But long before he was the captain of the Patriots, bringing back memories<\/a> of the team\u2019s heights under Tom Brady and now prepping for a divisional-round matchup against the Houston Texans, Maye was a high school hoops star, throwing down dunks, pulling down rebounds in traffic and kick-starting fast breaks. And he played for only those few winter months before returning to football.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich is unbelievable,\u201d Farris said, \u201cbecause all these other guys like me would commit our whole lives to playing basketball, and then Drake would show up for four months and just destroy everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Patriots new Franchise QB Drake Maye basketball highlights \ud83d\udd25 @DrakeMaye2<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/9QJs4eQARZ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) May 9, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n The hard part for Maye\u2019s coaches, at least initially, was getting him to be more aggressive. Even at 6-feet-5, he was a distributor. At the high school level, conversations usually go the opposite way. But with Maye, his coaches actually wanted him to shoot more.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s coming in and facilitating, and that\u2019s who he is. He\u2019s getting everyone involved and was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to come in and feel like I\u2019m taking over,\u2019\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAnd we were like, \u2018No, dude, we actually need you to score and score early.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s part of what made Maye\u2019s game different from most of the football players who would pick up basketball in the winter. Football players usually fit into a stereotype on the hardwood. They rebound, play good defense and make use of their five fouls. But they don\u2019t usually have finesse or touch. Maye had both.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he hit you, you went backward,\u201d said Nick Jones, then an assistant coach at Myers Park. \u201cHe rebounded very physically. He was big. But he also had the touch and the skill of his brother Luke, who was obviously the basketball player in the family. So that\u2019s what made Drake so intriguing as a basketball prospect. Here you have this football body and football mindset, but with a Division I (basketball) skill set.\u201d<\/p>\n Colleges came calling during that sophomore season. They wanted him to consider focusing on basketball instead of football. Clemson, in particular, really liked him.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it didn\u2019t go any further than that because everybody knew he was going to be playing quarterback somewhere,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n The Myers Park basketball team brought an Xbox into the locker room to play NBA 2K before practices. But everything with Maye has to be a competition. So he drew standings on the whiteboard for everyone to keep track of their season-long records.<\/p>\n \u201cBut he wrote his name in, like, 48-point font, 10 times bigger than everyone else, just to make sure everyone knew he was undefeated,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAnd he (played with), like, the Wizards, too.\u201d<\/p>\n College football coaches were showing up at Myers Park that sophomore basketball season for Maye, as well, part of the full-court press to try to recruit their next quarterback. Myers Park went from playing in front of family and friends to some of the biggest names in sports.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d show up to a game, and Nick Saban is sitting there,\u201d Farris said. \u201cLike, oh, this is different.\u201d<\/p>\n Maye was briefly committed to play for Saban at Alabama before flipping to stay home and play quarterback at UNC. But those basketball games stuck out to Saban.<\/p>\n \u201cHe really impressed me by the way he played basketball,\u201d Saban said on \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show\u201d in November. \u201cHe probably could\u2019ve played basketball at North Carolina, too.\u201d<\/p>\n “Drake Maye really impressed me by the way he played basketball..<\/p>\n He probably could have played basketball at North Carolina too..<\/p>\n I like it when players played multiple sports because to me that says something about them as a competitor” ~ Coach Saban #PMSLive<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/qCJkH5WvRN<\/a><\/p>\n
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