Super Seven: Tone Hunter’s game is pure flash and fun

By Case Keefer (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 | 2 a.m.

LeBron James. Kobe Bryant. Stephen Curry.

Ask most high school basketball players which professionals they most look up to and those are the types of names to expect, a list of currently active to recently retired future Hall of Famers. Durango High senior Anthony “Tone” Hunter Jr. is not like most high school basketball players.

“I always had the not-typical favorite players,” Hunter said. “Gilbert Arenas, Baron Davis, ‘White Chocolate’ (Jason Williams) — I like flashy players who still took the game so serious.”

That sampling of marginal NBA All-Stars with heydays a decade removed serves as great reference to understand Hunter’s game. The 6-foot-1, 165-pound guard does not play conventionally.

Hunter shoots a lot; he wows a lot. He smiles a lot; he talks a lot.

The unique style has helped lead Hunter to prolific production and a spot on the Sun’s preseason Super 7 team of the top prep basketball players in town. But it’s also left him highly misunderstood, to his own admission and even by his own coach — at least initially.

When Chad Beeten took over the job at Durango earlier this year after two stints at Clark High, he had some trepidation about his first meeting with his incumbent star player.  

“He gave us — certainly me and I think our staff would agree — a lesson on perception not always being reality,” Beeten said. “I knew Tone enough to say hello walking by the gym but that was the extent of it. To us, it was, ‘How are we going to make sure he can play within the team environment to where we can still utilize his talents and abilities?’ He bought in immediately and we bought in and so far, so good.”

Through four games, in which the Trailblazers have gone undefeated and won by an average of 20 points per game, Hunter has gone up a level from even last season when he averaged 22 points, four rebounds and four assists per game.

In an 80-58 win over Paradise Honors from Arizona, Hunter exploded for 35 points, eight steals and four assists. He’s playing within Beeten’s system — which challenges him to be more of a distributor than ever before — while still finding room to expand on his old tricks, such as dribbling through defenders like they’re stationary cones and finishing at the rim like it’s a Nerf hoop.

“I’m not the type of player most people feel comfortable with, but that doesn’t mean anything,” Hunter said. “I work hard and dedicate my life to the gym.”

The gym has always been a refuge for Hunter, who glows when reminiscing about his father, Anthony Hunter Sr., first taking him to shoot when he was 5 years old. One of Tone's earliest memories comes from before that, when his father admonished him as a young child for dribbling too much around the cramped apartment he shared with his grandmother, Loretta Hunter, and breaking a lamp.

To Tone, basketball is family affair. In addition to making his father and grandmother proud being his biggest drive, Tone’s game pays homage to his older brother, Christopher Hunter, who never played much organized basketball but was a feared street-baller. Tone learned his smooth handle from Christopher.    

He emphasizes fun as a vocal leader to his teammates and never plans to ramp down his joy, even though it may often be misinterpreted.     

“No one who knows him ever says a negative word about him,” Beeten said. “People who don’t know him; that’s a different story.”

Beeten described Tone as a good student and an “easy qualifier,” who should have his pick of a handful of high mid-major Division I colleges when the late signing period rolls around early next year. He’s beloved on campus at Durango, according to Beeten, and should be similarly celebrated in college.

It’s hard not to be drawn to Hunter’s panache.

“Those moments when Gilbert Arenas would pull up from half-court with seven seconds left to get the bucket or Baron Davis would make the flashy pass or dunk on someone,” Hunter said, nodding his head. “Those are the moments where I would just stand still in front of the TV. That’s how I like to play my game. A lot of people will say I don’t play the traditional game of basketball, but that doesn’t mean I don’t take it as serious or push to be the greatest I can.”

Here’s the rest of the team.

Zaon Collins, Bishop Gorman

6-foot-1 junior guard

Speaking of NBA player parallels, the most natural comparison for Collins might be Chris Paul.

Collins has plenty of Point God qualities, from an intuitiveness that makes him an extension of the coaching staff on the floor to a well-roundedness that sees him equally as likely to create or knock down the open shot. And he’s still getting better, as he says new parts of his game will be on display for his junior year.

“Getting explosive at the rim and stuff like that, shooting the ball more,” Collins said when asked what improvements he made in the offseason.

A four-star recruiting prospect with a number of scholarship offers, Collins averaged 10 points and seven assists per game last year.

Jaden Hardy, Coronado

6-foot-5 junior guard

College coaches have racked up of thousands of frequent-flyer miles traveling to Las Vegas over the last two years to see Hardy — and, with two years left in his high school career, the flights have only just begun.  

Hardy is the most highly coveted local prospect, a consensus five-star recruit and top 10 national player in the class of 2021. Last year’s Rising Star honoree at the Sun Standout Awards has so many individual accolades that he’s tired of them; he’s now solely after team success.

Namely, bringing Coronado basketball its first state championship. To give the Cougars the best chance, he’s ditched a tendency to quietly dominate the way he did as an underclassman and has instead welcomed a new role.   

“Just becoming more of a leader, bringing my teammates on, cheering them up,” Hardy said of the biggest difference in his game this year.

Will McClendon, Bishop Gorman

6-foot-4 junior guard

“Big Hands Will” was the best offensive player in a number of games on last year’s state championship team, but that wasn’t where he made his biggest impact.

He was arguably even better on defense, where he welcomed assignments to guard opposing teams’ best player.

“I feel like that got me here,” McClendon said.

The four-star recruiting prospect does a little bit of everything as he averaged 12 points, six assists and five assists per game as a sophomore. He may have also instantly become the Gaels’ most famous player, as a pregame moment before a national game on ESPN where he showed his massive mitts to the commentators went viral.

Julian Strawther, Liberty

6-foot-7 senior guard

Despite being a three-year starter on one of the best teams in town, committing to one of the best college programs in the country (Gonzaga) and making the Super 7 team for a second straight year, Strawther remains hungry.

“I’ve got a lot to prove this year,” Strawther said. “I feel like I’ve got a chip on a shoulder.”

That’s a scary proposition considering how unstoppable he’s been the last two years in guiding Liberty to two of the best seasons in school history. Strawther averaged 24 points per game as a sophomore, 26 points per game as a junior and often shined in the brightest moments.

Chief among those moments are leading the Patriots to wins against division rival Coronado in three of his last four tries.  

Noah Taitz, Bishop Gorman

6-foot-4 senior guard

As if the Stanford-bound senior hadn’t hit enough big shots in his first two seasons for the Gaels, he saved the biggest one of his career for last year’s playoffs. Taitz hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to eliminate Coronado and keep Gorman alive for an eighth straight state championship that it ultimately captured.

“It was just a special moment,” Taitz said. “I just felt like my team needed me to step up and I stepped up to the occasion.”

On a team loaded with Division I talent, Taitz led the Gaels in scoring with just less than 16 points per game last year. Gorman coach Grant Rice says he will go down as one of the best scorers in the history of the school.

Taitz also has a chance to join a rare fraternity of players to have won state championship rings in every year of high school as he’s been a major contributor for the Gaels since his freshman season.

Mwani Wilkinson, Bishop Gorman

6-foot-6 senior forward

Rice calls Wilkinson, “the most improved player in the country,” but the breakout big man doesn’t want to hear it.

“There’s not a cap on how good you can be, so I just want to stay humble and keep getting better and better,” Wilkinson said.

A role player for the Gaels for most of last season, Wilkinson had a coming-out party in the playoffs — including scoring a team-high 18 points in the state championship game — and maintained it through the summer tournament circuit.

Suddenly, he had amassed a pile of scholarship offers and big expectations for his senior year. He’s sure to turn more heads this year with a penchant for highlight-reel dunks and blocks.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.