that Nate was seeking, even in middle school.
“The part that I fell in love with was being able to play a sport where you can take someone 1-on-1 and you can try to beat them, not just offensively but defensively,” Nate says. “Being able to have a matchup is being able to say, I’m gonna guard you the whole game. I’m gonna stop you from scoring on me. I’m gonna make sure my team wins. So, I really fell in love with the competitiveness of it.”
Seven years later, that will, love and determination serves as the foundation of Nate’s game, a game that has seen him blossom into a consensus top-5 player in the Class of 2025 and the No. 1 player in the state of Virginia. Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, UConn, Virginia and many, many others have stamped the five-star do-it-all wing as a future difference-maker for their squads.
Jared ebanks 