‘My brother’: Kiyan Anthony, Sadiq White joined SU as package deal
Kiyan Anthony and Sadiq White wanted to join forces since high school. Now, the highly-touted freshmen lean on each other at Syracuse. Avery Magee | Photo Editor
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Kiyan Anthony and Sadiq White desperately wanted to play together. That’s why they’re at Syracuse. Not because of Name, Image and Likeness money or family history. It was all about forming their dream duo and forging their own path together. While competing in a Nike EYBL Circuit as high school sophomores, they laid the groundwork for joining forces one day.
Anthony, out of Long Island Lutheran, admired the Charlotte, North Carolina, native White’s explosiveness from afar, jealous of how high he could jump. White was impressed by Anthony’s craftiness. Together, they knew they could be special. And in the back of their minds, both knew the other had an offer from SU on the table — which sparked conversations.
Through talks about life and basketball, they bonded “instantly,” Anthony said. White and Anthony stayed in touch throughout the recruiting process. Without hesitation, they decided to embrace the challenge of headlining Syracuse’s most-hyped freshman class in years.
“We made the decision early to come here together,” Anthony said of him and White. “It’s only the beginning for us. We’ve become close friends, we hang out every day. Him being a dog, me being a dog, we just have those common interests.”
Anthony and White have leaned on each other through a pressure-filled freshman campaign. Natural expectations rose for both, with Anthony’s father’s No. 15 jersey hanging in the JMA Wireless Dome rafters and White’s IMG Academy stint skyrocketing him as a top prospect. Thus far, with each playing a bench role, they haven’t taken the program by storm just yet.
But away from the noise, the two are inseparable. They bond over their shared struggles of assimilating to a new environment and their determination to lead Syracuse to a new stratosphere.
We made the decision early to come here together.Kiyan Anthony, SU guard
The future is bright with Anthony and White, two players head coach Adrian Autry said he’s “blessed” to have on his side. They wouldn’t be in Syracuse, though, without their prior history — one that’s blossomed into an unbreakable friendship.
“One of my best friends on and off the court,” White said about Anthony. “The real conversations we have with each other and to be able to put that jersey on with him night in and night out, it’s a dream come true. We love going to war every day.”
“We’ve been talking about it since day one,” Anthony added of playing alongside White. “That’s my brother.”
The instant stardom they envisioned, however, hasn’t quite materialized. White is averaging 17.9 minutes per game and scoring less than seven points a contest, despite starting 10 games while forward Donnie Freeman recovered from a right foot injury.
Anthony broke out against Delaware State in November, dropping 19 points in his first career start, but he’s now shooting 23.4% from the 3-point line and playing fewer minutes in the ACC.
Anthony said White was growing comfortable in his starting role while Freeman was out. Now, though, White recognizes Freeman has the upper hand as SU’s leading scorer, and the freshman forward has been caught in a hard position since his minutes have naturally decreased, Anthony said.
As for the young guard, he’s also seen his minutes decrease since Syracuse’s schedule has gotten tougher, while he hasn’t found his footing as a defender yet.
They’ve tried to seize the moments they do get, though. White threw down a menacing alley-oop jam Tuesday to pump life through the Dome and give the Orange a late lead against Florida State. Earlier in the year, during SU’s trip to Las Vegas, Anthony sent waves through the MGM Grand Garden Arena with a pair of difficult and-1 layups in a matchup versus then-No. 2 Houston, with his dad, Carmelo, watching.
“For the time we’re out there, me and Sadiq, we definitely bring a spark,” Anthony said, injecting confidence into what the two can do for Syracuse now.
They wish they were playing more, sure, but the duo trusts the process. And they rely on each other to get by.
Zoey Grimes | Design Editor
Anthony, Carmelo’s lone son with unlimited resources at his disposal, prefers to be by himself most of his free time. He lives in a single apartment and occasionally sits alone, without any lights on, so he can be uninterrupted and invested in his own thoughts.
Visitors aren’t common in Anthony’s living space. Yet he makes an exception for White, a ball of energy whose personality can easily provide a welcome distraction.
When the two need to decompress, they gather at Anthony’s to play video games. The expressive White paired against the mild-mannered Anthony makes for some good-natured competition on the sticks. Sometimes, they simply sit on Anthony’s couch and talk over their hopes and dreams. They’re vulnerable with each other about what they see in their future.
For them, these moments are a safe space. A space away from the talking heads who demand the maximum and their internal pressure to be great immediately. They’re the rare moments where Anthony and White are just hopeful college kids. Not prospects with a label.
Comfortability — a luxury many high-profile student-athletes don’t have.
“It’s bigger than basketball away from the court,” Anthony said of his friendship with White. “Even when we are chilling in the house and playing video games, just laughing it up. He’s somebody you could talk to beyond when the season is over, and before the season. Just having him going through some of the stuff I’m going through is definitely helpful.”
“That’s all you can ask for: just someone who listens to you,” White said of Anthony. “He listens to me, I listen to him, for the betterment of the team.”
Their chemistry is clear on the court, too. In SU’s preseason game against Pace on Oct. 29 — White’s unofficial debut after missing its previous preseason contest versus Buffalo — Anthony hit White with a bounce pass in the lane after a flawless pick and roll. White finished for the easy bucket, an immediate freshman connection minutes after the two stepped out there together.
It might have been preseason, but they waited since high school to deliver that memory.
“That’s my guy. We knew what time it was when we got to (Syracuse),” White said. “Now we’ve just got to put all the pieces together.”
“We’ve got a lot of history together,” Anthony added. “I look for him coming off pick and rolls. I know he’s the most athletic guy on the team. And I just look forward to throwing him a lot of passes.”
It’s a preview of what lies ahead.
“We won’t ever forget growing up, knowing each other, going to war every day in practice and showing these (Syracuse) fans that we work,” White said of him and Anthony. “His game is going to continue to elevate, my game is going to continue to elevate. We’re going to do whatever we can to help this program win.”
