St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Malaki Branham accepts Ohio Mr. Basketball Award

On Apr 9, 2021

St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Malaki Branham received his Ohio Mr. Basketball Award on Thursday afternoon, officially bringing to an end one of the top careers in program history.

Branham became the first STVM player to win the top individual honor in the state since LeBron James, giving the program a state-record four overall.

“He’s the best player in the world, so it means a lot that I have some similarities to LeBron,” Branham said. “But the work is not done. I’m going to keep working and hopefully I get to the level where he’s at.”

Branham led the Fighting Irish (25-2) to a Division II state title last month, scoring 37 points in the title game.

A two-time state champion (2018, 2021), Branham finished his high school career with 1,501 career points. He is No. 4 on the program’s all-time scoring list behind James, Curtis Wilson and Jerome Lane.

“I’m excited for Malaki,” coach Dru Joyce II said. “You don’t get this thing without the work. There’s no shortcuts, you have to put in the work, and there’s a lot of sacrifice. A lot of kids his age don’t want to make the sacrifices or put in the work and then wonder why things aren’t happening the way they want to.

“You have to put in the work, and I’m excited because he did that. He put in the work, he put in the extra time, the hours when everyone was out there kicking it, he put up shots and he did what it takes.”

Part of that sacrifice for Branham and his family was moving to Akron in the first place. A Columbus native, he and his family moved before the start of his freshman year so he could attend STVM.

Branham’s mom, Matia Branham, said this award represented years of hard work coming to fruition for her son and their family as a whole.

“It means that we did our job,” she said. “We didn’t give up on him, we believed him and we also pushed him, because at one point in time he wanted to stop. There was a bump in the road and he wanted to stop and I was like, ‘If you love this, you keep pushing and continue to do what you need to do.’ That’s exactly what he did, too. So what can I say? The end result is this.”

Lawrence Branham, Malaki Branham’s uncle and STVM’s freshman basketball coach, added he was extremely happy to see his nephew honored in this way considering the younger Branham hasn’t spent much time thinking about accolades.

“He’s just always been about working hard, keeping his head down, not being too concerned about the rankings or other players that may have been put in front of him,” Lawrence Branham said. “But he’s just been working his behind off. This is the fruits of his labor. I feel like he’s deserved it, he’s earned it, he’s worked for it, so I’m just over the moon.”