Former No. 1 recruit Emoni Bates, who spent last season with Memphis but transferred to Eastern Michigan for 2022/23, was arrested on Sunday night in Michigan for felony gun charges, according to WXYZ Detroit.
Bates was originally pulled over for failing to stop at an intersection, and police offers subsequently discovered a firearm. He has been charged with felony counts of carrying a concealed weapon and altering the serial number on a gun, per WXYZ.
The 18-year-old was arraigned and released on Monday after the judge granted him a nonmonetary personal recognizance bond, Bates’ lawyer, Steve Haney, told Pete Thamel and Myron Medcalf of ESPN. Haney requested a plea of not guilty on Bates’ behalf, and his next court date is October 6.
Bates told his attorney that he was driving a borrowed vehicle, ESPN’s duo relays.
“Reserve judgment on this,” Haney said via a statement. “There’s way more to the story. He borrowed someone’s car, was pulled over and a gun was located in the car.”
Bates, who is from Ypsilanti, Michigan, where Eastern Michigan is located, has been suspended by the school.
“We are aware of a situation involving men’s basketball student-athlete Emoni Bates,” the school said in a statement. “Eastern Michigan University takes all allegations of this nature very seriously. Per department policy, he has been suspended automatically from practice and playing privileges until the legal process is resolved. Because this is an on-going legal matter, the University will have no further comment at this time.
Bates was the No. 1 recruit of the 2022 class before reclassifying and leaving high school a year early, finishing as the No. 3 recruit in 2021, per Thamel and Medcalf. However, his draft stock has taken a hit after an injury-plagued freshman season saw him average 9.7 PPG and 3.3 RPG on .386/.329/.646 shooting in 18 games (23.4 MPG) for the Tigers.
Most early 2023 mock drafts have Bates as a late-first round pick or an early second-rounder.
People do borrow their friends cars sometimes. It happens. But two things either way …
Blowing through an intersection, especially when you’re borrowing someone else’s car? Not being a good friend or citizen there.
Also, horrible friend to let you borrow his car and not let you know there’s a highly illegal firearm in there. If that’s true, anyways.
Idk how deep they’re going to look into this. There’s ways to retrieve the serial number if it wasn’t scratched off deep enough. Will they even go that far, to make sure there’s no body on it? Or to find out who’s it’s registered to?
Either way we’re talking about an 18 year old kid. Hopefully this is just a bad mistake by an immature young man who still has plenty of time to grow and get past this. I’m not going to rush judgement on someone that young. There’s a chance he really wasn’t aware of it in the car. Hard to believe, but maybe there’s reasonable doubt. But this is definitely not going to help his draft stock as a borderline late first/second rounder. Even if he does beat the charges.
Not even that immature of a move. Drive in Philly, it’s rolling stops only. No one actually stops at stop signs. Honestly, they’re optional and in certain spots there’s not even a roll you’ll see a car buzz thru at 45-50 mph.
Idk where hes from but a lot of how you drive is based on where you learned to do that driving and the etiquette you developed.
Is it a traffic violation, yes. If he’s in someone else’s car and he gives an ID that doesn’t match the registration then, they’ve got a case for probable cause to search.
But I guarantee everyone here is guilty of a rolling stop at some point in their driving career.
Without question. I’ve lived in Philly for a few months 21st and Walnut center city.
Born and raised and now live in NY. I also lived in Cleveland and Florida. 100% right about the different driving etiquettes.
I took it more as he blew through an intersection. But I re-read the article to clarify. I’m not sure if it was like a residential 4 way stop or a major intersection. Failure to stop could be varying degrees of dangerous. But they didn’t charge him with a reckless, so you’re prob right it was likely a roll.
But yeah at 18 I drove wild and crazy, that’s not even a big concern. This isn’t a story because of the traffic violation. A piece with a marked out serial number is obv the main concern here.
Emoni Bates was NOT in Philly. He was at the crib in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
It is a HIGHLY immature move. You do realize that occasionally when you see a car “buzz” through a red light at 45-50 mph an accident happens and innocent people get killed.
He is a knucklehead. Such a knucklehead that in the so-called car borrowed from a friend that he is blowing through red lights.
The $$$$ bag has now officially been completely fumbled!
If they’re old enough to get paid the type of money we are reading about with NIL, they’re not kids.
Guessing whole thing will get pleaded down to a misdemeanor and he’ll pay a fine and/or do some community service and life goes on.
What do you consider child actors? Adults? Harvey…
Devil’s advocate.
You can serve and die for your country at 18.
Would you call those people kids too?
Yeah those soldiers were just kids. Brave as hell. Some even volunteered when they felt guilty because other people from their neighborhood got the call and they didn’t.
Insane to imagine that mentality these days.
I’ll have to disagree with that. Getting money too young can actually make it more difficult for you to grow up into an adult. There are so many examples of child celebrities and young athlete it’s not even worth mentioning anyone specific.
Agree to disagree.
Fair. Listen, you can get tried for murder as an adult at like 14-15 years old. So I get what you’re saying.
Very Barry is right too … blowing through an intersection could kill innocent people. It’s not to be taken lightly. I’m humble and grateful that none of my stupid decisions at 18 and even into my 20’s never hurt or killed anyone. But I’m humbled and grateful for the fact that they easily could have.
I’m not considered a bad guy by anyone who knows me. But I never forget how easily that could have gone the other way, had any of my immaturity accidentally hurt anyone.
The kid should be held accountable for his actions and it sounds like he will be. At least to some degree.
But I still refuse to rush to judge the character of an 18 year old I don’t even know, over one incident. Hopefully he matures and gets back on track.
Not everyone matures at the same age. Yes, there’s cases where some people are just bad seeds and dangerous to society and have no hope they’re just dumb and or evil. We don’t know if that’s the case with this kid.
Man this kids dad has really helped derail his young career. Emoni made a bad decision here but I still feel bad for the kid, he was never as good as the hype, can remember ESPN calling him the next great one,
Memphis is a hot mess of a school with Penny coaching, guy only knows how to recruit it seems.
Emoni needs someone other than his father to look to for support. His father opened a high school up off the back of his son. I am sure being back in his hometown isn’t helping him much either.
Just a sad story. I hope he gets it together and learns from this and goes on to have a good career.
I never hung out with friends who had to carry guns but i made a lot of stupid decisions during those years of my life. I know I am rooting for this kid.
Why would Emoni Bates need to “borrow” a car while going to school in his hometown??? He has his own luxury vehicle. So does his dad.. These are lawyer stories.
That ran through my mind too. But I also thought If it’s lawyer stories then that means the kid was smart enough to not talk to the police and ask for his lawyer right away. Even during the traffic stop. Not too many 18 year olds realize that’s how you have to approach the situation.
Also if he has his own luxury car then why was he in someone else’s? That’s a lie that can easily be disproved by the cops, you know? As soon as they run the plates they can figure that out.
Bates already has a “lawyer” because he has been high-profile enough to have had agent(s), who are lawyers, handling aspects of his career.
Yes, it is easy to prove who’s car it is. The job of the lawyer in this particular case is to win the War of Public Opinion. Right Now! Thus, “borrowed” car. Didn’t know guns were in the car. If you admit guns with altered serial numbers are his, then his career is likely done. If it isn’t done, his earning potential is. Immediate need is to get public opinion focused on weapons not being his. Next step will be to get charges dropped to lessor offenses. Third step, turn pro. Nothing left for this kid in college.
The kid has had access to “cash” to live on for years. Nike gave his dad his own EYBL team, Bates Fundamentals. Through the program, cash can be moved, family no longer has to worry about things like “having a job”.
I hope and pray Emoni Bates can get this behind him and move on with pursuing his career in the NBA. He has too much talent to waste it on things like this. Hopefully the states attorney and judge give him a break.
Needs better judgment. Shouldn’t have friends with illegal weapons in their cars if that’s the real story
Borrowed car is a BS story. This guy is blowing it. There is always a danger zone. When it comes too fast. Kids don’t get that 10 yrs is nothing. Goes by quick. I hope he has mentors he will listen too. Be a shame to waste his talent.
Is he on the highway to the danger zone?
Sad to see what’s happened to the kid. So talented you wonder if the early fame got to his head a bit.
Think he would have been better off going to Michigan State with Izzo’s high discipline program.
“Izzy’s high discipline program”. LMAO. Players do what they want to do at Michigan State. Long line of legal cases to prove it. Remember Keith Appling?? He is serving time for murder right now. Mateen Cleaves??? They have had multiple players accused of some of everything. Typically drugs or women. Miles Bridges?????
Every case you just stated happened when the player was out of school so your argument is invalid .