Party less and listen more: What would these Indy ballers tell their 17-year-old selves?

NOBLESVILLE — The kids have kids.

That was my first thought watching the Dizzy Runs Pro-Am Tuesday night at Mojo Up Sports Complex (formerly Finch Creek Fieldhouse), where a deejay spins the tunes and fans — free of charge — watch players like Jeff Teague on one court, Kyle Guy on another and Trevon Bluiett on another play basketball games before we even get to the main event.

It’s basketball’s version of “Field of Dreams” for hoops junkies who fill the bleachers and stand around the court once the feature game begins. For me, it’s like jumping in a time machine. I covered many of these players in high school, watched them and pulled for them in college and professionally.

But the time machine analogy only goes so far. I catch up with Ryan Weber, a 2012 Roncalli graduate who scored more than 1,000 points at Youngstown State and Ball State and is still playing professionally, and we part ways. As we do, he is distracted by a curly-haired 2-year-old bouncing a ball on one of the now-empty courts. “This will make you feel old,” Weber said, pointing to Paxx. “This is Tayler’s kid.”

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Tayler, of course, is Tayler Persons. About an hour after Weber’s comment, the game between Team SVI and Team Ares Elite is tied. It is an “Elam Ending” format and both teams need a 3-pointer to end the game. The problem for Team SVI, which is loaded with talent like Aaron Henry, Eric Hunter Jr., Shayne Whittington, Kelan Martin and Malik Williams, is that Team Ares Elite has the ball. And Persons, as competitive, tough and clutch as they come, is playing for them.

“I know who’s taking this,” says Doug Persons, Tayler’s father.

Persons’ top-of-the-key 3-pointer ends it. “Told ya,” Doug says. I remind him he said he was taking it, not making it. I think I got a smile out of him. Current Kokomo star Flory Bidunga was playing on the same team with Persons, holding his own against the 6-10 Whittington and Williams and throwing down a couple of lobs to the delight of the crowd.

In the early session games, I watched Jeff Teague go against his brother, Marquis Teague. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera is playing in the same backcourt with Marquis. I remember covering one of Smith-Rivera’s first games at North Central as a freshman in 2008, going up against Broad Ripple. Now I’m sitting here as the former Georgetown guard gets it going late in the game, using that same powerful build to get to the basket like he did as a Panther.

Next to me, a young man, soon to be 8 years old, celebrates and drops his basketball to the floor. Mason does the “ice in my veins” motion. “That’s my dad!”

Another reminder that I’m getting old. But these “kids” are getting older, too. Hopefully wiser. Many of these kids I covered in high school have moved on from college, into professional basketball. I wanted to ask them: “If there was something you could tell 16- or 17-year-old you, looking back, what would you say?” Here is what six of them had to say:

Aaron Henry

Henry seems like the perfect person for this exercise. I always thought of the 6-6 lefty as a bit of an old soul, even as a junior Ben Davis’ 2017 Class 4A state championship team.

Henry, 23, certainly played for demanding coaches. For Mark James in high school at Ben Davis, earning Indiana All-Stars honors in 2018. For Tom Izzo for three years at Michigan State, where he was named third-team All-Big Ten as a junior and to the league’s All-Defensive team in 2020-21.

“You know my high school coach,” Henry said. “He prepared me, for sure. I got a lot from coach Izzo, too. I’m still getting great coaching now, too. I’ve been blessed with great authority figures in my life. Not one coach has quit on me yet.”

His NBA career, to date, has amounted to a cup of coffee. Henry was not drafted in 2021, but signed a two-way contract with the Philadelphia 76ers in August of 2021. He played in six games, a total of 17 minutes, and scored two points before going on to finish out the season with the Delaware Blue Coats of the G League.

Last season, Henry signed with the Metropolitans 92 in France. One of his teammates was 7-5, 19-year-old sensation Victor Wembanyama, who was selected last month by the San Antonio Spurs with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

Henry’s season was cut short after 12 games due to a medical collateral ligament injury to his knee in December. But he saw enough of Wembanyama to give a scouting report for future opponents.

“Just pray,” Henry said with a laugh. “There’s not much you can do. You have to be physical, of course. That goes for anybody, but especially with him. But he’s so big and so skilled and still so young. He’s mature for his age, too. He’s just super humble and works so hard. You’d love him. He’s a better person and teammate than he is a player. That was the biggest thing that stuck with me.”

Unlike many of the players here who are still waiting to hear on their options for the upcoming season, Henry is already locked into a contract with the Toyotsu Fighting Eagles in Nagoya, Japan. He is leaving Aug. 10.

“I’ve got a short summer,” he said. “I’m learning a little Japanese. It’s interesting. I get to tell my family a lot of cool stuff and share my stories. But I’ll be back to the NBA, for sure.”

Henry is healthy and believes it is just a matter of finding the right situation to open the door to the NBA again. At 23, there is still time. I asked him what he would tell the 17-year-old Aaron Henry.

“Every day matters,” he said. “Not that I missed days or anything, but when you are young you don’t have all of those responsibilities. You get up and go to school, get a free lunch, go to practice and get a ride home from your parents. You have to take advantage of those times. That’s the time to get better and work harder than everybody else. Some guys fight from behind and are still fighting to be where they are.”

Oh yeah, one more thing.

“Being an adult is tough,” he said. “Being a kid is fun. That’s what I’d tell myself. Enjoy it while you can. Our teams at Ben Davis were family-oriented and I still feel that way. I try to push that everywhere I go. I try go make friends with teammates and staff and incorporate that mindset every day. The things I learned in high school translated to my life now.”

Emmanuel Little

The 6-6 Little was an intimidating figure on a North Central team that went 23-5 in 2016-17. Little, IndyStar Mr. Basketball Kris Wilkes and Mateo Rivera were a tough trio on a team with state championship aspirations. But North Central came up short against Ben Davis in the regional semifinal, the same round the Panthers stumbled against Terre Haute South the previous season.

It turned out to be the last-best chance for North Central coach Doug Mitchell, who retired from his North Central post after a 7-15 season in 2017-18.

“I wish I’d taken it a lot more seriously,” Little said. “Especially since I felt like my love for the game kind of came a lot later. I’d probably tell myself to take things a lot more seriously. I just kind of came to practice and that was it.”

Little laughs, pauses then adds another sentence to that advice from his now 24-year-old self. “I’d tell myself to be a lot nicer,” he said.

After high school, Little shined alongside Rivera at the University of Southern Indiana. As a junior in 2019-20, he averaged 16.1 points and 8.2 rebounds and earned first team all-Great Lakes Valley Conference honors. He finished out his college career at Nicholls State before going on to play professionally last year in Bosnia.

“I had a breakout year,” said Little, who scored 1,313 career points at USI and pulled down 797 rebounds. “It kind of put me on the map.”

Little had a workout earlier this summer with the Boston Celtics, including a discussion with president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. The Zionsville native and former Butler coach talked to Little about his playing career at North Central.

“We talked about coach Mitchell,” Little said. “He asked if I’d played for another coach like coach Mitchell. I’m like, ‘Oh, no. Definitely not.’ But that was cool. I think I’d have had that workout a long time ago if I’d have taken the game more seriously.”

Little said he appreciates now what Mitchell was trying to prepare him for in high school. He recently had that conversation with his former high school coach.

“I understand where he’s coming from now,” he said. “He was a great Hall of Fame coach. I wish I’d have shut up more because I would have been further along than what I was. There were things that happened to me that he told me would happen. He was right.”

Though there is some unknown about where his basketball career will take him, Little said those are hardly major issues.

“Those are problems I want to have,” he said. “Right now, at least, I don’t want have to clock (at an every day job) and wonder, ‘What if?’ I’m just thankful I’m playing.”

Joey Brunk

There was no way to know where life and basketball would take Joey Brunk coming out of Southport in 2016. Brunk, 25, does not have to think long when asked to address that younger version of himself.

“Buckle up, buddy,” he said, “because it’s going to be a mess.”

The 6-11 Brunk is half-joking. After earning Mr. Basketball runner-up in high school, he played three seasons at Butler and earned his degree. He transferred to Indiana for the next two years, then took advantage of the extra season of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic and played a final season at Ohio State.

In six years, Brunk played in 120 college games for the Bulldogs, Hoosiers and Buckeyes. Last season, playing professionally in Poland, Brunk was asked by his teammates if he would change his college career.

“I said, ‘Yeah, I wish it would have played out a little different,’” said Brunk, who played his final college season with Ohio State in 2021-22. “But the people are great. I made my best friends for life. I’ve got 20 people I’m going to try to make a phone call to on the way home and see who picks up and try to catch up. So it worked out the way it was supposed to.”

Tuesday night, Brunk’s younger brother, Johnny, sat in the front row at midcourt. If life was prefect, his dad would have been there, too. But Joe Brunk, his sons’ biggest fan and toughest critic, died in 2017 at age 56 from a brain tumor. He left behind his sons and wife, Helen.

Joey was just 19 when his father died. Six years later, he still hears his dad.

“Sometimes people ask, ‘Do you wish you had your dad’s advice?’” he said after his 27-point game. “Sure I would. But I already know what he would say. Tonight it would be, ‘Well, you left 15 points and eight rebounds on the board.’”

Like Aaron Henry, Brunk always seemed older than his actual age. I’m thinking this is still true as I listen to him talk about his relationship with his brother. The Brunk brothers spent 10 days together in Africa this summer.

“Family is what you’ve got,” he said. “You realize sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got going on and you try to pour yourself into what you love. You spend time together and go make experiences because you don’t know what you’ve got ahead of you. There’s no time to waste. (My dad’s passing) changed my life, but things happen to get you where you’re at.”

No regrets. Well, maybe Brunk has a small one.

“I wish we would have beat Pike more than we did,” he said.

Daeshon Francis

Daeshon Francis always played with a hard edge. It was his advantage, especially on defense, that separated him from other guards who might have been more skilled or talented.

“Since about 2012, when I started playing varsity basketball at (Lawrence North), I’ve been guarding the best player at every single level,” Francis said. “In this generation, it’s a lot about the offensive end. But coach (Jack) Keefer helped give me that mindset. I would not change anything about that.”

But Francis, 27, would still like to give his 17-year-old self some advice. His academic struggles caused him to take a “detour route” in college that could have potentially been avoided. The 2014 Lawrence North graduate had a promising freshman season at Wisconsin-Green Bay, averaging 4.5 points in 33 games. Poor grades forced a move to junior college at Midland College in Texas, followed by two years at Division II Texas-Permian Basin.

It was at UT-Permian Basin where Francis became something of a legend. He set the school’s all-time scoring record with 1,303 points, a school record for points in a game (43) and ranks in the top three in program history in assists, rebounds and steals. Francis led the school to its first Lone Star Conference championship and was named the conference player of the year in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

“It’s not the easiest thing coming from Division II,” Francis said. “But it worked for me.”

After college, Francis played in Germany. Then he was picked up by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the G League and spent a couple months there in 2019-20. Then he played in Finland and Ukraine (“right before the war,” he said) before playing last season in Sicily, Italy.

“That was a great time out there,” Francis said. “Great players, great league. I might go back there. I love it overseas. Getting to play against all of these European guys and being able to see the world traveling is just amazing.”

Francis loves getting back home in the summer, sharpening his game against top competition. “You know how Indy is,” he said. “We’re a town of basketball. I just keep growing as a player and taking notes from players I go against.”

Francis has a daughter now, 2-year-old Halo, to add to his motivation. He has a home in El Paso, Texas, with his girlfriend and daughter. When his playing career is over, Francis said he would like to open something similar to the old Incrediplex in El Paso.

“We have it good here with basketball,” Francis said of how he grew up. “We were training with LaSalle Thompson in first grade. Out there, they do not have stuff like that. Texas is football, but I want to shape basketball out there because people know me and I’m out there so much. I want to give back to the kids there. It would d be a dream to open up something like that, start an AAU team and get my name on the jersey and give kids the same opportunity we had. It’s our normal business around here.”

Zavier Turner

Zavier Turner, coming out of Pike in 2013, was an immediate success at Ball State as a point guard in 2013-14, winning Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year honors.

But with the benefit of hindsight, including professional stops overseas in Romania and France, the 28-year-old Turner said there were some issues bubbling to the surface in college.

“I was a little wild,” he said. “It wasn’t a secret. Everybody that knew me coming up knew that I loved the game and knew that I had a hard work ethic. But I liked to party and that’s one thing I’d tell myself is not to worry about any distractions.”

Those thoughts come to Turner more now as the father of a 2-year-old son, Zani.

“I had support and great people behind me,” he said. “But nobody had really experienced what I was going to go through. So when it does come the time and if my son wants to do that, I’ll be able to tell him certain things he can benefit from that I could have benefitted from. Just staying in his ear.”

Things feel apart for Turner in his sophomore season at Ball State with a pair of suspensions issued by then-coach James Whitford. He lost his starting job and transferred to Manhattan of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. It was a fortuitous move for Turner, who started at point guard for two seasons in 2016-17 and 2017-18, averaging 12.8 points and 3.8 assists and shooting 41% from the 3-point line in the two seasons.

“I’d go back and tell myself to work hard and don’t worry about any outside distractions,” Turner said. “That’s what I’m going tell my son. He’s already active and dribbling around the house. Everywhere he goes, he wants to play ball.”

Turner is not sure yet of his next stop. But he won’t be stopped for long.

“I’m going to play until the wheels fall off,” he said. “I don’t care where I’m at, I’m going to play. I try to play as much as I can around the city. I couldn’t play in this last year because I was in France, but I try to play everywhere I can. I don’t care if it’s a three-on-three league, I’m going to play.”

Ryan Weber

Weber is one of the few players in the Dizzy Pro-Am who actually knows what it feels like to give up on the basketball dream.

Weber, 30, played professionally for one year after finishing up at Ball State in 2016-17. For two years, he worked in the finance department at a bank. He felt a void, though, without basketball.

“That’s probably what I would tell myself as a younger kid is to stick with it and don’t’ quit,” Weber said. “I’ve already lost it in a sense once and that’s what brought me back. Now I’m 30 years old out here playing with the younger guys. It’s all going to end sometime so just make the most of it.”

The 6-6 Weber was something of a late bloomer at Roncalli, then in college. He played in 28 games as a freshman at Youngstown State, but averaged just 1.9 points. “That was the first time I experienced not playing and not well,” he said. “That kind of lit the first big fire underneath me and my sophomore year I came out and averaged 12 or 13 a game. I wish I would have had that fire in high school. It’s easy to relax and think you got it.”

The next year at Youngstown State, he became a full-time starter and shot 42% from the 3-point line, averaging 12.2 points. He transferred to Ball State, where he was a two-year starter from 2015-17, averaging 10.1 points and shooting 38.3% from 3.

During the time he worked in the real world, friends like Tayler Persons would come back home and play. Weber realized he was not ready to completely give it up.

“I actually enjoyed it and did it well,” Weber said of his finance job. “But when you really love the game, you realize nothing can replace it. I’d go out and play with Max Landis or Tayler and I’d be like, ‘Why am I not playing?’ I still got it a little bit, you know?’”

Weber was living in the Broad Ripple area at the time. He would wake up early and work out with then-Bishop Chatard coach Taylor Wayer, go to work, then work out after work. Soon after, Weber called his former coach in France and asked if he could help him find a place to play.

“Two weeks later, I signed,” he said.

Weber has played three years in France and one in Portugal. He does not know yet where he will play this season, or what he will do when it is time to hang up the basketball shoes.

“There’s a conflict if I want to get back in the financial world or try and figure out something with basketball,” he said. “I thought about getting into coaching or even venturing out to be an agent, something along those lines.”

But enough talk about the future. The ball stops bouncing for everyone at some point. Even these guys.

“I try not to think about it too much and enjoy the moment,” Weber said. “Because I know it will pass quicker than I realize.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Dizzy Runs: Catching up with Indiana high school basketball stars