6’9 Isn’t Enough — Malik Parish Talks Role, Defense, and Reality

Malik Parish is a 6’9 Class of 2027 prospect running with JL3 on the EYBL circuit.
This isn’t highlights — this is how he thinks the game.

In this One-Eyed Watchlist Interview, we sit down with Malik Parish (New Waverly Academy) to break down:

His role at 6’9 in today’s game
What he does without the ball
Defensive mindset and rebounding habits
What EYBL competition exposed in his game
What college coaches will actually evaluate

This is not hype.
This is evaluation + clarity.

https://youtu.be/SjLU5pWokes

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Hello everyone. Malik Parish, 6ix9ine, Clash of 27. New Wave Academy. That all in my community set you apart, man. But before we jump into basketball, I just want to know a little bit more about you, you the person. So let's just start off with, you know, uh what did the game start for you? Like what did when when? Where? How did it get you get going at basketball?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Uh I'm gonna be honest, you know, a lot of players got like crazy stories on how they started playing basketball. Mine's just pretty basic. So uh I went to a school called Decker Middle School, and you know, seventh grade is when your first year you can start playing like real basketball. So I didn't play a real regulated game of basketball until seventh grade, and I just fell in love with the game from there. It really wasn't nothing special.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Wow, so so you started late, man. Like, you know, first thing that uh jumps you off the charts, you know, we we laugh about it, but your athleticism, but more than that, man, I think a genuine passion uh to play. You know, uh, because I I will speak on, you know, when we was at the Noble Elite camp, that's one thing I wrote down in my notebook. Like, you're hyped all the time, ready to play. Um, where do you think that comes from?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Uh I think that just stems from me loving the game, though. I love what I do. I have fun when I'm on the court, you know. I like looping, so I want to have fun. I want to win, but I also want to have fun while I'm doing it. So, you know, I gotta check on my teammates, you know, get everybody lit and just have a have a good time every time I step in the court.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

You know, uh that that's so true. Um, you know, when when did you feel like that this could be more than than just playing? Like you could be on some kind of a stage.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Uh really about ninth grade, you know, people started texting me or walking up to me, like, yo, who do you train with? Who do you play with? And I'm you know, I'm thinking, like, dang, why are people like walking up to me, asking these questions? Like, why are they talking to me? I'm like, okay, I must be nice. So I just started getting in the gym. I was like, okay, people are asking me this. Obviously, they see potential in me. So, you know, I'm just gonna start hitting the gym, getting better every day. And that's really where I started.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

You know, uh, who pushed you early on and keeps you keeps you grounded?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Uh my mom, you know, she always pushed me every time. Um my mom, every single time, every time I want to give up or things got too hard, she never let me quit. So that's one thing I'm really grateful for. My mom never let me quit, kept pushing me, kept saying it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be good. You know, I just have to stick to the process, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

You know, talking about the process, you know, at six foot nine, you know, in in a lot of gyms, you you jump off the charts, but in in basketball world, you know, that's a little bit more norm. So how do you describe your game right now and kind of separate yourself from being just six nine?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Uh how I separate my game. A lot of six nine players, like they move like they're six nine. You know, me, I don't I don't think I move like I sick, like I'm 6'9. I feel like I can move like a guard, you know. A lot of people my height usually can guard like three through three through five. I'm able to guard one through five. So point guard through center, I feel like that separates me. And other people cannot do that. Like guarding one through five is pretty hard to do, you know. It's something you gotta work on. Trust me, I wasn't just blessed with I had to work defensive slides running up hills, but eventually I got there, and now you know I can guard one through five. So I'm grateful for that.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah, that's that's a super trick, man. And you know me, man. I I push the defense aside and rebounding because that's what's gonna get us on the floor early. Um now with UIBL and prep school with New Wave, and and then when we get into college, um so what do you do that impacts winning without the ball?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Uh I rebound, I play hard, you know, lift my teammates up, you know. I do everything. Whatever my coach needs me to do, I'll do it. If he says, yo, I'm gonna guard that guy, I'm gonna guard that guy. If he says I need that rebound, I need that rebound. If he says I need that block, I gotta get the block. So whatever, whatever my coach needs me to do to help win the game, I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

You know, uh, so when a coach turns your film on, I'm big about this. Turns your film on the 30 seconds, what you gonna see?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

So, like I said earlier, you know, I'm big on defense, and my game is mostly it's mostly dunks and defense. So, first thing you're gonna see in my mix is probably just me dunking, but a lot of times after my dunks, I get hyped, I get lit. So they're gonna see like my intensity and what I bring to the game, like the integrating like a dunk is momentum, so you know, it just gets the team going.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

You know, it's it's it's great that you know you already know what role you can provide, what puzzle piece you can feel uh with the fans to rebounding and uh and no, but I what I do want to know because we talked about this and I thought it was such a a cool opportunity. What is it like when you practice JL3 and you got Landonville, you got Amon Hush, and other guys that are that are top players as well. What is that? How's that competition look?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Uh very talented, you know, all these guys you just named, very talented guys, you know, they help me improve every day, you know, Iron Sharp is iron. So we just live to get better every day, get in the gym, and just help each other, you know. When a lot of guys that are you know highly ranked, a lot of times, you know, it doesn't work out because everybody wants to take all the shots. But us, I feel like we feel well together, you know. We all play our roles, and you know, that's why we're the best team in the country right now.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

You know, um that you know, one thing I try to teach young young players, and maybe you can help me out. Like, talk about your rebounding habits. Like, are you hunting the ball? Are you reacting? What do you do?

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Well I do is once I see the ball in the air, first thing I look to do, you gotta box somebody out first. If you're just going for the rebound, you don't know who's around you, somebody might grab you. You gotta look and find a body. Once you find a body, you gotta see like where the ball is coming from. And you gotta what I try to do is I try to put my leg over their leg so they can't move. So when I'm going for the rebound, it's like they're stuck, you know. That's that's really what I do. A lot of people don't do that, but that's just me.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Hey man, that's a veteran kind of move right there. So I I I know you learned that at uh from from Coach Lucas, uh Coach Mo Taylor. Mo Taylor, my bad, my bad, yeah. Hey, so development and work, like you hit it already. Running heels, the slides. What what are you working on right now?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Uh right now, I feel like the biggest weakest pull in my game is my left hand, you know. A lot of players have to force me left. So I'm just in the gym every day working on it, you know, getting better. Because if it comes down to it, I might gotta go left, last play the game. So I gotta be reliable. My teammates gotta be able to trust trust me going left, going right either way. So, you know, I can't you can't be one sided in basketball. People find out your weakness pretty quickly. So, you know, this is working on my left hand. That's that's my weakest point of my game right now, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

All right, so in saying that, and then you said you're working on on working on your left hand, like let's talk about what's your what's your normal work week look like uh basketball-wise. So so people get to really understand, like you put in a lot of time and you reappear the benefits, but what goes into it?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Uh so every day I work at about five, you know, shower, get ready, first workouts at 6 p.m. I mean 6 a.m., my bad, 6 a.m. You know, I work out with coach John Lucas, Coach Mo Taylor, my uh development coach, you know, we do a lot of time we do skill work first, you know, left hand, right hand, and then we do 1v1s, 2v2s, and then we translate that into 5 on five. We do 5 on 5 last. And the reason why they do that is they uh we do skill work first so that we can do the things we just learned in the 5v5. It's different when you're just doing skill work and you're not actually doing it. You know what I'm saying? So we do 5v5 at the end so we can actually apply in the game versus say you just drill work, drill work, drill work, and then you get in the game and I know what to do because in the game is gonna be somebody right there, you're not gonna be wide open. So, you know, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Man, I love that. I love that, and and you're you're in a great situation with veteran coaches, uh, a lot of a lot of knowledge, but that's one thing that we we try to do as well is to end, or we do not try, end with competition. But um what what separates the guys who produce at the EYBL and the ones that don't?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Uh I flack your mother, you know. Everybody is skill, obviously. You gotta be skilled to go on the floor, but what what else can you do? Like, what else can you do besides score? Like everybody can score. Can you rebound? Can you play D? Can you talk on defense? Can you be in the right gaps? It's you know, everybody can score at at a high level. So your energy is what separates you. So whoever has the highest energy usually comes out on top. So I just try to have the highest energy energy every time I step on the floor.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

You know, and and we said it, man, when we first got on. The most athletic, most energetic guy I've ever met. So that's that speaks volumes. All right, man. So how do you respond when things aren't going your way? Are you vocal? Are you you you lead by example, or how's it go?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Uh, like when things aren't going my way, you know, I'll try to do something else. Like, for example, let's say I'm not scoring, like I said, I try to affect the game in other ways, I'll do something else. You know, it's just everything not gonna go your way all the time. You gotta adjust, you know. I just tell myself, calm down, maybe get a sip of water, reset, next play. You know, my mindset is just next play because it's no point of stressing about what happens in the past. You can't change it. You're just stressing for no reason. Might as well, you know, think about the future and think about okay, well, like what could I have done differently? You know, so I really just try to think about it, you know, sit down, reset, and just next play mentality, don't worry about the past. It already happens, nothing you can do about it. So, next play.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

All right, man, we're gonna wrap it up on this one because it's important. So, what does your coach trust you to do every single game?

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Trust me to do. Uh I think he trusts me to play play hard and guard the best guys, you know. That's usually what I do when I play. I guard the best guys, you know, guard the best player on the team, you know, slow them down, make them uncomfortable. Uh, he looks for me to lead too. You gotta be a leader. You can be good, but you gotta be a leader, you gotta have both. Like it's a lot of good players, so but a lot of good players don't want to lead. So that's how he separates himself by leading and doing doing the other things. Like I said, everybody can score, but who's gonna lead? Who's gonna do all the extra the little things? Like I said, being the gaps, you know, like the little things talk on defense, you know, the little things call out strings left or right. Who's gonna do the little things to talk? So uh just stepping on the floor and play hard every day. That's what my coach expects out of me.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

All right, Malik Parrish, 6'9, Clash of 27. Hey man, thanks so much for your time. I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Thanks for having me. I really enjoyed it, too, man. Appreciate it, man. It's an honor. Show you blessed.