The late Reggae legend Sugar Minott scored his biggest hit with ‘Good Thing Going’, which peaked at No. 4 in the UK charts in 1981.
On June 23, Minott’s cousin Josh added to the Minott legacy with the second-round selection in the 2022 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets. Minott’s draft rights ended up with the Minnesota Timberwolves, a young, exciting team on the rise.
Minott, a 6-foot, nine-inch forward from Memphis University, grew up in South Florida and led St. Andrews School in Boca Raton to the state title before leaving to play for former NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway, the head coach at Memphis. Minott mainly played off the bench for Penny but showed flashes in limited playing time and subsequently declared for the NBA draft.
On draft night, a crowd of well-wishers supported Josh at his draft watch party inside a plush downtown Miami condominium. But when we didn’t hear Josh’s name called in the first round, the gathering started to feel angst until finally, we heard Minott’s name selected with the 45th pick. As we heard Minott’s name, the room breathed a collective sigh of relief and erupted into loud cheers and applause.
The Minott Feeling
“It’s great to see, you know, just everybody here,” Minott said. “It’s a blessing just to know there is all this support behind me, and that is one thing that just brightened up my night. Having the love here no matter what. Whether it was, i don’t know, being drafted 20 or 45, it’s just good to have this support system here for sure.”
Minott finds himself in the select company of other NBA players with established Jamaican heritage, including 11-time All-star Patrick Ewing, two-time All-star Roy Hibbert, Rumeal Robinson (a lottery pick in 1990), and Samardo Samuels, Jerome Jordan, Pat Ewing Jr, and Nick Richards.
Patrick Ewing clearly owns the best resume of that group, drafted No. 1 overall in the 1985 draft. He joined the 1992 Dream. In 2008 he entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Opinions varied on Minott’s NBA potential leading up to the draft.
But Minott got perhaps his most significant endorsement from Naismith Hall of fame coach Larry Brown, who served as an assistant at Memphis last season.
In a New York Post interview, Brown raved about Minott’s potential.
“If you draft him, he’ll be like a lottery pick in two years,” Brown told the Post. “He’s young, long, athletic, quick. He’s just got to grow and get better. He grew 2 inches when I was there. He’s that high-twitch athlete. So many NBA people have called me about him. [In] a couple of years, you might have a diamond.”
