Life has been a blur for Deron Rippey Jr. of late.
In recent months, the Blair Academy senior visited 11 of the top college basketball programs, all of whom courted Rippey Jr. in hopes of winning a commitment from the nation’s top point guard prospect.
In December, the five-star recruit sifted through seven-figure Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) offers with his family and agent before choosing Duke.
Last week, he was named a McDonald’s All-American. And on Wednesday morning, he boarded a flight to make paid marketing appearances for Adidas at NBA All-Star festivities in Los Angeles.
But while highlights of Rippey Jr.’s two-handed dunks and 3-point barrages rotate on endless loops across social media, classwork at his bucolic boarding school in Warren County complicates the newfound demands for his attention. Nearing graduation, he maintains a courseload that includes advanced comparative government, environmental science, the meaning of life and singing ensemble. Math has been the most problematic.
“Shoot, calculus is kind of kicking my ass right now,” he said. “I’m not going to lie. Pretty tough course.”
Rippey Jr., 18, shook his head. His journey from negotiating his way past gun violence in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a steady home at Blair is as uncommon as his talents in an era where hopscotching from school to school and chasing the best NIL deal is the increasingly popular pathway. Just this season, four of New Jersey’s top high school players — Aiden Derkack, Jayden Hodge, Michai White and Jalen Grant — transferred out of state in search of more esteemed programs.
Meanwhile, Rippey Jr. has spent all four years at one high school, a rarity in today’s fragmented basketball landscape, tinkering with not only his shooting stroke, but the calculation of instantaneous rates of change. Mutual appreciation for his commitment was on display during his Senior Day, where Rippey Jr. was honored as Blair (24-1) continued its pursuit of a national prep championship.
During an on-court ceremony, long-time Blair coach Joe Mantegna paced with a microphone and told the packed crowd that Rippey Jr. soon will have his number displayed on the wall alongside like Blair alumni Royal Ivey, Luol Deng and Charlie Villanueva, all of whom played in the NBA.
“There’s a lot of guys out there with 30, 40-inch vertical jumps,” Mantegna said. “There’s a lot of guys out there with these long arms and explosiveness. But a lot of those guys are not where you’d think they’d be. I don’t know what is going to happen at Duke. I don’t know what is going to happen after Duke. But I know this dude is a winner.”
Rippey Jr., who recorded a triple double to win the state championship last year, blinked away a tear after receiving a rose from a coach. His mother, Patricia Lee, embraced Mantegna as 11 other family members looked on wearing T-shirts emblazoned with a silhouette of Rippey Jr. dunking.
“Thank you for keeping him in this space,” Lee said.
In the stands, Rippey Jr.’s father, Deron Rippey Sr., gifted a Duke hat to Dick Celli, an 89-year-old Blair alumnus who sits next to him in the top row of the stands each game.
“I’m going to put it on the shelf next to my baseball autographed by Babe Ruth,” Celli said.
Blair Academy’s Deron Rippey Jr. soars through the air. Scott Faytok | For NJ.com
‘Crazy IQ’
Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood has long been among the nation’s most fertile grounds for basketball talent. Michael Jordan was born at Cumberland Hospital, and fellow Hall of Famer Bernard King grew up nearby. Streetball legend Ed (Booger) Smith never had the grades, but his exploits still echo as a cautionary tale. Former Knicks forward Taj Gibson and WNBA star Epiphanny Prince were among the most recent wave to excel.
It has also been among New York City’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Rippey Sr. honed his game among the red-brick towers of the projects and went on to attend Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, where he scored over 1,000 points. When he won the MVP award at Fort Greene Day in 1995, he gifted the trophy to the mother of a local known as “Hype Mo” who had been shot to death. Denizens feared gunfire at all hours.
“I never sat outside on a bench,” said Lee, who also grew up in Fort Greene. “I always kept to myself.”
She had four daughters before Rippey Jr. was born.
“He was a gift from God,” she said. “I always wanted a boy.”
When Rippey Jr. was five, Lee worked at the Ingersoll Community Center. The first time she told her son that they had to leave at night, he cried. He wanted to play basketball as long as the doors were open.
“Leave him, Ms. Lee,” said Lashawn Doyle, a community organizer. “He’s playing with the big boys.”
Soon after, the family applied for a housing lottery and landed an apartment a half mile away, outside public housing. But Rippey Jr., who family called “Ron Ron,” kept coming back to the center. He earned the nickname “Kobe” for hitting clutch shots when he was 7.
“I let him rock out as late as he wanted,” Lee said.
To develop strength, he regularly ran up 99 granite steps to the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument in Fort Greene Park. At playgrounds, he did pullups and dips. In summer, he woke up at 5:30 a.m. to work out at Washington Park with his father and sister, De’Naya, who is two years older. Afterward, they did 45 minutes of math and reading exercises.
During a parent-teacher conference when Rippey Jr. was in the fifth grade, a teacher at P.S. 307, a STEM magnet school, told Lee, “He has a brilliant mind.”
Rippey Jr. transferred to Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, where he completed the sixth and seventh grades. During that period, Rippey Sr. was inducted into Cheshire Academy’s hall of fame. On the day of the ceremony, Rippey Jr. listened as his father, who wore a bow tie and pocket square, told the school community, “You saved my life.”
Rippey Jr. asked his father, “What do I need to do if I want to go to boarding school?”
While De’Naya went to Cheshire the next year, Rippey Jr. forged his own path. The family learned of a junior boarding school showcase being held at Riverside Church in Manhattan. Coaches from various schools were there, and Rippey Jr. caught the eye of Rob Roy from The Rectory School, a 100-year-old institution that’s 157 miles from Brooklyn in northeast Connecticut and charges $84,300 in annual tuition. Students come from around the globe to its 138-acre campus. Rippey Jr. was offered a full scholarship and repeated the seventh grade amid the educational convulsions of the coronavirus pandemic.
Life was strictly structured. From 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., students were allowed to use personal technology. To test his players, Roy made the same period an open gym. Rippey Jr. always chose basketball.
When the team failed to meet Roy’s standards, the players were bussed a mile to a nearby hill. Every player sprinted up and down it. When they thought they were done, they ran the mile back to their gym. The first five would start the next game. Rippey Jr. was among them.
Following seventh grade, Rippey Sr. wrote emails on behalf of his son to prep schools, including Blair, noting that he was at Rectory and his academic average was a 95.
“I would like to build a relationship with you and Blair Academy for future education and athletics opportunities,” Rippey Sr. wrote.
Only Mantegna invited Rippey Jr. to his elite camp that summer.
“I told him I wanted to take my talents to Blair,” Rippey Jr. said. “Another new world.”
Rippey Jr. and his father were welcomed by the Blair coaches and players at the academy’s elite camp as he headed into the eighth grade. Courtesy of Blair Academy
On the first day of camp, the Rippeys awoke at 5 a.m. in Brooklyn and drove 70 miles in their burgundy Jeep to arrive at 7 a.m. to watch the Blair team workout prior to the 8:30 a.m. start. The gym was across a parking lot from the school’s golf course. Rippey Jr. was 13 and stood 5-foot-5. He wore his hair tied back in braids and considered it an audition. At day’s end, Mantegna asked, “Coming back tomorrow?”
The Rippeys drove back and forth from Brooklyn all three days, and Mantegna attended The Rectory School’s junior boarding school championship game at Suffield Academy the following March. Sitting in the front row of the stands by half court, Mantegna watched Rippey Jr. hit six 3-pointers to finish with 30 points for the win.
“His feel was outrageous,” Mantegna said. “Crazy IQ.”
That spring, Roy coached baseball and encouraged basketball players to “come get a tan and spit sunflower seeds.”
Rippey Jr. had never played before but developed into a serviceable center fielder. Running out of arms one game, Roy gave Rippey Jr. the ball.
He struck out the side.
It was his last athletic feat at Rectory. That summer, he enrolled at Blair with need-based financial aid.
A mural at the Ingersoll Community Center in Fort Greene calls for an end to the violence that has plagued the neighborhood for generations. Kevin Armstrong | NJ.com
‘Look where we are’
On his first day of school in Blairstown in 2022, Rippey Jr. wore khaki pants, a black golf shirt buttoned to the top and black and blue Jordans. Honors geometry was among his courses, and the Blair basketball roster included three guards headed to Division I colleges.
“I didn’t know if he’d play junior varsity or varsity,” Mantegna said. “Within two weeks, he was on varsity. By season’s end, he finished games.”
Rippey Jr.’s quickness allowed him to gain separation from peers, but his maturity lagged at times. He whined when he lost early on, but Mantegna demanded more discipline. Rippey Jr. now demonstrates a unique blend of competitiveness and composure. When he gets the ball, coaches and family shout, “Speed!” The muscular guard with springy legs then darts past defenders and elevates over their outstretched hands for backdoor alley oops. He is an elite processor, and recently surpassed 1,300 points in his career. The Buccaneers are 96-14 in his four years.
At Blair’s season opener in November, assistant coaches from North Carolina State, Tennessee and Duke watched from the stands. His agent, Drew Gross, who also represents San Antonio Spurs rookie Dylan Harper, was by the baseline. Mantegna had not had a player of Rippey’s Jr.’s caliber in years. Now in his 27th season, Mantegna, who has coached over 90 Division I players, marveled at the NIL economy’s highest tax bracket.
“I had a few phone calls this fall, where it was, ‘holy sh–, am I on an FBI wire?’” Mantegna said. “But it’s all legal! Staggering. He could have left us a million times for NIL, but he didn’t. There were offers. He’s loyal.”
Cassi Gerdsen tracks Rippey Jr.’s growth through a different lens. She was a dormitory parent when he was a freshman living on the third floor of Insley Hall in the center of campus. She noted early on that others gravitated toward him, and he assumed a leadership role. Rippey Jr. embraced all stages, including playing the role of Burbage, a rival theatre owner, in a student performance of “Shakespeare in Love”.
“When I saw him on court, it was like he had eyes in the back of his head,” she said.
On Tuesday, she learned the length of his growing reach when she wore a Blair jacket to a doctor’s appointment in the Poconos. When the technician saw it, he lamented the fact that Rippey Jr. chose Duke over North Carolina, the tech’s favorite team.
While his burgeoning fame in the rolling hills of northwest New Jersey continues apace, reminders of the Brooklyn block he left can be bleak. Familiar faces from the Fort Greene courts like Taearion Mungo and Ramel Ingram were shot to death in recent years. Two weeks after Rippey Jr. committed to Duke, a 17-year-old boy was shot just before 8:30 a.m. near Rippey Jr.’s old building.
“I shielded him,” Lee said. “The kids used to ask, ‘Why do we have to come upstairs so early?’ I said, ‘Look where we are, what’s going on.’ I didn’t want them to be stranded.”
To this day when Rippey Jr. returns to the neighborhood, Lee calls the barber shop to alert family or friends and to look out for him until she gets there. At Zion Shiloh Baptist Church nearby, the pastor has asked him for a dedicate dunks when he attends services. For his 18th birthday, his sisters took him to a tattoo parlor. He had “Walk by Faith, Not by Sight” inked into his right leg. The sisters paid for it.
Rippey Jr. understands a different calculus at Blair. On Wednesday, Rippey Sr. turned 52. That morning, Blair practiced at 6 o’clock because the father and son had an 1 p.m. flight booked to Los Angeles, where Rippey Jr. made marketing appearances for Adidas at NBA All Star Game functions.
Their return flight was a red eye that landed at 7 a.m. on Friday. He practiced that afternoon and led the Buccaneers to a win in the the Mid-Atlantic Prep League tournament at The Pennington School on Saturday before claiming the championship over Peddie Sunday evening.
As he relaxed in the stands and caught up with his mother afterward, he reflected on the week’s cross-country whirl, noting that he enjoyed a shrimp taco in his 36 hours in LA. He slipped Beats headphones over his braids before boarding the academy’s yellow mini-bus through the back door for an hour’s ride home.
“I’m going to sleep,” he said.