Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Warren finding way professionally
The transition from being a two-time high school all-stater in Arkansas to a paid professional standout in Georgia has been about as seamless as Bryson Warren could’ve ever imagined.
He’s still playing at a high level whenever he’s on the basketball court, he’s still attending academic classes and he’s still trying to figure out ways to make the next day better than the one before – all of which he did consistently as a freshman at North Little Rock and as a sophomore at Little Rock Central.
But that isn’t to say life as a calculated professional has been perfect for Warren since he decided to bypass his final two years of high school in September to sign with Overtime Elite in Atlanta, where the population is more than 2.5 times larger than his hometown. With that decision came added duties, and there are still a few things the 17-yearold is trying to master before officially reaching adult status.
“Man, just going to buy groceries, I didn’t know doing that would be so hard,” Warren said with a laugh. “I mean, you’ve got to know exactly what you want because nothing is cheap, especially food. You’ve got to know what to spend money on and how to spend it.
“But when it comes to food, you’ve got to be smart. We’ve got to feed ourselves, and we just can’t eat fast food every day.”
What Warren buys is minuscule compared to what he’s experienced in his debut year in a league that he believes has him on track to achieving his ultimate goal of playing in the NBA.
The 6-2, 170-pounder is coming off a banner season for Team Elite, which is one of three clubs in the upstart Overtime Elite that features players who were going to be either rising high school juniors or seniors or post-graduates and offers them an alternate route to playing professionally. Warren averaged 12.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals while shooting 53% from the field against teams from within the league as well other prep schools and programs from around the nation. He was also second in threepoint percentage (33.3%) and free-throw shooting (75.4%) while helping lead his team to an OTE title.
For Warren, he couldn’t have asked for a better start to an early professional career.
“Just the whole experience has been exciting,” said Warren, who will participate in the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team minicamp today through Sunday in New Orleans. “Everything here, from the facilities, the equipment, the people … everything. I get to work with some great players, too, but at the end of the day, we’re all in the same business.
“We’re coworkers preparing for the NBA Draft. And just going against projected lottery picks every day, you just don’t get that everywhere.”
There’s a lot that Warren has gotten since he’s been on his own, beginning with a crash course in independence. He, as do the other players in the league, has his own apartment and makes decisions — some of which are business-based — that a typical teenage athlete doesn’t have to make. But Warren isn’t a normal teen, particularly when it comes to producing on the hardwood.
He averaged 24 points, 3.7 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.4 steals in 2020-21 at Central, where he was named the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Preps Underclassman of the Year after leading the Tigers to the Class 6A state title game. Warren then transferred to (Branson) Link Academy in June before putting together a strong summer of travel ball with MOKAN Elite, which helped him shoot up the Class of 2023 rankings. He eventually landed as a 5-star recruit and the No. 14 player in the class by ESPN by the time he announced he was signing with OTE in September.
From that point, it was a series of adjustments for the smooth-shooting guard, ranging from workout regimens to practice routines. There was also the academic side of things, which was different, yet similar, to what he was accustomed. There was an overexaggerated narrative surrounding OTE that the student-athletes who decided to give up their last year or two of high school wouldn’t earn degrees, but that’s not the case.
Teachers and academic administrators are on deck to help players obtain their diplomas.
“In a way, it’s pretty much the same as high school, but it’s shorter,” Warren said of his education at OTE. “School is pretty long, but a lot of that deals with busy work. Here, we’ve got the basic English, math, science, social studies, history, all of the core classes you need and some of the others like Spanish.
“They have everything you need to graduate and get that high school degree. We have three hours of class, three hours of practice, and then the rest of the day, you’re either working out and doing whatever you need to do in your free time.”
Warren noted that time management hasn’t been much of a problem, and that’s enabled him to continue to work on his game without any hitches.
Considering the skill level that he’s seeing on a daily basis, getting in the gym as much as possible is a must.
“I want to get better and better,” he explained. “We’ve got a lot talent competing in here every day. I’m in here battling and competing with guys like the [Ausar and Amen] Thompson twins, and both of them are projected to be lottery picks. One of them, Ausar, is on my particular team and I’m going against him every day.
“That only helps me develop my game, develop my craft. You can only learn and get better by doing that.”
The league is dotted with players who were ranked 5-star recruits before they made the choice to turn professional, including Warren. He said he really started to pick things up after the Christmas break when his team went through a 10-1 stretch before the incentive-laden playoffs began.
The postseason tournament included just the three teams from the league — Team Elite, Team Overtime and Team OTE. The thirdplace finisher got $2,000, the second-place team received $5,000 and the winner took home $10,000. Fortunately for Warren, his team won the title by beating Team OTE 2-1 in a best-of-3 series.
Now, Warren has his sites set on making the USA Basketball Junior National team. He’ll be joined by 45 other athletes from the classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025 over the next three days for camp where they’ll take part in oncourt drills and scrimmages. The players will also attend the NCAA Division I national semifinals Saturday.
He said he’s making the most of leaving the traditional high school scene to the one he’s now experiencing in Atlanta.
“In high school, you’re playing for a state title, but here, you’re playing for bragging rights and $10,000,” Warren said. “It’s been amazing, it really has. Of course, I missed playing in the state tournament games and hated that I couldn’t play in the games between North Little Rock and Central because when covid was going on last year, I couldn’t really experience [rivalry] the way I would’ve liked to.
“But being in Atlanta, there’s not a lot else that I’m missing outside of that. My dad is here all the time, too. And down here, it’s such a family atmosphere to the point where it feels like you’ve got a lot of parents around you anyway. So everything has been better than I could’ve ever imagined.”