RISING STAR FEATURE: KAMERON CHATMAN

Kameron Chatman’s journey in basketball has taught him to live in and embrace every moment both on and off the basketball court. 

The Portland, Oregon native has travelled across multiple countries, encountering numerous challenges and experiences throughout his life and professional basketball career.

After college and having gone through stints in Turkey, Belgium, Portugal, and back home in the States, the 26-year-old describes these challenges to have shaped who he is as an athlete.

“Just being away from your family for nine months, adapting to a new culture, language barriers, it's a bunch of stuff that a lot of people wouldn't be able to handle,” he said during an interview before practice. “So just playing over there and going through those trials and tribulations shape me because there's not much that can faze me. Because I've experienced so much and been through so much, it kind of gives me a chip on my shoulder.”

Some of these experiences also include the heavy loss of close friends.

“I lost four friends my age, and these are people that are close, that I hung out with every day,” he said. “When it's someone super, super close to you, it's not something that you expected to happen, it puts everything into perspective that you never know.

“Before games, I thank God for letting me play the game I love, you know, just having a smile on my face. I think once that happened, it was just the appreciation and me embracing what I'm doing and really being appreciative of me being able to play basketball because, you never know what can happen.”

This is what changed Kameron Chatman’s perspective on life and basketball. This is why he is the person and athlete that he is today.

Going back to where it all started, Chatman was born in Portland, Oregon where he picked up a basketball at the age of five.

In Portland, he found himself surrounded by the game and was heavily influenced by his dad, Canaan Chatman, who also played overseas.

“Growing up, I played football, baseball, and other sports but for the most part, basketball was just something that was engrained in me from a kid,” he said. “My dad always had me in the gym.”

As another influence growing up, he looked up to NBA legend Carmelo Anthony.

“I wanted to be Carmelo Anthony,” the forward said. “I had the braids, jerseys, I used to have the shoes, I used to try to play like him. I kind of still try to copy my game after him. He’s my favourite player ever.”

Chatman developed early skills as a scorer by modelling his game after Anthony, leading him to early success in high school. In his senior year, he was given Valley 10 All-League First Team honours and led Columbia Christian School to the 2014 Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) Class 1A Championship.

Chatman received numerous different colleges offers following his junior years and heading into his senior year.

“Everything just kind of blew up for me,” he said. “That's kind of when it all came into perspective that I was going to be able to do something with basketball.”

The forward moved on to play college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines before transferring to play for the Detroit Titans after his sophomore year.

He then went on to play professionally overseas after going undrafted in 2018 NBA Draft.

This led him to playing for leagues in different countries – the Basketbol Süper Ligi in Turkey, the Erie BayHawks of the NBA G League, the Pro Basketball League in Belgium, the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol in Portugal, and currently for the Canadian Elite Basketball League in Canada.

On May 23, Chatman signed a contract with the Scarborough Shooting Stars of the CEBL.

The Shooting Stars are a brand-new team in its first season as part of 10 teams in a young, quickly growing CEBL league.

Chatman sees this as a great opportunity and a blessing, as he looks forward to having fun and embracing each moment, hoping to take all his combined experiences, and put them together to fulfill his goal.

“Here, I'm trying to win a championship. That's something that I said before I knew who was on the team,” he said. “And now that I'm here, I 100% feel like we have a championship team.”