John Calipari is here at @patrickschool for @JonathanKuming6 And posed with all the young kids. pic.twitter.com/zLrDv2Putn
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) September 16, 2019
Asked if he might like to join Clarke at Kentucky, Kuminga said, “I don’t know about that right now.” A parade of high-major schools has come through the New Jersey school for Kuminga (and their other players), who also has the option of reclassifying to 2020. Nebraska and LSU both had their fullHere’s a little @JonathanKuming6 scoring in an open gym with John Calipari and Kenny Payne here pic.twitter.com/cHLxt2XK6O
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) September 16, 2019
Chris Chavannes, the Patrick School head coach, said Kuminga has the option of reclassifying to 2020 but “hasn’t made the decision as far as what direction he will go. He’ll have to decide that fairly soon because of the academic component to it.” Kuminga said reclassifying didn’t come up with Calipari and Payne. “They haven’t tell me that, they just recruiting me,” he said. He added: “I’m not considering going next year. I’m just in high school, still playing, having fun, working on my game and stuff.” Chavannes has seen his share of talented players. There are retired jerseys in the gym for Irving, Kidd-Gilchrist, Johnson, Shaheen Holloway, Dexter StricklandMore @JonathanKuming6 on the transition dunk. Good luck covering him this year in New Jersey. pic.twitter.com/bhPs9UI1nS
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) September 16, 2019
But Kuminga wants to help his teammates become better, not just dominate himself. “I mean, I’m trying to get guys involved all the time,” he said. “You can’t just be a selfish player, you gotta involve everybody in the game.” “We’ve had strong guys but never with his skillset,” he said. “I remember watching LeBron when he used to come into New Jersey to play. And it’s almost like LeBron, the power, the speed. He just does a lot of things. [On Sunday] he drove baseline and finished left, I’ve never seen anything like that before. So I’ve not seen any players like him. We’ve had a lot of great players. “Kyrie is very different, very special in his own way, and I think [Kuminga] is going to define himself to be very different and very special in his own way.” Asked if he modeled himself after James or any current NBA players, Kuminga said, “No, I want to be like myself.” St. Patrick won five New Jersey Tournament of Champions titles under former coach Kevin Boyle, and in 2017 Chavannes and Mike Rice led The Patrick School to its first title. Now with Kuminga playing alongside other high-major players like Noah Farrakhan and Adama Sanogo, the school will be favored to win it all again. “Yeah, that’s the school goal so I gotta help them to win those games and win the title,” Kuminga told me. “It would be a great thing and a big thing for the school and everybody that goes here.” Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter And like ZAGS on Facebook.@JonathanKuming6 has good vision and is a good passer too pic.twitter.com/e87VjWPFbW
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) September 16, 2019