Instagram Scout: Tristan Enaruna
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Over the past 30 years, the international game has evolved so much that amateur-quality, lovably crappy highlight videos are in lower supply than ever. Every teenager has a camera in their pocket, one that is literally good enough to make movies with. Following that trend, too, is competition overseas: the game is deeper with talent, on a global basis, than ever, so you’re increasingly less likely to see a video of a player like Anthony Parker, who could barely hang as a rotation player in the NBA, look like the second coming of MJ at Maccabi Tel Aviv.
I’m certainly not the person that will lecture you on the merits of yesteryear, what we’ve lost, and so forth. But the loss of these incredibly visibly DIY video creates a void all the same. I remember one European prospect’s pre-draft highlight video containing a mid-video transitional element that involved a metallic dancing wolf, for several minutes, spliced in between what could only be described as “modest” basketball highlights, but I can’t find it anymore. To me, that’s a great loss.
So, Tristan Enaruna. He’s one of the incoming Jayhawk freshman, Self’s latest international prospect pulled out of thin air. He’s from the Holland—isn’t that weird?! He’s been playing for their U18 team this summer and has looked good, despite reports that his shot hasn’t been falling. Here’s him smashing some Latvian kid:
Like his classmate Jalen Wilson, Enaruna has a public facing Instagram—@kiddtris—that is populated with only about ten posts, all of which exhibit a very “LinkedIn” style visual energy. My read here is this is likely a page they keep for fans/his parents while operating as normal teenagers do under “finsta’ style accounts. Perfectly reasonable, especially when it comes to my scouting purposes: the media on these pages, staged as they are, can be telling.
But, they also don’t reveal a whole lot about the personality of the player. Browsing @kiddtris, it’s clear that Tristan Enaruna likes Spiderman, dunking on anonymous European teenagers, and owning at least one skinny tie. This kid is a all legs. While I spent some time at the top of the post lamenting bygone eras, the fact that Tristan is scoring on multiple levels—off the bounce, too! He’s 6’10’’!— isn’t something I’m ignoring. There’s plenty of space here for the imagination, and I’m going to go ahead and encourage you all to explore that.
In the meantime, follow @kiddtris, get to know his deal, and know that he looks good in orange. Play us off, DaBaby.