Emoni James-Wayne Bates ( ; born January 28, 2004) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers, often referred to as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Divis ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA), on a

two-way contract A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless o ...

with the Cleveland Charge of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...

. He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the Memphis Tigers and the Eastern Michigan Eagles. In his first two years of high school, Bates played basketball for Lincoln High School in his hometown

Ypsilanti, Michigan Ypsilanti ( ), commonly shortened to Ypsi ( ), is a college town and city located on the Huron River in Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's popu ...

, where he was heavily touted by the national media and rated as the top recruit in his class. He led Lincoln to a state championship as a freshman and became the first sophomore to win the Gatorade National Player of the Year boys' award. For his junior season, Bates transferred to Ypsi Prep Academy, a new school created by his father. A former Michigan State commit, he opted to graduate early from high school and start his college career at Memphis. As a freshman at Memphis, Bates missed time with injuries and fell sharply in NBA draft projections after not meeting expectations. He transferred to his hometown team Eastern Michigan for his sophomore season. He was drafted with the 49th pick in the 2023 NBA draft by the Cavaliers.

Early life and career

Bates was born in the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

hospital in

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

. He began playing basketball from age three, often sleeping with a miniature basketball under his arm and

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. As ...

around his house. In his childhood, Bates trained for basketball with his father, a former professional player, by shooting around and improving his agility through various drills. In fourth grade, he played against high school seniors at a rec league in

Saline, Michigan Saline ( ') is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 8,948 at the 2020 census. The city borders Saline Township to the southwest, and the two are administered autonomously. History Before the 18th cent ...

and started competing on the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

(AAU) circuit. Bates also played

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

while in elementary school. Bates first surfaced on the national radar in early 2016, after averaging 28 points and 12 rebounds per game for the Toledo Wildcats AAU team at a tournament in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He grew from to from sixth to seventh grade. Bates played basketball for Clague Middle School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where as a seventh-grader, he was rated the number one player in the 2022 class by recruiting website Future150. He averaged 46 points per game in seventh grade and sat out his eighth grade season to train individually. In the summer of 2018, Bates averaged 17 points per game facing older competition at the under-15 division of the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL), a notable summer circuit.

High school career

Freshman season

Bates enrolled at Lincoln High School in

, being drawn there because the head basketball coach, Jesse Davis, was a longtime teammate and friend of Bates' father. On November 26, 2018, Bates made his freshman season debut, recording 32 points and 15 rebounds in an 80–69 win over Ann Arbor Huron at the Ypsilanti Tip-Off Classic. On January 18, 2019, he scored a then-career-high 43 points, shooting 13-of-27 from the field, in a 68–56 victory over Ypsilanti Community High School. Bates, on February 5, was ejected and suspended one game for his role in an altercation during a game versus Dexter High School. On February 18, he posted 36 points and 19 rebounds in a 73–65 win over Jackson High School to capture the

Michigan High School Athletic Association The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) is a service organization for high school sports in Michigan and is headquartered in East Lansing, Michigan, East Lansing. It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Assoc ...

(MHSAA)

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

White division title. On March 7, he led all scorers with 36 points and made the game-winning shot in an 81–79 victory over Detroit Catholic Central High School, as Lincoln claimed its first regional championship. Nine days later, Bates guided Lincoln to its first MHSAA Division 1 state title after scoring 23 points in a 64–62 win over top-seeded University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. He finished the season averaging 28.5 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, helping his team to a 23–4 record. Bates was named Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year and MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year. He also earned

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(AP) Division 1 Player of the Year and All-State first team honors. Mick McCabe of the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...

'' labeled Bates as the "best freshman to ever play in Michigan," while Evan Daniels of

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on college recruiting, athletic recruitment in college football and college basketball, basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount Global, Paramount. The website hosts a large ...

mentioned him as possibly the best high school prospect since

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. ( ; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and ...

Sophomore season

Entering his sophomore season, Bates appeared on the cover of the November 4, 2019 issue of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''. In his season debut, he scored 24 points but was held back to 6-of-21 shooting in a loss to River Rouge High School. On January 17, 2020, Bates scored 40 points in a 67–38 victory over Dexter High School. He tallied 42 points on January 27 in an 83–56 win over Jackson High School. During the game, Bates wore a number 24 jersey to honor his childhood idol, Kobe Bryant, who had died in a helicopter crash in the previous day. On February 18, he established new career highs of 63 points and 21 rebounds in a 108–102 double

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

victory over Chelsea High School. Three days later, Bates recorded 40 points and 12 rebounds in a 67–60 overtime win over Ypsilanti Community High School. On March 5, he had 48 points and 13 rebounds to lead his team past Catholic Central High School by a score of 79–48. On March 9, during a win over Pioneer High School in the first round of the state playoffs, Bates was involved in a skirmish that resulted in a double

technical foul In basketball, a technical foul (colloquially known as a "T" or a "tech") is any infraction of the rules penalized as a foul which does not involve physical contact during the course of play between opposing players on the court, or is a foul by a ...

and the ejection of an opposing player. He was unable to help Lincoln defend its Division 1 state title after the MHSAA suspended winter postseason tournaments due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. As a sophomore, he averaged 32.3 points, nine rebounds, three assists and 2.1 steals per game, shooting 50 percent from the field and 37 percent from three-point range, and led his team to a 19–3 record. Bates was recognized as Gatorade National Player of the Year, becoming the first sophomore to win the boys' version of the award, as well as MaxPreps National Sophomore of the Year. He was named Michigan AP Division 1 Player of the Year and Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year for a second straight season.

Junior season

Before his junior season, Bates announced that he would transfer to Ypsi Prep Academy, a new prep school in Ypsilanti created by his father. On November 12, 2020, he made his debut with the program, scoring 36 points in a 78–71 exhibition game loss to Chet Holmgren and Team Sizzle. As a junior, Bates averaged 23 points, 5.8 rebounds, three assists and 2.2 steals per game, leading his team to a 7–3 record. He was one of five finalists for the Naismith Prep Player of the Year Award. After the season, he reclassified up to the 2021 class and bypassed his senior year of high school.

Recruiting

Bates was a consensus five-star recruit and one of the top players in the 2021 class, according to major recruiting services. He received a scholarship offer from

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

program DePaul in eighth grade. After his freshman season in high school, Bates was offered scholarships by Michigan State,

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

. By then, he was being touted by analysts and scouts as the top high school basketball prospect regardless of class. Following Bates' junior season, however,

remarked that he "looks to have hit a bit of a roadblock in his development." Both 247Sports and

Rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

began to consider him the second-best player in his class behind Jalen Duren. On August 4, 2021, Bates reclassified from the 2022 class to the 2021 class. Upon his reclassification, he was ranked third, fourth and fifth in his class by

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, Rivals and 247Sports, respectively. On June 29, 2020, during a live interview on '' SportsCenter'', Bates announced his commitment to play

for Michigan State. He was drawn to the program by head coach Tom Izzo and the school's coaching staff, who had been building a relationship with him since he was in seventh grade. At the time, Bates was the highest-rated recruit to commit to Michigan State in the modern recruiting era. On April 30, 2021, he decommitted from Michigan State and reopened his recruitment, saying that he was exploring college and professional options. On August 24, Bates committed to Memphis to play for head coach Penny Hardaway and alongside his close friend, Jalen Duren; his other three finalists were Michigan State,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and the

College career

Freshman season

Bates, at age 17, entered his freshman season at Memphis as the youngest player in college basketball. On November 9, 2021, he made his college debut, recording a season-high 17 points, four rebounds and four assists in an 89–65 win against Tennessee Tech. He was named

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

(AAC) Freshman of the Week on November 15, after two games. As Memphis began facing stronger competition, head coach Penny Hardaway moved Bates to

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

, a position he had not played in high school, and he struggled in his new role. In December, he suffered a finger injury that caused him to miss three games. Bates later missed 12 games, including the AAC tournament, with a lower back injury and returned for the NCAA tournament. In 18 games as a freshman, he averaged 9.7 points and 3.3 rebounds, shooting 38.6 percent from the field, and drastically fell in NBA draft projections.

Sophomore season

For his sophomore season, Bates transferred to Eastern Michigan, his hometown college team, after also considering

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, Seton Hall, DePaul and

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

. Before the season, on September 19, 2022, he was suspended by the team after being arrested on gun charges in the previous day. Bates was reinstated on October 13 following a plea deal that would lead to the charges being dropped. He did not play in the team's season-opener against Wayne State for undisclosed reasons. On November 11, Bates made his debut for Eastern Michigan and led his team with 30 points in an 88–83 loss to

. Against Toledo on January 24, 2023, Bates scored 29 straight points for Eastern Michigan in the first half. That was all he scored in that half, as he ended with 43 points in a 84–79 loss. In 30 games at Eastern Michigan during the 2022–23 season, he averaged 19.2 points and 5.8 rebounds. He was named third-team All- MAC. On April 24, 2023, Bates entered his name in the 2023 NBA draft.

Professional career

Bates was selected with the 49th overall pick of the 2023 NBA draft by the

. On July 7, 2023, the Cavaliers signed him to a

. Under the terms of the deal, he split time between the Cavaliers and their

affiliate, the Cleveland Charge. On August 20, 2024, Bates signed another two-way contract with the Cavaliers. On October 7, Bates underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. His recovery timetable was set at around one month. On April 13, 2025, Bates scored a career-high 25 points in Cleveland's regular season finale, a 126-118 double overtime loss to the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

. In 10 total appearances for the Cavaliers during the

2024–25 NBA season The 2024–25 NBA season is the 79th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The regular season began on October 22, 2024, and ended on April 13, 2025. The NBA held an in-season tournament for the second consecutive year, now called ...

, Bates averaged 3.7 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.8 assists.

Career statistics

NBA

, - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, 15 , , 0 , , 8.9 , , .306 , , .303 , , .250 , , .9 , , .7 , , .1 , , .1 , , 2.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 10 , , 0 , , 7.5 , , .342 , , .367 , , , , .7 , , .8 , , .1 , , .1 , , 3.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 25 , , 0 , , 8.3 , , .322 , , .333 , , .250 , , .8 , , .7 , , .1 , , .1 , , 3.1

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Memphis , 18 , , 13 , , 23.4 , , .386 , , .329 , , .646 , , 3.3 , , 1.3 , , .6 , , .3 , , 9.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2022–23 , style="text-align:left;", Eastern Michigan , 30 , , 29 , , 33.8 , , .405 , , .330 , , .782 , , 5.8 , , 1.4 , , .7 , , .5 , , 19.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 48 , , 42 , , 29.9 , , .400 , , .330 , , .749 , , 4.8 , , 1.4 , , .7 , , .5 , , 15.6

Footnotes

References

External links

Eastern Michigan Eagles bioMemphis Tigers bioUSA Basketball bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Emoni 2004 births Living people 21st-century American sportsmen American men's basketball players Basketball players from Ann Arbor, Michigan Cleveland Cavaliers draft picks Cleveland Cavaliers players Cleveland Charge players Eastern Michigan Eagles men's basketball players Memphis Tigers men's basketball players Small forwards