By MATT WHITFIELD
COLORADO SPRINGS, Col. — Team USA Junior National Team camp usually features a few players with NBA bloodlines, and Dawson Battie is the latest.
Battie’s parents, Yanika Daniels and Derrick Battie, both played college basketball, while his uncle Tony Battie is a 15-year NBA veteran. Dawson is a Class of 2027 power forward and consensus top-20 recruit carving out his own path.
“Be resilient. There’s going to be times where you mess up and make mistakes, but you can’t let that stop you,” he said at USA Basketball U18 mini-camp of the biggest lesson he’s taken from his amily.
Dawson attends St. Mark’s in Dallas and describes himself as a versatile point forward on the court.
“I’m an all-around guy who wants to win,” he said. “I’ll do anything a coach asks me to, whether that’s play down low or play up high. Lately I’ve been taking more of the point forward role when I play in AAU, kind of just moving the ball and getting my teammates open making them better is kind of how I play.”
2027 6’8 Forward Dawson Battie has proven himself as one of the nation’s top prospects this season 🚀
— PRO16/NXTPRO League (@PRO16League) June 18, 2025
🎙️: @TreySterner5345 pic.twitter.com/mZM729gtEp
Recruiting-wise Battie has taken unofficals to SMU, Nebraska, and Kentucky. He wants to take some official visits this fall as well.
“I think I’ll be taking an official to Texas A&M, SMU, Virginia, University of Texas,” he said, “I’ll probably plan one with Kentucky.”
On schools recruiting the hardest, Battie mentioned many similar programs.
“SMU, Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, Nebraska, AM, Baylor,” he said. “I just got the offer from Kansas, so I think they’ll be in a lot in the future.”
Battie said he grew up as a Duke fan watching Christian Laettner and Paolo Banchero. There’s also some interest from Duke now as well.
“They’ve shown interest,” he said. “They come to games they’ve come to my school before. They haven’t offered yet and I haven’t talked to Coach [Jon] Scheyer, yet but they’ve shown interest.”
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