Dink Pate, a five-star recruit in the 2024 high school class, has signed with the NBA’s G League Ignite program, he told ESPN.
“The whole idea of why I started playing basketball was to be a pro,” said Pate, who just turned 17 in March. “G League Ignite brings me one step closer to my dream. It’s all about the development of my game. I want to thank coach Jason Hart and G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim for choosing me. I’m going to keep working to the best of my ability to prove that I can play in the NBA.”
Pate, a native of Dallas, Texas, becomes the youngest known professional basketball player in U.S. history, being five weeks younger than the projected No. 2 pick in the 2023 NBA draft, Scoot Henderson, who did the same in 2021.
Pate finished all coursework for both his junior and senior years and graduated high school a year early, allowing him to focus full time on basketball moving forward.
“I had to take extra online classes,” Pate said. “It was a lot of work. I graduated early and will walk June 2.”
Because Pate will not turn 19 until the 2025 calendar year, he will not be eligible for the 2024 NBA draft and is committing to spend two years with the Ignite program before becoming automatically eligible for the 2025 draft.
Pate said he will move to Las Vegas at the end of this month to begin training at G League Ignite’s practice facility with potential first-round pick London Johnson, who is entering the second season of his two-year Ignite commitment, and Matas Buzelis, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, who previously announced his intention to forgo college and spend next season with Ignite.
Pate, who stands 6-foot-8 and weighs 194 pounds, played primarily point guard at L.G. Pinkston High School in West Dallas and on the Adidas grassroots circuit with Team Trae Young. He has enviable size coupled with an ideal basketball frame for a playmaker. His dynamic perimeter shooting ability and live-dribble passing prowess give him significant long-term upside to grow into as his decision-making and defensive intensity continue to evolve.
“In the eighth grade, my coach put the ball in my hands and told me to start dribbling — that’s how the whole big guard thing started,” Pate said. “I was skeptical at first, but I had the height to see over everyone, and the assists came easy after that. It was like a snap of the finger.”
Pate said he would have elected to enroll in college at either Alabama or Arkansas this summer had…
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