South Seattle Gets the Full 'Tyran Stokes Experience'
Glenn Nelson's comprehensive profile of a 'once-in-a-lifetime' player for the South Seattle Emerald
It is post game on a chilly December evening in a hallway between two cramped locker rooms at O’Dea High School on Seattle’s First Hill.
The crowd arrived as much as four hours before gametime, just to land a seat. Now they shuffle out of hallowed Phil Lumpkin Court as if they don’t want the Tyran Stokes Experience to end.
As Stokes and his teammates wait for a bus back to South Seattle, the Rainier Beach High School senior is holding an earnest conversation with a young fan, probably 6–7 years his junior. The dialogue is along the lines of “How can I become a star like you?”
Stokes has thoughts: No partying, no running with the wrong crowds, never ignoring the path you chose.
“If this is what you really want to do,” he says, “everything else is a distraction. Wherever you’re trying to go, this will get you in. I’ve been around the world because of basketball. It’ll take you places. It will make opportunities, open up a lot of doors for you.”
At which point, Jason Kerr, the O’Dea coach, peeks out of the Irish locker room and bellows, “Now you’re standing right outside my door?” A couple of adults in the Rainier Beach contingent respond. They and Kerr launch into a profanity-laced exchange.
“Let’s go,” Stokes urges his teammates. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is exactly what he’d just counseled the young boy against.