The Mackenzie Mgbako Blog: City of Palms, Recruitment, Christmas and More

Mgbako kicked off his season at the prestigious City of Palms Classic in Florida this week.

Mackenzie Mgbako is a consensus top five player in the 2023 class with a who’s who of college suitors like Duke, Kentucky, Ohio State, Memphis, Michigan and others all in pursuit. Mgbako dominated the Nike EYBL this past summer and that dominance has carried over this high school season with Gill St. Bernard’s (Gladstone, N.J.). Now, Mgbako has agreed to give Sports Illustrated exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a blog.

Hey, what’s up world, this is Mackenzie Mgbako and I’m starting off my Sports Illustrated blog, so I’m excited about that!

We’re finally starting the season now here at the City of Palms in Florida and we’re all excited to be competing! We looked pretty good in scrimmages last week; we went 2-1 and grew game to game.

I averaged about 28 points and 12 rebounds during those games, so I’m just looking to take it to another level now.

The only goal this year is to win the state title!

I know we have a lot of talent and if we stay together and play together, we’ll be able to get it done. Individually, I just want to grow as a leader; just becoming more of a leader by example and vocally. This summer had a big impact on my game; I played well and grew my confidence game to game and picked up big offers from Duke and Kentucky and a bunch of other schools.

It was a big summer for me on a lot of different levels.

Mackenzie Mgbako had a dominant summer in the Nike EYBL.

Jon Lopez/Nike

My recruitment is going really well. I don’t have a list or anything like that, but I talk to the coaches all the time.

I talk to Coach (Orlando) Antigua from Kentucky, Coach (Jon) Scheyer from Duke, Coach (Tony) Skinn from Ohio State, Coach (Penny) Hardaway from Memphis and Coach (Juwan) Howard from Michigan just came to my scrimmage.

Villanova came to my scrimmage as well, and Texas was the most recent school to reach out.

It’s been fun just getting to know the coaches, but I’m not really feeling any pressure to cut it down or make any big decisions.

I visited Duke, Kentucky, Memphis and Ohio State already. All of them were great!

I’m more focused on my season than my recruitment at this point, but I watch a lot of games of the colleges that are recruiting me. I keep a watch on the rankings, and I try and see myself playing different roles for those teams.

I feel like I’ll probably wait until around June to cut my list down, so I’ve got a lot of time to get information to make the best decision.

OK, well I’m proud to say that I’m doing great in the classroom too!

Second semester has been tougher because the season has started, but as a student athlete you just have to find a way to make it all happen.

My GPA is around a 3.6 right now, and my favorite class has to be Psychology. I love to learn about why people have the reactions that they do and learn about the internal and external functions of the brain.

It’s very interesting!

I listen to a lot of music, just like most guys my age and since we’re in Florida I had to put on Kodak! I definitely have G Herbo on repeat too! Also, YoungBoy, Future, Lil Durk, Rod Wave, MoneyBagg Yo… Guys like that!

I do stream a little, right now I’m watching Bleach on Netflix. It’s anime and it’s really good.

I definitely want to add that I’m the best Call of Duty player out there!

And something people probably don’t know about me is that I love to collect fitted caps! Right now, I have about 12, but it equates to around $700.

It’s the limited-edition brims and all that stuff!

Mackenzie Mgbako's cap collection is extensive.

Mgbako

Right now, it’s quality over quantity, but I’m gonna keep growing the collection.

Of course, we have Christmas this week and I’m excited. Christmas will be eventful this year. We didn’t get to do a lot last year because of COVID! My family and I are doing a secret Santa gift exchange so that will be fun. Hopefully my person will like what I get them, but, hey, I’m on a budget so they can’t expect too much! Haha!

OK guys that’s all I’ve got for now, but I appreciate you reading my new blog and I hope you’ll come back for the next one.

Stay tuned for that and have a Merry Christmas!

Don’t forget to follow Mackenzie Mgbako:

Twitter: @MackenzieMgbako

Instagram: mack.mgbako