Kinston’s NBA-bound Brandon Ingram a Blue Devil from a Tar Heel town

In Kinston, you have to wait your turn.

The small eastern North Carolina town has for decades been a hub of pure basketball talent. It has bred the likes of Boston Celtics Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell, NBA veteran and coach Jerry Stackhouse and former UNC standout Reggie Bullock.

The latest to emerge from the unique fraternity is Brandon Ingram, the former Duke forward who’s poised to be the No. 2 pick in Thursday’s NBA draft.

Years before the 6-foot-9 Ingram reached the peak of stardom at Kinston High School or Duke, he was a shy kid in the stands. He witnessed Kinston’s household names of yesterday blossom into champions, including his older brother Bo. He also observed how the system of Vikings basketball produced so many noted players.

When it was Ingram’s turn to suit up in Kinston High green and gold, he knew exactly what to do.

“Brandon’s an observer. He got a chance to observe the upperclassmen, especially when he was in middle school,” said Ingram’s father Donald. “He played against those guys, and he was very excited to be able to step on the court. It made him a better player, because he got a chance to see how Kinston basketball was.

“I think just playing Kinston High basketball played a major part – a major part – in his development.”

Plenty of ACC basketball players have come out of Kinston. Bullock and Stackhouse, Ingram’s mentor, both played for UNC – Bullock from 2010 to 2013 and Stackhouse from 1993 to 1995. Both have mini shrines dedicated to them in the Kinston Applebee’s restaurant on Highway 70.

Ingram, 18, was the first from the town, though, to play at Duke, a decision he announced in April 2015 during a press conference at the same Viking Gym where he’d collected so much success over his four-year Kinston High varsity career.

Tar Heel country

Kinston, a city with a population of about 21,641, was widely considered Tar Heel country before Ingram declared he’d be Durham-bound. Today, it isn’t exactly flooded with Duke blue emblems, flags or decals, but even UNC fans have admitted they rooted for the Blue Devils because of Ingram.

“I’m a Carolina fan ... but, to be honest, I’ve probably watched more Duke than I have Carolina this year. When (Ingram) went to Duke, I would say he got more Carolina fans (to root) for (him) at Duke, which is hard for them to do,” said Earl Keith, the assistant director of Kinston’s Woodmen Community Center.

The recreation space attracts several budding basketball players who’ve looked up to Kinston greats from Bullock to Ingram. Bullock hosted his NBA Draft party there in 2013.

The facility opened in 2012. Banners of other inspirational basketball figures before Bullock and Ingram, those who’ve been inducted in the Kinston-Lenoir County Sports Hall of Fame, hang in the gym, and it “shows the other guys you can work hard,” Keith said.

Ingram, along with former Kinston High players Andrew Lopez, a Chowan guard, and Darnell Dunn, a Queens University forward, would spend mornings at the gym before school.

“It was the three of them shooting basketball before they went to school. That’s how hard he works at the game,” Keith said.

He added, “It’s funny how the die-hard Carolina fans are still rooting for Duke.”

A little more than two miles from the Woodmen Center is South Queen St. Barber Shop, which is full of UNC fans.

“It’s Carolina fans from the first chair – to the last chair,” said barber Reginald Wooten, who grew up playing with Ingram’s father and other notable guys.

A UNC team picture featuring Bullock hangs on the wall at the barber shop. Wooten said they rooted for Ingram last season but refuse to hang a Duke poster, even though Ingram has masterfully furthered Kinston’s basketball legacy.

“Watching him be in the Top 10 of his class to now maybe a chance at being the No. 1 or No. 2 pick is amazing,” Wooten said. “He’s just keeping the tradition of Kinston alive with his basketball skills. It’s sort of hard (to be a Carolina fan and root for Brandon), but when you know his father and seen him play himself, it makes it easier. He comes from a good family, so you hope for the best for him.”

Wooten added that Ingram drew a spotlight at Duke that may have been harder to grasp at Carolina. Ingram played multiple positions in his only college season, even stepping up after senior forward Amile Jefferson broke his right foot on Dec. 12.

Donald Ingram said that factor made the decision to go to Duke more satisfying.

“We still get comments or get picked on because (Carolina is) making it so far in the playoffs,” Donald Ingram said in March of the Tar Heels, who lost to Villanova in the national championship game. “It does not bother us because we think he actually got the opportunity to get marketed at Duke, where he was challenged more. At Carolina, you had guys that were in those positions that he wouldn’t have had to play.

“He was able to go out there and show the world what he could do.”

The road to success

Although Brandon Ingram’s basketball talent was evident early on, there was still an intricate process to becoming Kinston’s leader long before he chose Duke or declared for the pros. He went to college a four-time state champion, one of only two N.C. High School Athletic Association basketball players to ever win four 2A state titles. The other was his former Kinston teammate Dunn.

Kinston High had other leaders Ingram’s freshman and sophomore years, though he saw significant playing time. He picked up minutes in the 2012 state championship, the start of the Vikings’ historic four-peat.

“There hasn’t been many freshman play at the varsity level, but we knew him from a very, very young age,” said Wells Gulledge, who coached Kinston for 11 seasons and put Brandon Ingram on the varsity team as a ninth-grader. “Early on, you really know a sense of kids who are very, very talented and Brandon was marked as one, just his length and basketball IQ.”

His length, a current 7-3 wingspan, attracted many coaches to Viking Gym.

Ingram was the state’s top player of 2015 and won back-to-back high school championship MVPs. He finished his senior season averaging a double-double, and stayed in Kinston to complete the task after having the option to transfer to Oak Hill Academy.

“Brandon has some opportunities; he could have gone some other places and played,” said Kinston High boys’ basketball coach Perry Tyndall, who coached Ingram for three years. “I think his loyalty and his desire to achieve the goals he set with his teammates he grew up with speaks volumes about him as a player and a person.”

Tyndall said those traits make him even more special, aside from what he can do on the floor.

“Brandon could have gone out and been a one-man show somewhere and scored 40 or 50 every night, but … even in high school, he knew that we could be successful if (his) teammates were involved,” Tyndall said. “I think you see that Brandon was very disciplined in his approach in his recruitment. Of course he was a Duke fan growing up, so I think that’s always been in the back of his mind, but he was operating from a place of where can I go to get better, to further my dreams of making it to the NBA, to potentially win a national championship? Where can I go that’s got a storied program.”

Being a Blue Devil

In April of 2015, when Ingram held the press conference announcing his plans to go to Duke, he figured coach Mike Krzyzewski could get the most out of him and said he’d be an impact player.

Ingram was right.

His start at Duke was unsatisfactory, including a three-game stretch when he totaled 17 points. He quickly rebounded with three consecutive 20-point games in December.

He posted eight double-doubles on the year and had 11 20-point games, tying for the third-most by a Duke rookie. He recorded three 20-10 games last season, the only ACC freshman to have one. He averaged 17.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks on a Duke team that fell to Oregon in the Sweet 16.

Ingram averaged 23 points and 39.67 minutes in the NCAA tournament, posting 40 minutes apiece in the Yale and Oregon games.

“Early, when he hit a couple of rough patches, that stretch of the Kentucky game, Georgetown, you know I never panicked,” Tyndall said.

“Every freshman is gonna go through some moment or some patch where it’s going to be tough,” he said. “A lot of it was stuff he knew he could control. I think he was pressing a little bit. I think some of those big-time matchups he felt like maybe he had something to prove and didn’t let the game come to him. All those things help define who you are, and he’s bounced back.”

About a year after announcing his decision to play for Duke, the All-America ACC Freshman of the Year declared for the NBA Draft. The Philadelphia 76ers will pick first, and will likely select LSU’s Ben Simmons over Ingram. The Los Angeles Lakers have the second pick.

Just as Ingram saw the success of noted Kinston players growing up, his stamp provides the same for today’s youth.

On a quiet Monday following this past Easter holiday, about a dozen young children were waiting to play basketball outside of Holloway Recreation Center. Ingram grew up in Martin C. Freeman Center – better known to Kinstonians as Teacher’s Memorial – but made appearances at Holloway.

Reggie Bryant, Kinston High class of 1971, was dressed head to toe in Carolina blue while directing the kids. He admitted he rooted for Duke, as many novice Blue Devils fans did since Ingram played there. Whichever NBA team lands Ingram may expect a new wave of Kinston fans, too.

“It’s always been a basketball town. Of all the negative that Kinston gets, basketball is one thing that’s really positive, that brings everybody together,” said Bryant, while a young boy badgered him for an air pump for his deflated basketball. “It really starts with recreation. We’ve got 9-and-under, so sometimes you’ve got kids as young as 6 and 7 years old playing. You’ve got a bunch of them trying to emulate (Brandon). They look up to people like Brandon and Dunn and before them the Keyes boys (Angelo and Denzel) and (Josh) Dawson and then Reggie. It just goes on.

“Basketball is almost like a religion around here.”

This story was originally published June 21, 2016 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Kinston’s NBA-bound Brandon Ingram a Blue Devil from a Tar Heel town."