Butler’s Morton earns FIBA gold
On the evening of June 7, Ethan Morton sat in a hotel room halfway across the world, trying to decompress after two physical games earlier in the day while attempting to comprehend the magnitude of the game he would be playing in later that night.
The sensational 6- foot- 8 point guard is preparing for his senior season at Butler before heading off to West Lafayette, Ind., to become a Purdue Boilermaker in 2020. He has been taking part in the national AAU circuit during the summer as usual, and will be making his second appearance in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League’s prestigious Peach Jam tournament July 10- 14 in South Carolina.
But first, Morton had some business to attend to in Mongolia.
“Just sitting in your room thinking about it and locking in like, ‘ Wow, we have a chance to do something that’s never been done before,’” Morton said. “You just think about why you do it. What you’re hoping to accomplish for your country, for your family, for your teammates, and just putting a gold medal around your neck.”
He may have had to settle for silver at this year’s WPIAL Class 6A championship game, but Morton and his teammates brought home the gold at the 2019 FIBA 3- on- 3 Under- 18 World Cup last month.
After breezing through pool play with a 4- 0 record, Morton helped the U. S. advance past Italy and Russia in the quarterfinals and semifinals, followed by a 1612 win against Turkey in the finals. The perfect run through the tournament brought the U. S. men’s U18 team its first- ever championship in the event, which began in 2011 and takes place every year outside the Summer Youth Olympic Games cycle.
Morton and his teammates — five- star recruits Dawson Garcia ( Prior Lake H. S./ Prior Lake, Minn.), Devin Askew ( Mater Dei H. S./ Los Angeles, Calif.) and Nimari Burnett ( Prolific Prep/ Chicago, Ill.) — earned the right to represent the U. S. at the World Cup via their performance in the 2019 USA Basketball U18 3on- 3 National Championship in April.
“You don’t necessarily understand the energy of that moment, putting on that jersey for the first time and playing for your country,” Morton said. “The magnitude of doing that, it’s kind of indescribable.” The fast- paced game of 3on- 3 basketball is played on a half court with a 10- minute clock and a 12- second shot clock, and the winner is the first team to 21 points or whichever team is in the lead when time runs out. With the sport making its Olympic debut at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the win gave the U. S. some muchneeded momentum heading into next summer’s competition.
For Morton, who had never traveled outside the country before, flying across the globe to play basketball in Mongolia was something he never imagined doing as a high schooler.
“I’ve never even been to Canada or anything, so to leave the country for my first time and go there was pretty amazing,” Morton said. “That’s not a place where a lot of people are saying, ‘ I’m going to go visit someday.’ It was an awesome experience to go represent your country in a new, different game that I thought was super fun.”
While the feeling of having a gold medal placed around his neck as the “Star Spangled Banner” played throughout the speakers after the championship game is understandably tough to top, Morton said playing against the host country in the U. S. team’s final game of pool play was a close second for him as far as memories he’ll bring home from the trip.
“It was like 8: 30 at night at this Genghis Khan memorial, and the stands were packed,” Morton said. “It was so loud. Besides the game where we got the gold medal and celebrating like that, that was probably the coolest game of the tourney and one of the coolest games I’ve ever been a part of. Just playing against a team with their whole country behind them, it was just astonishing.”
With a gold medal in tow and one more season of high school basketball to go, Morton has his sights set on a return trip to the WPIAL championship game this year — preferably with a different result. But even if he doesn’t bring a WPIAL title back to Butler, he’ll have at least one piece of hardware not many teenagers get to wear as they embark on their college careers.
“When the clock hits zero and you realize you’re actually a world champion, at anything, it doesn’t matter what it is,” Morton said. “I don’t care if it’s monopoly. When you realize that you’ve won something out of the whole entire world and doing what you love, it was surreal.”