With five simple words, the 20-year-old Queen bound himself to his hometown for then and probably forever<\/a>. On Wednesday night, Baltimore basketball lovers will keep a close eye on the first round of the NBA draft to see where the city\u2019s latest great will continue his career.<\/p>\n After he\u2019s picked, the highlight package on ESPN\u2019s broadcast will no doubt feature that audacious shot from three months ago \u2014 Queen digging into his precocious bag to save the Maryland Terrapins from falling to upstart Colorado State. <\/p>\n Why did his mind turn to home in the moments after he\u2019d put himself on the broader basketball map with that buzzer-beater? Beyond a basic shoutout, what did he hope to convey about the city that forged him?<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to put out for Baltimore,\u201d he explained moments afterward. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t really make it out of Baltimore.\u201d<\/p>\n Queen\u2019s Baltimore story<\/a> is about a single mother who not only protected him but taught him to protect himself and of youth coaches who stood in for a father lost too soon. It\u2019s the story of a curious, creative boy who found purpose with the ball he loved to dribble from his front door in Belair-Edison to the various East Baltimore courts where he honed his game. <\/p>\n The basketball was a gift; Queen\u2019s mother, Lisa Anderson, can\u2019t remember if it was for Christmas or his birthday two days later. But once it became the central object in her son\u2019s life, she never had to fret over where he was. <\/p>\n \u201cHe found a basketball court some blocks from our home,\u201d Anderson recalled. \u201cAnd he was always there. From the time he got out of school until it was dark outside, I knew where I could find him.\u201d<\/p>\n The nickname of the park, \u201cGoldilocks,\u201d was almost too perfect, an affirmation that the elementary school hooper had found his right place. <\/p>\n A young Derik Queen. (Courtesy of Lisa Anderson)<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a comfort,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cI knew there were older kids there, but I didn\u2019t have any fears that he was getting into trouble. He had that ball with him.\u201d<\/p>\n She had recognized his independent spirit even when he was a toddler. He taught himself to tie his shoes at age 2 and started preparing his lunches for school at age 5. <\/p>\n Queen had a rangy build, inherited from his 6-foot-1 mother and his father, Erik Queen, remembered by friends as a 6-foot-4 guard who brought an upbeat intensity to some of the same East Baltimore courts his son would later own. <\/p>\n Queen was 2 years old when his father was shot on E. Lafayette Ave.<\/a> on a Monday night in April 2007. Erik Queen died at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 24.<\/p>\n Anderson said her son did not often ask about his father or the circumstances of his death. \u201cIf his dad\u2019s death anniversary or birthday came up, I would let him know,\u201d she remembered. \u201cBut that was about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Erik Queen did live on in the minds of Woody Gunter and Donnell \u201cMookie\u201d Dobbins, the two coaches who would spend the most time shaping Derik\u2019s basketball development. Anderson credits both with becoming father figures to her son. <\/p>\n \u201cI grew up with his dad,\u201d said Dobbins, who teamed with Erik Queen in the Cecil Kirk Recreation pipeline that produced so many Baltimore standouts. \u201cHe was a two-guard. Wiry shooter. Big personality. Funny and charismatic, like Derik. Derik has a lot of his personality, as far as that goes.\u201d <\/p>\n He never pressed the subject with his next-generation pupil, but when Queen did something to evoke his father, Dobbins would tell him so. <\/p>\n \u201cWith AAU, there\u2019s so much travel,\u201d Gunter said. \u201cWhen Lisa was working, he would stay with us, so there were incidents when I would need to redirect him \u2014 not just him, all the kids \u2014 and he would ask why, sometimes, I was so hard on him. And I would tell him, \u2018Your dad would want me to, Derik.\u2019 He was like, \u2018How do you know what my dad would want you to do?\u2019 And I would explain to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Dobbins, Gunter saw flashes of the father in the son. \u201cHis dad had a real edge to him,\u201d he said. \u201cDerik has that edge to him as well. When they were in the NCAA tournament, and he told coach [Kevin] Willard to give him the damn ball<\/a>. I was like, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s his dad.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n Henry \u201cSarge\u201d Powell, who has coached generations of Baltimore kids at Madison Square Recreation Center, alerted Gunter to Queen\u2019s potential. He was in third grade at the time. <\/p>\n Gunter and Dobbins independently settled on the same word, \u201cinquisitive,\u201d to describe the kid they tutored on the courts at Chick Webb Recreation Center and Rita Church Community Center at Clifton Park.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was rail-thin, small upper torso, but his legs were long, so you could tell he\u2019d grow,\u201d Gunter recalled. \u201cBut he always had guard ability.\u201d<\/p>\n Queen has captivated college recruiters and NBA scouts with deft footwork and court vision that belie his 6-foot-9, 245-pound frame. The seeds of that player were already evident when he was in fourth grade. <\/p>\n \u201cI always told him, \u2018None of you guys have a position. We\u2019re training basketball players,\u2019\u201d Gunter said. <\/p>\n \u201cHe always made the right plays instinctively; that\u2019s something that\u2019s not taught,\u201d Dobbins said. \u201cHe already had it, which allowed us to develop it. We didn\u2019t play him as a traditional big man. We allowed him to play point guard. Get the ball off the backboard and initiate the offense, which most young bigs, people won\u2019t let them do that, because they\u2019re going to make a lot of mistakes.\u201d <\/p>\n Queen found fellowship with a core unit of teammates who would play beside him from grade school all the way through the end of high school on rec league powerhouse Team Thrill. Sarmartine Bogues (Muggsy Bogues\u2019 grandson). Mike Williams. Isaiah Williams. Karim Harris. DJ Dormu. Queen had no siblings at home, so they became his family.<\/p>\n They had sleepovers at Gunter\u2019s house and later served as groomsmen at his wedding. They traveled to the Caribbean to celebrate graduations. They maintain a lively communal text thread that will be popping on draft night, with several in the group planning to be at Barclays Center in Brooklyn to watch Queen shake NBA Commissioner Adam Silver\u2019s hand. <\/p>\n By middle school, the rapidly growing Queen \u2014 he sprouted from 5-foot-11 to 6-foot-6 seemingly overnight \u2014 was the superstar in the bunch, averaging 20 points and 15 rebounds at national tournaments.<\/p>\n He overpowered opponents without sacrificing the creativity he\u2019d demonstrated early on. That move he used to beat Colorado State? He\u2019d been trying stuff like that for years. <\/p>\n \u201cHis imagination is a little different at that size,\u201d Dobbins said. <\/p>\n Queen had already earned acclaim as one of the top players in the country when he began his high school career at St. Frances. He had his way with opponents, scoring 56 points in one game against Annapolis Area Christian<\/a>. <\/p>\n Many players would have seen such manhandling as cause for celebration. Queen, with Dobbins in his ear, took it as a sign that everything was coming too easily. As they plotted next steps, the idea of leaving Baltimore to seek fiercer competition at a Florida boarding school sounded better and better to the independent, ambitious teenager.<\/p>\n Dobbins had watched that path pay off for Baltimore native Jarace Walker, an earlier trainee who went from IMG Academy to Houston before becoming the No. 8 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. <\/p>\n \u201cI just thought because of the talent Derik was, the ability to be around other pros, guys who were older than him, he would have to work harder every day,\u201d Dobbins said. \u201cHe was not going to be at the top of the totem pole, and he would not be able to get complacent.\u201d <\/p>\n There was only one problem: It didn\u2019t sound so great to the mom who\u2019d been with Queen essentially every day of his life. <\/p>\n \u201cDerik is my only child,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt was not convincing, and they tried every avenue. I was just not willing to let my 16-year-old son go to Florida. He had always been independent, but I was still able to put ears and eyes on him.\u201d<\/p>\n She visited Montverde Academy with Queen, listened to pitches from the school\u2019s coaches and administrators on countless Zoom calls. In the end, it was her boy\u2019s consistent, specific argument for why he needed to go that wore her down. She had always trusted him to be in the right place, to do the right thing. <\/p>\n \u201cI waited until the day before the deadline,\u201d she said. But she let him go. She and Dobbins dropped him off that August. \u201cThe plane ride back, it was so emotional, so, so emotional,\u201d Anderson remembered. <\/p>\n She was still the one to build him up over FaceTime calls when he struggled to find minutes as part of Montverde\u2019s stacked roster that first season. He missed his friends, his house, home-cooked meals. Even then, Anderson didn\u2019t regret the decision.<\/p>\n \u201cHe grew up fast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n On the court as well, where Queen solidified his status as one of the stars in his class, playing beside Cooper Flagg, who\u2019s expected to be the No. 1 pick in Wednesday\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n No one in Queen\u2019s inner circle was surprised when he came home to play for Maryland<\/a>. In three years away, his bonds with Baltimore never frayed. Willard\u2019s staff knew that connection was paramount for the program\u2019s most important recruit in at least a decade.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2UVBWW6SEFGZNAMLMPEMLDMLEA.jpg\")
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