6'6" Ishmail Wainright, Photo by Andrew Slater
Ishmail “Ish” Wainright is a physically imposing wing from Raytown, Missouri, a city less than twenty minutes away from Kansas City. One of eight brothers and sisters and blessed with the imposing presence of hungry pit bull, he has built his reputation on toughness at both ends of the court.
Defensively, Wainright has tried to establish himself as a “shutdown defender,” a phrase more commonly associated with relatively diminutive cornerbacks in football. This past weekend, the 6’6″ wing with a 7’2″ wingspan, played in three games and held the exceptionally talented Andrew Wiggins, the MVP of the recent Nike Hoop Summit, to a far and away session-low eight points in twenty-six minutes. Ishmail followed that up by holding consensus top twenty-five 2014 player Paul White to two points in twenty-two minutes and ESPN’s sixth-ranked 2013 player, Troy Williams, to six points and four turnovers.
As a scorer, Ishmail Wainright is more of an efficient grinder than a smooth shooting wing with perfect form. He uses positioning, strength, and explosion to score over taller competitors near the basket.
After leading the Kansas City 76ers to the Fab 48 Title at the end of last summer, Wainright won the MVP of the tournament. One of the standout performances was when he led an upset by outplaying Jabari Parker in the playoffs, scoring twenty-three points and holding Parker to seventeen tough points.
Soon after the summer, he left Raytown, Missouri and headed to Rockville, Maryland to play at Montrose Christian for veteran coach Stu Vetter. Wainright went to nearby George Washington and Howard for their versions of Midnight Madness. This year, Ishmail, a brief Missouri verbal commit, was teamed up with senior wing Justin Anderson (Virginia), senior forward Michael Carrera, and Canadian point guard, Kevin Zabo. Ishmail helped the perennial power reach the semi-finals of National High School Invitational and finish with a 22-3 record. Next year, the confident Wainright will take over the leadership reins of the program.
After catching a late plane, Wainright, the cousin of former Missouri shooting guard Marcus Denmon, immediately paid dividends for his new AAU program, Team Takeover. The Takeover coaches will pair him with the slimmed down 6’9″ Beejay Anya and are looking for the talented wing to be even more aggressive on offense. Team Takeover finished the weekend on a high note, defeating archival Boo Williams, 51-50, on a last second tip-in of a free throw miss.
The next night, Ishmail Wainright, a friend of Duke recruit Julius Randle, received a phone call from Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who In depth interview ahead BDN Premium style which means you will love it. Join today for the best AAU coverage around.
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