Dink Pate is Ready to Make History and Become the First Pro Hooper Drafted Out of Mexico
12/13/2024 03:52 PM
You could spend days going through every record in US basketball lore, and you'd never find another Dink Pate.
That's because the 6-8 guard is the youngest player in American hoops to have gone pro—ever.
Last spring, just after turning 17, the wiry, athletic phenom bypassed his senior year at LG Pinkston High School in Texas to join the G League Ignite. He etched himself into the record books by signing a two-year deal with the NBA's premier developmental unit, edging out former Ignite star Scoot Henderson—who, up to that point, had been the youngest American to participate in a professional basketball league—by five weeks.
But beyond Pate's historically young age marker—which, to be clear, has become more normalized in the modern world of basketball—he's simply a baller. Throw on his highlight tape and you'll quickly understand why this Southern blue chipper has been wildly sought after. Ranked as a five-star prospect, he garnered recruitment from the nation's premier college programs (Kansas, Kentucky, Georgetown and the like) as one of the most coveted additions of his class.
Instead, he took the LaMelo Ball route by going pro early. He played with the Ignite for a season, and in his limited but stellar outings, cemented his potential as a hybrid 1 guard who can do it all. He concluded his debut campaign with an average of 24 minutes, 8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists per contest. His length, smoothness, creativity and tempered decision making are reminiscent of Penny Hardaway (one of Pate's idols) mixed with Shaun Livingston—another of Pate's exemplaries—and a dash of (yes, I'm gonna say it) LeBron James, who is Pate's all-time favorite.
"I watch the big guards. I key into what they're doing," he tells me over a Zoom call from his porch in Dallas. "But basketball wasn't even my first love. I was a football player, bruh. I wanted to go to the NFL like Julio Jones, Dez Bryant. I only started playing basketball because I was in a program where you had to play both."
It explains Pate's propensity for action and his ability to shift gears and hit the lane with relentless bursts of speed. Large and point-guard minded, Pate knows where his spots are and will surgically get there to create for himself and his teammates. A panther in transition, he pounces, glides and Euro-steps around, through and over any defenders clogging the lane. Impressively, the former NFL hopeful plays with more finesse than force on the hardwood. In fact, it's his cerebral grasp of in-game rhythm and flow that most seems to define his potential contributions at the NBA level.
But his plans to reach the Association became complicated by Ignite’s recent disbandment; only halfway into his contract with the team, the Las Vegas-based squad folded. Their unexpected dissolution means Pate and his cohort were the last to ever suit up in the experimental NBA organization's black, purple and white threads. Like always, he had to figure out the best play to make next.
First, he attempted to enter the 2024 NBA Draft with his teammates Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland (lottery picks for the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, respectively) via a waiver exemption, but was denied due to being under the League's age limit. That hasn't deterred the bucket-getting protégé from pursuing his telos, though. Pate made a historic pivot by signing with the NBA-affiliated Mexico City Capitanes.
"I found out [about Ignite's ending] 45 minutes before the world found out. I didn't think an NBA program would shut down," he admits. "But I don't regret it. That's adversity. That's where I get my confidence from. I have to be fully prepared. You never know what's gonna happen next. What's next is I went to the gym and I had a job to do, the season wasn't over yet. And it means I'm the last one in history, as the youngest to ever play with the Ignite.
"I've always kept the main thing the main thing," he adds, without hesitation. "Basketball is the main thing."
Basketball is why Dink Pate—a Black, Gen Z teenager from Pleasant Grove—is living in Mexico's capital. Currently, he's projected to be a star on the Capitanes.
The outfit is the only Mexican-owned sporting franchise to ever compete as a full-fledged member of any pro US league. Having officially joined the G in 2021, Mexico City has since become a top destination for NBA veterans like Jahlil Okafor, Kenneth Faried, Michael Carter-Williams and Juan Toscano-Anderson, who enjoy the chance to shine in North America's largest city (Mexico City is bigger than New York, L.A, Chicago, Toronto or any other city you can name on this continental expanse). The metropolitan scale and commercial offerings, along with its passionate, international fan base, is something that other G League teams located in places like Southaven, Mississippi and Oshkosh, WI, simply cannot match. And unless they're on a two-way contract, Capitanes players are available to be called up by any of the NBA's 30 troupes, which makes it an ideal proving ground for a rising star like Pate.
And yet, the Capitanes are also Latin America's home base for its growing ranks of hoop talent aiming to reach the NBA from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. The coaching staff is bilingual. The players and personnel vary in age, experience and career paths. It's no ordinary circumstance for anyone to enter, let alone an American teenager who nearly ended up playing at the University of Alabama before deciding to go pro.
To his credit, Pate isn't overthinking any of it. He's taking Spanish classes once a week. Growing up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where the Capitanes coincidentally played their home games during the COVID-impacted 2021 season (and which boasts over 2 million Mexican-heritage residents), has prepared him for this moment. He feels eager if not proud to put a spotlight on Mexico's culture and its affinity for basketball.
"I be wearing my sombrero, bruh. I got Mexican homeboys. I stay representing," he tells me, a Mexican American, with a genuine smile. "I feel like I got a country on my back now. I went down for two weeks and was showered with nothing but love. I love Mexico. That's family."
Mexico City will provide more than enough opportunities for what Pate is ready to deliver. Unlike his US-born contemporaries who will be mostly playing in front of college students and alumni at prestigious, ivory-towered campuses, Pate will be electrifying thousands of Spanish-chanting fans at Arena CDMX in the Azcapotzalco neighborhood of Mexico City as a member of the Capitanes.
When we linked up down south, he had just finished practice at Mexico's national Olympic facility. We met at the bustling Monumento a la Revolución in the Aztec capital's Plaza de la República. The triumphal arch—think the Arc de Triomphe on Champs-Élysées—symbolizes Mexico's revolution, in which myth-like heroes such as Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa were crowned liberators of the country's working classes, effectively rewriting Mexican history over a century ago.
Besides standing for the nation's rebellion, the memorial is also the primary logo for the Capitanes. And what better identifier is there for Pate—a player who has already broken history as the youngest pro US baller, and who signed to Reebok—than an ode to revolution?
The NBA's current age eligibility rules were implemented in 2006, just three years after LeBron James entered the League straight out of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School like an otherworldly meteor of fiery athleticism and professional maturity. But what King James has accomplished since going pro as a teen has been, well, kingly and unprecedented. In 2005, the NBA's CBA determined that the League simply needed more time in assessing its ultra-young pool of talent, so mandated that all future players must be at least one year removed from their high school graduation and must turn 19 years old within the same calendar year of being drafted.
Unfortunately for Pate, being born in March means he won't hit 19 until 2025, when he can finally become eligible for the NBA alongside fellow lottery prospects like Cooper Flagg, Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. At this stage, he's embracing each step with a precocious mindfulness.
"You can do everything with poetry," Pate says. "Poetry is real calm. It's not loud. Stay low and move slow."
When asked where he developed that mindset, he cites the apodictic rap revolutionary, Tupac Shakur. Pate flashes his Makaveli tattoo and tells me that all 713 of Pac's tracks are worth listening to.
On the court, Pate carries a Shakurian blend of maturity and freeness of spirit. You can see it in his off-the-dribble shooting. His calculated step backs. His rhythmic spins. And you can see it in the way he carries a joyful confidence, too.
"I'm not worried about my game," he says. "I'm focused on my leadership, my communication. I'm gonna be that guy on the team. I'm ready to take the blame. I've always been a leader to high school kids but I'm about to be thrown to the fire. I'm ready for it."
Portraits by Sandra Blow.
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