Tennessee basketball commit Nate Ament credits his talents to his family — and his first love

New York Times

28-04-2025

PORTLAND, Ore. — Now that Nate Ament has committed to play basketball next season at Tennessee, tipping the Vols' 2025-26 roster from good to great, elated fans should seriously consider sending a thank you note to his older brother Frederick.
Twenty-year-old Frederick can't take credit for Nate's 6-foot-9 height or his skill set (the forward is ranked No. 4 in the 2025 class). But he is the one who first convinced Nate to consider leaving soccer behind in favor of basketball. And now, Tennessee is set to reap the benefits of that switch.
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When Ament committed on April 20 to Rick Barnes and the Vols, it catapulted Tennessee up the team recruiting rankings, from No. 41 to No. 13, according to 247Sports. He is the highest-ranked recruit in Vols history, a coup of sorts for Barnes given that Duke and Louisville were thought to be Ament's front-runners (he was also considering Arkansas and Kentucky). Specifics of Ament's NIL deal at Tennessee aren't public. He signed an NIL deal with Reebok as a high schooler and signed an NIL equity deal with Fanstake, which allows fans to invest in the recruitment of prospects.
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Is Nate's position as a potential future NBA lottery pick with his long, lean frame, smooth jumper and tremendous upside all due to … his big brother?
Nate sighed dramatically before dipping his chin to his chest. He'd just played 11 minutes in the esteemed Nike Hoop Summit, an annual showcase event where dozens of league general managers and front office executives scout the next generation of NBA talent. He'd dished two assists, grabbed a rebound and blocked a shot in his limited time, a glimpse at his ability to impact a game even if he's not scoring, as the U.S. beat the World Team 124-114 in overtime.
'It hurts my pride to give him too much credit,' Nate acknowledged, obviously reluctant. 'But, yeah. I wanted to follow in his footsteps.'
Frederick guffawed at the idea that he's responsible for his little brother's meteoric rise through the high school basketball ranks. Then he gave a big smile. He's OK with getting credit so long as everyone understands that in soccer, big brother is still superior.
Soccer was the first love for all four Ament boys growing up in Warrenton, Va., about an hour outside Washington D.C. Oldest brother Manny Ament, now 27, played the sport at Division-III Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., 20 miles north of Richmond.
When they were little, the boys' soccer schedules overlapped so much the Ament parents had to build an elaborate spreadsheet showing which child needed to be dropped off (and picked up) where and when, and even then, the boys wanted to tag along to each other's practices. They couldn't get enough.
They are a house divided when it comes to professional soccer allegiances, with various members of the family rooting for (in alphabetical order) Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United.
All this despite the fact that dad Al Ament is one of the best basketball players in Division-II Wayne State (Mich.) program history, a school hall of famer whose name still peppers the Wayne State record books.
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But soccer is in their family history, too. Mom Godelive Mukankuranga, a native of Rwanda, went to secondary school in Italy, where fútbol is king. And Al worked for a time in the Peace Corps in Africa, where soccer is beloved.
When he sprouted to 6 feet 2 around 10 years old, Nate wondered what a future in soccer would look like. But he loved the sport so much, he couldn't imagine giving it up. Then, at 11, his parents missed the signup deadline for youth soccer. Practically inconsolable, Nate perked up when Frederick, older by two years, had a suggestion: Come play basketball with me instead.
Nate fell hard, and fast, for hoops.
At night in their shared bedroom, Nate and Frederick would hold dunk contests on their small Nerf hoop, throwing down over each other. When they heard their parents' footsteps on the stairs, they'd go scurrying back to their beds and pretend to be asleep, 'thinking we'd fake them out, as if we weren't shaking the whole house,' Frederick recalled, laughing.
Mused Al: 'This is very confessional.'
Often, Nate would grab a basketball and head around the corner to the local elementary school, telling his parents, 'I'm going to go work on my craft.' Frederick usually tagged along. When Nate hit 6 feet 7 as a ninth grader, Al officially 'retired' from basketball, so he didn't have to deal with the humiliation of being smoked in one-on-one by his youngest son.
Nate, who has drawn comparisons to Kevin Durant because of his lanky frame, still can't quite believe he became a basketball star, even though, in hindsight, he might have had no other choice.
'It's definitely crazy, I never thought I'd be who I am today,' said Nate, who started as a defender in soccer and eventually moved to forward, where he could control the pace of the game. 'Basketball was kind of gradual. Once you get to a certain height, you're just too tall to play soccer.'
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Still, he said there are 'absolutely' things he learned on the pitch that have translated to the court.
'In soccer, you see the field with your footwork and now in basketball, you always know where your feet are,' he said, explaining that the quick decision-making necessary in soccer has helped him immensely in basketball, particularly when he's leading a fast break.
'The speed of soccer and the speed of basketball,' he said, 'they fit perfectly together.'
Frank Bennett of Chaminade College Prep, who coached Nate during the Hoop Summit, agrees.
'When you look at a kid like Nate, who's 6-foot-9, 6-foot-10 and has incredible footwork, you're not surprised hearing about his soccer background,' Bennett said. 'He moves extremely well with and without the ball, and typically guys his size don't move like that.'
Though soccer was always the boys' first choice, Nate's decision to focus on basketball didn't ever make him feel like the black sheep of the family. It didn't matter what the Ament boys were playing — soccer, basketball, football or anything else — it was endless games of two-on-two.
'We're all competitors,' Nate said. 'We all followed our oldest brother, Manny. He instilled that competitive edge in us. When I played with them, it wasn't really much of a competition — they would just bully me around because I was so much younger.'
That's changed. But the bond with his brothers, especially Frederick, hasn't.
In Warrenton, Nate trains at the local gym where Frederick, who lives at home while attending George Mason, works. They'll play pickup together before Frederick's shift starts, tossing lobs to one another and creating their own Ament family highlight reel. When he goes on the clock, Frederick has to focus on all the gym's clients.
Theoretically, at least.
Asked if he took the job so he could be paid to play hoops with his younger brother, Frederick responded by deadpanning, 'Is my boss going to see this story?'
At the Hoop Summit, lots of people had questions about when, exactly, Nate planned to pledge his collegiate allegiance. His USA teammates badgered him with questions and their own recruiting pitches, anxious to add him to their signee class. Bennett overheard many of these conversations, a testament, he said, to Nate's 'magnetic' personality.
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Turns out, anyone who wanted a timeline for Nate's decision should have just asked Frederick. When his mom said she wasn't sure when Nate would decide, Frederick piped up. Nate will make a decision within two weeks, he clarified, which prompted Godelive to laugh. 'I guess he knows more than me! I'm learning, too!'
In a surprise to no one, Nate told Frederick before anyone else that he'd landed on Tennessee.
He was drawn to playing for Barnes, who coached one of the best one-and-done players of all time in Durant. He wanted a coach who would develop him for the next level and let him play through mistakes. He doesn't want to be benched every time he screws up. And he's excited to work full-time with a trainer who can help him add 12-15 pounds of muscle to his wiry, 185-pound frame.
Part of his choice also came from seeing how Tennessee's roster fluctuated in the offseason — the Vols lost seven players to graduation and picked a veteran guard and forward in the portal. There's plenty of room for Nate to contribute from day one.
It helps, too, that Knoxville is just an hour flight from home.
The Aments are planning a family trip to Rwanda this summer, before Nate enrolls in school. Nate has visited Rwanda twice before and wants to learn more about his family history. (Most of Godelive's family, including her mother, and three siblings, were killed in the Rwandan Civil War in spring 1994; Godelive was in school in Italy at the time.) The custom Reeboks Nate wears are an homage to his mother's homeland, with light blue, yellow and green the colors of the Rwandan flag.
He's hopeful this summer he can run some sort of camp in Rwanda for little kids — maybe soccer, maybe basketball, maybe both.
'I definitely want to give back to the community, both Rwanda and Italy,' he said. 'Both hold a special place in my heart.'
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Soccer, he said, made him who he is. And even now that he's made his college choice, it will always play a role in his life. He's not sure he'll be allowed to play intramural soccer at Tennessee — what if he got hurt? — but said he'll 'try to get back and play with my friends, kick it around, whenever I can. I miss it for sure.'
There's always the virtual option, too. The days of driveway hoops and backyard soccer might be (mostly) over for the Ament boys, but they've still got their gaming consoles, where FIFA is always the go-to. And in that arena, Frederick wins nearly every time.
'He is better than me,' Nate said. Then he groaned. 'Don't tell him I said that.'