This was the first time Jon Scheyer felt any kind of pressure to prove himself. The first time he could sense others’ doubt and skepticism. He was in the sixth grade when he walked into a gym in Evanston, Ill., not far from his hometown of Northbrook, a well-off suburb outside of Chicago. By then Scheyer was already something of a basketball prodigy.
Taller than most everyone his age. Far better, too. And yet he wanted to be challenged.
Even then, at 12 years old, Scheyer sought to “get outside of my bubble” in suburbia, he said during a recent interview. “And my mom would drive me to every part of Chicago you could imagine” in search of a game, and a test. One day one of those drives ended outside of a gym in Evanston, and more than 20 years later Scheyer can still feel what he felt — the self-belief and maybe the fear.
