You remember the 2016 NBA Draft, right? Ben Simmons went first overall, Brandon Ingram went to the Lakers, and then, at number ten, the Milwaukee Bucks took a massive gamble. They drafted Thon Maker. At the time, he was a 7-foot-1 unicorn with a YouTube highlight reel that made him look like a mix between Kevin Durant and Kevin Garnett. But even before Adam Silver called his name, one question was screaming louder than the hype: How old is this guy, really?
The official story is pretty straightforward. Thon Maker was born on February 25, 1997, in Wau, Sudan (now South Sudan). That would have made him 19 years old on draft night. But if you were on NBA Reddit or Twitter back then, you know it wasn't that simple. Rumors were flying. People were digging. And honestly, some of the evidence they found was kinda hard to ignore.
The Yearbook That Almost Broke the Internet
The whole controversy basically exploded when an anonymous Reddit user posted photos from a high school yearbook. The school was Aranmore Catholic College in Perth, Australia. Now, the official timeline says Thon moved to Australia as a refugee in the early 2000s. But the yearbook in question was from 2010, and it showed a kid who looked exactly like Thon Maker in the "Graduating Class" section.
Think about that for a second. If he graduated high school in 2010, he would have been about 17 or 18 then. Fast forward to the 2016 draft, and he’d be 23 or 24, not 19.
The internet went into full detective mode. People were looking at pixelated photos of "Year 12" students and comparing ear shapes. It sounds ridiculous, but for NBA teams about to hand over millions of dollars, it was serious business. Several teams reportedly took him off their draft boards entirely because they were convinced he was in his mid-twenties. They figured a 24-year-old "prospect" doesn't have nearly as much room to grow as a 19-year-old.
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What Thon and the Bucks Had to Say
Thon didn't just sit back and take it. He told The Boston Globe that the rumors were flat-out wrong. He said it bothered him at first, but because he knew it wasn't true, he eventually just let it slide.
The Bucks, for their part, stayed remarkably calm. John Hammond, who was the GM at the time, basically said they had done their homework. They saw his passport, they checked the paperwork from South Sudan and Australia, and they were satisfied. Plus, Thon’s motor was legendary. He worked harder than anyone else in the gym. For Milwaukee, the work ethic mattered more than the birth certificate.
But here's where it gets murky. In South Sudan, especially during the civil war years, birth records weren't exactly kept in a pristine digital database. Many refugees didn't have official papers when they left. When they arrived in countries like Australia or Canada, ages were sometimes estimated or assigned based on physical appearance. This isn't unique to Thon; it’s a reality for thousands of people fleeing conflict.
The "English Class" Defense
One of the theories used to explain the yearbook was that Thon was only at Aranmore for an intensive English language program. The idea was that he was a younger kid placed in a class with older students because that’s where the language resources were.
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It sounds plausible, right? But critics pointed out that he was also playing on the school's senior basketball and soccer teams. In the Australian school system, you usually don't have a 13-year-old playing on the Year 12 varsity squad unless they are an absolute freak of nature—which, to be fair, Thon was.
Does the Age Actually Matter Now?
Looking back from 2026, the "real age" debate feels like a relic of a different era. Thon’s NBA career didn't quite hit the superstar trajectory people expected, regardless of how old he was. He showed flashes of brilliance in Milwaukee, had some big playoff moments blocking shots against the Celtics, and then bounced around to Detroit and Cleveland before heading overseas and to the G-League.
If he was 19 in 2016, he’s 28 now. If he was 23, he’s 32.
In the grand scheme of basketball, that four-year gap is everything. It's the difference between a player just entering his prime and one starting to look at the twilight of his career. If he really was older, his "peak" happened while we were still waiting for him to "develop."
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How to Evaluate "Age Gaps" in Scouting
When you're looking at international prospects or players with unconventional backgrounds, you've got to look at more than just the number on the paper. Here is what smart scouts actually look for now:
- Physical Maturity: Does the player still have a "baby face" and a frame that can add weight, or do they already look like a fully grown man? Thon was always incredibly lean, which actually made people believe he was younger.
- Skill Progression: Are they getting better every year? If a player's skill set plateaus at "19," it’s a red flag that they might actually be 23.
- Document Consistency: Cross-referencing school records from every country a player has lived in. The "yearbook leak" changed how NBA teams do background checks forever.
The reality is we might never have a 100% definitive answer unless Thon himself decides to write a tell-all book in twenty years. For now, he remains one of the most intriguing "what-if" stories in recent NBA history. He was a pioneer of the "prep-to-pro" loophole, a playoff hero for a brief moment, and the subject of the most intense internet investigation since the early days of message boards.
If you’re tracking a player with a similar background, the best move is to focus on the tape and the medicals. Birth certificates can be messy, but a bone density scan and a shooting chart don't lie. Whether Thon was 19 or 23, he played the game with a passion that few could match. That’s the part of the story that's actually worth remembering.
To get the most out of following international basketball prospects, start by looking at FIBA-sanctioned tournament data. These organizations often have the most rigorous verification processes because they deal with age-restricted under-17 and under-19 world cups. If a player has a long history with FIBA, their "official" age is much more likely to be the real deal.