11-Year Old, 6-Foot-5 Archange Riley-Lemovou Might Be The Most Hilariously Dominant Youth Basketball Player of All Time
As a 10-year veteran little league baseball umpire, I've witnessed some truly wild size and talent disparities in my day. I've always said 11 is the best year for baseball, because most kids are still roughly the same size around then. Usually things don't get too off the rails until ages 12 and up. But it will get to the point where as hard as you try, it's almost impossible to officiate the game fairly. How can I call the same strike zone for a kid standing 6-foot-1 touching 80mph from a mound maybe 50 feet away, as a I can for his 5-foot counterpart who's fastball is still looping into the strike zone? The pitches aren't coming in at even close to the same trajectory. You try to open up the zone in general, because they're just kids and you've got an 1 hour 45 minute time limit you're supposed to keep the game under. But a pitch at the letters from tall kid is legitimately unhittable, whereas a pitch at the letters from small kid is exactly where a batter wants it to really tee off. It's an impossible task for an umpire. You try to call the game as fairly as you can, but any official of any youth sport who tells you he doesn't make certain concessions for kids of certain sizes and skill levels is just lying to you
I'm sure basketball is different, as it naturally attracts taller athletes. But 6-foot-5 at 11-years old is something I've never seen before. I didn't think that was possible. And it's not like Archange Riley-Leonard grew half a foot the day of his 11th birthday. From the looks of it, he was already pushing 6-foot-5 at age 10.
I almost feel bad him. I don't know how you can even develop your skills as a basketball player if you're that head and shoulders above your competition. Eventually, he's going to stop growing. There's a good chance he doesn't even end up being a 7-footer. If you spend your whole life playing with such an insane size advantage, when people inevitably catch up to you, you're not going to know what the hell to do. It's possible he's never guarded someone taller than him in his entire life. Even when he's playing up against 7th graders, he's still towering over his competition.
Legitimately I hope he's getting chances to practice with high school kids. Every kid should get the chance to play against better competition at some point in their youth. That's how you get better. But I can't imagine how fun basketball must be for him right now. He's essentially living out the American dream of "going back to high school as a full grown adult and dominating the competition", except he's doing so legally. To his credit, he seems like a great teammate. Especially when playing with kids his age. His team isn't just spamming the "lob the ball to the tall kid" play. I'd imagine if they wanted to, the coach could run a high-low set to him and score on nearly every offensive possession. A lot of youth coaches wouldn't have the self-control to not do that. But Archange is out there making passes, finding the open teammate, playing around the perimeter a bit. It's actually encouraging to see.
It's a hell of a visual. As funny as they are, I feel like I maybe shouldn't screen shot kids. But there's some clips in that first video that are downright hilarious. I could watch Archange chase down opponents 2 feet shorter than him and swat their layups into the rafters for hours on end. It's delightful television. Hopefully he can keep this up and make a name for himself in college, or even the NBA someday. In some ways, being this good this young almost seems to put kids at a disadvantage in the long run. Especially when size is playing such a big role. But he seems to run very well. He doesn't look awkward or goofy out there at all. I'd imagine he's already had plenty of conversations with big time D1 scouts and coaches. And who knows… maybe he'll grow to 8-foot tall, be the next generation's Victor Wembanyama, and finally be the guy to force the NBA into some drastic rule changes. But I'm pulling for him either way. Worst case scenario, he got to have about as much for playing youth sports as a kid could possibly have. That's pretty awesome in it's own right.