00:03Hey guys, in this video I'm going to be talking about a more controversial topic,
00:07players lying about their age. It's something that happens across all major
00:12sports leagues, not just the NBA. But why do some players lie about their age? How
00:17does it benefit them? Well, the main benefit is that if a player is younger,
00:21he could possibly be picked higher in the draft since younger players have a
00:25higher ceiling. There's a huge difference in the player's draft stock if, for
00:29example, he was 19 years old instead of 23 years old. The 19 year old kid would be
00:34seen as the better prospect and has more room to develop. He'd be picked higher in
00:39the draft and therefore earning more money from a bigger contract. Alright, let's
00:44get started. Here are five players who reportedly lied about their age. Number
00:49one, Shabazz Muhammad. Prior to the 2013 NBA draft, Shabazz was rated as either the
00:56first or second best player in the country. By 2013 he already won a bunch of
01:01awards and accolades, being named the Naismith Prep Player of the Year and Mr.
01:05Basketball in 2012 and being named MVP of the McDonald's All-American Game. There
01:11was a ton of hype surrounding the prospect. However, in March of 2013, three months
01:17prior to the NBA draft, an article from the Los Angeles Times stated that Shabazz is
01:22actually 20 years old, not 19. Apparently, his father, Ron Holmes, has been lying
01:29about his son's age for a long time. When reporters asked Holmes about this age
01:34discrepancy, he simply stated that it was a mistake and Shabazz was 19. But then a
01:40few minutes later he corrected himself and admitted that he was indeed 20 years old.
01:44It was unclear when or how Holmes was able to falsify Shabazz's birth records and get
01:50away with it. But he's been known for having a criminal record, so who knows.
01:55Anyway, after this story broke out, Shabazz's draft stock fell. Although
01:59previously considered a top five pick, he fell to the bottom of the lottery and got
02:05selected at 14th in the 2013 draft. At number two, Yi Jianlian. Yi was the sixth pick in the
02:122007 draft as supposedly a 20 year old rookie who was born in 1987. However,
02:19throughout his life, his age has always been really inconsistent from multiple
02:23accounts. The first inconsistency occurred in 2004, where Yi was listed as being
02:29born in 1984 during a basketball tournament in China, which would make him
02:34exactly three years older than what he actually is. Chinese officials also stated
02:39how sometimes the youth basketball teams would allow players above the age limit
02:43to play for them. In 2008, during Yi's rookie year, more evidence surfaced that
02:48created even more criticism about his age. A Chinese reporter discovered a high
02:53school enrollment form from 1997 that listed him as being born on October 27, 1984,
03:00which would make him exactly three years older than what he was, which corresponds with
03:04the age that was mentioned earlier. This means that he was really 23 years old
03:08when he got drafted, instead of 20. I guess it makes sense though, since he
03:12didn't really improve at all during his five seasons in the NBA.
03:16Number three, Ersan Ilyasova. Ilyasova's listed birthday is May 15, 1987. Now out of
03:24all the age conspiracies in this video, Ilyasova definitely has the most
03:29interesting one. While the other two players faked their age, Ilyasova has been
03:34rumored to have faked his entire identity. The theory is that Ersan Ilyasova is
03:40actually a man by the name of Arsan Ilyasov. It started in 2002, when an 18 year
03:47old guy named Arsan Ilyasov crossed the border from Uzbekistan to Turkey. But when
03:53he arrived in Turkey on August 7, 2002, he just disappeared and nobody heard from
03:59him again. Then one month later, a man named Semsetin Bulut, I hope I pronounced
04:05that right, he told the Turkish officials that he forgot to register his 15 year old
04:10son. So he registered him under the name Ersan Ilyasova. Now that's pretty weird,
04:16but this theory definitely has some merit, especially since most of Ilyasova's
04:20personal life and childhood is a mystery. More evidence that supported this theory
04:24surfaced when people found out that the Uzbekish Basketball Federation
04:28filed a complaint at FIBA claiming that Ersan Ilyasova should be playing for
04:33Uzbekistan, not Turkey. While this whole conspiracy would probably never be resolved,
04:38there is clearly enough evidence out there to suggest that Ilyasova is the same guy
04:43as Arsan Ilyasov, who was born in 1984 in Uzbekistan. At number 4, Bismak Biambo.
04:52Alright so for Biambo, there has not been any strong evidence to suggest that he lied about
04:57his age, but there has been some heavy speculation from NBA scouts and reporters who think that
05:02he is older than what he says he is. Bismak Biambo's age speculation was a huge topic of discussion
05:08around the time of the 2011 draft, where he was reportedly only 18 years old. David Aldridge
05:15of NBA.com claimed that a GM has heard rumors that Biambo could be anywhere from 23 to 26 years
05:21of age.
05:22Ian Thompson of Sports Illustrated also said that a half dozen NBA scouts and executives
05:27believe Biambo was definitely older than 18. But the only evidence they have is that they think
05:33Biambo sounds like a wise old traveler, not an 18 year old. Which I guess makes sense, but to me,
05:39it seems like there's clearly some preconceived bias towards him. Because of his background and, you know,
05:45growing up in Congo. In fact, when he was 16 years old, Biambo's agent brought him to do a bone
05:51age
05:51study in Spain. After a few x-rays, the specialist who did this procedure stated that Biambo is definitely
05:5816 or 17, and there's no way he's any older than that. So at the very worst, Biambo is just
06:04one year
06:05older than his listed age, which isn't too bad. At number 5, Thon Maker. Shortly after getting drafted
06:12at 19 years old by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2016, a few Reddit users were skeptical that he was really
06:1819 years old. So they dived into a detailed investigation of Maker's history in Australia.
06:25Basically, they found some old yearbook photos of Maker in the 12th grade. The problem was,
06:31these photos were from 2010, which means Maker would already be 17 or 18 years old in this yearbook.
06:38Which also means Maker would be 22 or 23 when he got drafted, not 19. This Reddit user also provided
06:45a rough timeline of what could've happened. So after graduating high school in 2010, Maker was discovered
06:52by Edmund Smith, a shady talent scout who's been known to work with Sudanese kids. Smith realized that
06:59Maker was very tall, very long, and very athletic. But he could not make it to the NBA if he
07:05was already 18.
07:06So then, Smith was like, well Maker, you're 14 now. So Maker resurfaced as a 14 year old basketball
07:14prodigy in Sydney, Australia around 2011. Apparently, Maker basically redid all of his high school years
07:21until 2015 and then entered the 2016 draft as a 19 year old, even though there's evidence that he was
07:2818
07:28back in 2010. So something is definitely not adding up here, but that's all the information we have
07:35right now of this situation. And that's it for the video guys. Let me know what you think about
07:41these age conspiracies and whether or not you think they're true.
07:43Thanks for watching and make sure to subscribe if you like these kind of videos. I'll see you later.
Comments