Patriots’ Drake Maye was good at basketball, too, like his UNC brother Luke originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It’s well known that the brother of New England Patriots QB Drake Maye was the University of North Carolina basketball star, Luke.
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Drake didn’t follow in his older brother’s footsteps, but that’s not because he couldn’t hoop.
Maye was a standout basketball player at Myers Park (N.C.) High School outside of Charlotte, too, as soon as football season would end and allow him to get out on the court.
The Athletic’s Chad Graff wrote a great story this week about Maye’s high school hoops prowess.
“Long before he was the captain of the Patriots…Â Maye was a high school hoops star, throwing down dunks, pulling down rebounds in traffic and kick-starting fast breaks,” Graff wrote. “And he played for only those few winter months before returning to football.”
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MORE:Â Drake Maye’s college journey included a key flip away from Nick Saban
Maye, Graff writes, was always trying to set up his teammates. A good quarterback, even on the basketball court.
And he had hoops interest from the Division I level, too.
“Colleges came calling during that sophomore season,” Graff writes. “They wanted him to consider focusing on basketball instead of football. Clemson, in particular, really liked him.”
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Nick Saban recruited Maye, who initially committed to Alabama, and he told Pat McAfee that Maye “probably could’ve played basketball at North Carolina, too.”
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In a third-round playoff game when Maye was a sophomore, his brother came to watch with two UNC teammates. And in that game, Drake had 25 points and 18 rebounds.
He didn’t get to play his senior season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and so Maye’s basketball career ended a season shorter than he would’ve liked.
He still likes shooting hoops, though. Basketball is in the Maye family’s blood.
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