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The first setting for the De'Aaron Fox origin story is where countless other basketball path-to-glory narratives began: the high school gym. Early in the morning. Long, lonely hours spent from a young age, with the ball bouncing and the sneakers squeaking.
Fox would show up at 6 a.m. His high school coach, Emmanuel Olatunbosun, would open the doors for him while the cross-country team stretched for its morning run.
Some mornings, Fox would practice the ball-handling now prominently displayed in flashy drives into the lane during Kentucky games. Some mornings, he'd run and lift, building his nearly unparalleled open-court speed and the strength and stamina to play 94 feet of smothering perimeter defense.