SF Jamal Bey lands Gatorade Player of the Year award
By Bret Stuter
When reports surfaced of Jamal Bey’s visit to UW, it was obvious he is a special basketball player. Apparently, some folks agree, as the Washington Basketball recruit landed the Gatorade Player of the Year Award
Washington Basketball recruit Jamal Bey is not even in NCAA basketball yet, and he is already among the elite of the NBA. He is now a 6-foot-6 200 pound small forward who hails out of Las Vegas Nevada. By “now”, that means he has added 15 pounds of muscle mass since our first narratives where he weighed in at 185 pounds.
Back then, he arrived for a visit to the University of Washington on June 20, 2017. Even then, the young man had that aura of somebody special. Call it a hunch, or the number of social media tweets during and after, but the fit of Bey to Washington and Washington to Bey seemed destined to happen.
Woof!
And it did. On September 30, 2017, Jamal Bey verbally committed to UW. Even then, the mutual benefit between the baskeball program and the skillset and two-way versatile play of this young man was such an obvious fit. And his upside to my eyes had not yet been reflected in his national ranking of 3-stars. He has since been upgraded to a 4-star talent.
But even at 4-stars, there is much more to Jamal Bey than meets the eye. He excels at basketball, but does not wax overconfident. He competes hard, but relishes the sport as only the best competitors do. His work ethic, his drive, his motivation are all off the charts. He did not suddenly wake up one day to a gift 4-star rating. He worked hard each day in the gym, on the court, to get that higher distinction. And that upgrade was the reward for countless tireless hours working.