HBO has a completely ridiculous new docu-comedy series called “The Rehearsal.” This simulates raising a child from birth to adulthood at warp speed by periodically rotating actors and aging the fake child by three years each week. It’s as jarring as it sounds. It’s like watching Adou Thiero (in real life) stretch his legs from his freshman year of high school to the summer before his freshman year of college. his parents did. Or like watching a kid shoot the last few inches right after signing with Kentucky, which the coaching staff did. Or it’s like realizing he’s still growing aggressively and figuring out what he’ll be by the time he plays his first real game with the Wildcats.
“That’s what I’m seriously looking forward to,” says Almamy, his father. “Ado is going to mess around and be a 6-8 freshman before the season starts. No. His mother is 6 to 4 and I am 6 to 9 so the genetics are correct. , I told him it was something to be grateful for and nothing to worry about.
Yes, all of this is as bizarre for Tiero as you can imagine, including swapping places with a larger version of himself every few days. It’s like waking up with a whole new body every few months. He was a high school freshman at 5’7″, then a 6″ junior, 6″ to 5″ senior, and now on the official Kentucky state register he is listed as 6″ to 6″ and 200 pounds. but this is probably already inaccurate. His teammate Chris Livingston says he’s around six to seven years old, and Tierro, who was briefly short when we first met, basically looks eye to eye with him today. .
“It’s insane. It doesn’t make sense,” Livingston says. “Who knows where it stops? It’s very exciting for his potential.”
“I look at him and I swear, ‘He’s getting big,'” said Jon Calipari, who coached Almammy in Memphis. Grade 9. Dad put him down and he always said, “I want to play for you.” But then I went to see him (last season) and he was 6-5. His instincts are so good, he plays with the ball, so when he gets the ball he can play. and he is big ”
It looks like Adou Thiero could pick up the other four starters tonight. Kidd balled out last night.
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) August 11, 2022
bigger than usual. This has led to some strange new realities. Tierro says he isn’t as good a shooter as he used to be because his hands are getting bigger. But he really can handle rocks. He didn’t get his first dunk in-game until his sophomore year of high school—it was an edge-grazing counterattack—but more recently, he’s “trying to dunk someone every chance I get.” is”. In his head, he’s a point of size, and there’s still a surreal moment telling him he’s a guard, but now Small his forward-looking body instinctively isn’t. indicates that
“The longer your arms, the more ground you can cover,” says Thiero. “When you’re 5-10, you’re just deflecting a lot of passes or missing them well. When you’re 6-6, you’re going to steal the ball, go all the way and finish on the rim. There will always be moments when you think you can’t do anything, but now you realize you can do it.”
The downside is the growing pains his father predicted. They are here and they are intense. A sharp pain in his knee and back, not to mention a persistent groin injury, was enough to keep him out of several practices and workouts this summer. said, ”he says Almamy. “You can’t fall behind in Kentucky. You have to find a way to tolerate it. With his rapid growth, we’ve always worked through pain.”
Dad knows a lot about the old coaches. He asked Calipari to push him beyond his comfort zone, instead of treating Tiero easily, and to bring out every possibility in whatever body the child would end up in. This was Calipari’s Thiero rating at the start of the first week the UK will play four exhibition games in the Bahamas. I can’t say that my groin and little finger hurt. Alright, you’re our eleventh man. You shouldn’t, but it’s your choice. ”
Thiero chose a different route for the trip. On the eve of his debut, nervous against a multi-professional Dominican Republic team with an average age of 24.5, he asked his roommate, Oscar Tshiebwe, how to block his fear of failure. I asked The National Player of the Year’s advice — predictably, play hard — worked. In his first five minutes for Tierro in a Kentucky uniform, he recorded his five points, two blocks, two assists, a steal and a three-pointer. He stole and slammed swiftly like a cat within seconds of entering the game.
he had just started. Thiero turned into the biggest surprise of the week. Considered a long-term project and a Zero Star recruit last year, he averaged his eighth-most appearances and points on the team in his four exhibition games. He even got a start. In a total of 57 minutes, he tallied his 25 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 7 steals, 5 blocks and just 2 turnovers. He shot 10 of his 17, 3 points from his range where he shot 3 of 6. He says he is retraining his giant hands to make better shots. Teammates and coaches alike were as stunned as a parent putting his 3-year-old to sleep and in the morning he found his 6-year-old.
“Adou blew my mind,” admits Calipari.
“Um, uh, oh no, I honestly didn’t expect this to come,” Livingston says with a wide-eyed laugh. “He really impressed me. He played great, jumped in the passing lane and knew what to do now that he’s long and athletic.”
“Adou is better than I expected,” says assistant Chin Coleman.
“I have a feeling that boy will be a superstar in this place one day,” says Tshiebwe. “He may be eight feet tall, but he’ll have that handle, that jump shot. He could be Anthony Davis.”
This is the most famous surge in Kentucky basketball history. The average-sized guard from Chicago nearly committed to Cleveland State University, after which he nearly grew to seven feet and became the best player in America. A boy can dream. Tiero’s parents have long dreamed of. His dad is a former top 100 rookie and his mom was his pick in the WNBA draft. Even when Adou entered his high school season without an offer for a higher major scholarship, they believed something big was just around the corner.
“What people don’t understand about Adou is that we pre-determined all aspects of this process by college,” says Almamy. “We knew he was going to grow up. We knew he was going to the gym from the age of three. So I kept him out of all the attention and rankings to keep him humble.One day I traveled to see him at recruiting events, ranking events. I didn’t have one either, I wanted people to know him in college, and I hear a lot of men say, “You’re so good!” You’re very good at it! ‘ when they were young and busted in college because of false confidence. I wanted to keep him out of the public eye until that time came, and now is the time. ”
Adou Thiero’s jump shot worked in the Bahamas, making 3 of his 6 3-point shots.
Tierro did indeed end up as a four-star prospect, earning quality offers from other clubs this spring as well, including Maryland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Xavier, but the appeal of playing for Calipari and Kentucky was not. It was only when coaches shared their visions of the future that they increased.
“He wanted me to be Defensive Player of the Year, but no other coach said so. It really caught my eye,” Thiero says. “People don’t care that much about defense. If defense is so important in this game, they always want to get someone who can score a lot.”
When he arrived in Lexington, most people thought Thiero was a long-term project, a futures bet that was definitely worth taking based on genetics and might pay off in a few years. was By the time he left the Bahamas, Tierro had already exceeded those expectations.
“I came here thinking that everyone has a chance, so when my chance comes, I will show my skills,” he says. “I’ve always been confident because I’ve worked so hard to get here since I was little. Now that I have that chance, I’m not going to just come in and think, ‘Oh, they’re all better than me.’ Please let me do it for a little while. I’m here to do what I’ve been doing.”
Thiero’s parents and three sisters were traveling to Africa while Kentucky was in the Bahamas, so they watched Adou’s first college game in the early hours via a shaky connection. The feed came and went frequently, but it was enough to know that more people would know his name after that trip.
“He knows he belongs,” Almamy says. “But it’s time to show that many people who don’t understand that he was recruited to Kentucky think the coach is doing a favor for his former player. No, he’s there.” You earned the right to be in. You think a Hall of Fame coach like Cal knows what a good player looks like, don’t you think? , I now understand. He showed those who were wondering why he was there: It felt great.”
Come to think of it, the four exhibition games were rehearsals. He’s got over two months until the actual show starts, so by then he’ll know Thiero could be an even bigger deal.
(Photo: Chet White/UK Athletics)
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