Emoni Bates, college basketball’s No. 1 recruit, commits to Michigan State, but there’s a catch

Top basketball recruit Emoni Bates has committed to Michigan State.

Emoni Bates has committed to play his college basketball for the Michigan State Spartans.

The catch is Bates, the nation’s top basketball recruit for the Class of 2022, may not play college basketball.

Bates, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound small forward from Ypsilanti, Michigan and a Lincoln High School product, has often been compared to Kevin Durant for his slim built and lights-out game on the hardcourt. He’s one of the most talented and promising high school college basketball recruits to come out in several years.

Top recruit Emoni Bates commits to Michigan State, but the NBA is an option.

Michigan State was the only college basketball program to contact him as soon as the recruiting laws allowed them to communicate with him. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that Michigan State basketball was going to receive his verbal commitment.

However, that could be as a result of all the other college basketball programs effectively not recruiting him. No, they weren’t recruiting him because they thought he was an overrated recruit. They weren’t recruiting him because they presume Bates will go directly to the NBA or other professional league if the NBA doesn’t allow for high school players to go directly to the NBA Draft.

And that’s something Bates acknowledged in his commitment presentation that was shown on ESPN. Bates admits the future is unwritten and unknown but for now, he’s committed to Michigan State who has shown the most loyalty to Bates throughout the recruiting process.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1277664947556814853

So getting the commitment from Bates is nice and all for Michigan State, but Spartans fans shouldn’t get too excited and start day-dreaming of Bates in a Michigan State basketball uniform and whether he can lead Tom Izzo to a second national championship.

But for now, Bates is a part of the Michigan State recruiting class. Whether he actually plays a game for the Spartans remains to be seen.

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