5 foot 10 inch Zaire “Cherri” Hatter is the quiet storm I predict that will be a great ambassador for the women’s game. She reminds me so much my guy Paul “The Truth” Pierce.
I had the honor to do Paul’s life story in 2005 when he told me, “E-Woods I give everything I can to this sport, will leave my mark on it I hope. I’m all about trying to be a good role model to others.
“When I was attacked in a knife attack at a club in Boston, I got scars I live with forever. For others to see my model to follow I had to show restraint and not seek revenge. I want to see others improve themselves. I care about the people in this Inglewood gym we’re standing in.
“My heart is on fire to prove myself each day. If I didn’t ball I’d be in the FBI, something to push my limits. I’m locked in to win this chip for Boston and we will get there my guy.”
Double P, that’s what I call Paul who I just saw recently. You have you love his pride in Inglewood and his promise kept for delivering for Boston back then.
I know it’ll hard to believe, but there’s this 7th grader, class of 2028, who is out of this world and speaks the same language as Paul Pierce. She’s Cherri Hatter, a sweet caring person who is so humble.
She lives in Phoenix and is unlike any kid you’ve seen that is her age. She appreciates the games of NBA superstars LeBron James and Ja Morant.
Cherri says this about those guys, “I love how LeBron uses his power and IQ to dominate the game and I love how Ja uses angles and his athleticism to defeat his opponents.
“I try do what they do in my game. My personal goals are to get better at shooting, get faster in game as well.”
Real talk? Cherri really reminds me also of my guy DeMar DeRozan at the same age when he was dunking from free throw line right in front of my face back in the day. I was close to DeMar’s family.
D would tell me, “I’m just hoping to make my mark on the game.” Humble, and as driven, talented as I’ve ever seen. That’s also Cherri Hatter who I like to call Cherri Baller.
When I rewind my brain to see my guys DeMar, B-Jennings, Paul Pierce in 2005 it’s easy for me to see they all have this look in their eyes, smoldering in the pupils of their corneas no doubt that says “Volcano alert!” They were going off in games like legends made of stardust.
I knew they were not looking destiny in the face, they were making destiny face them straight in the eye.
That took willpower, sweat, getting crafty, to earn them the right to have their name spoken to for generations in the future. That takes an iron will to never be forgotten for the deeds one has done through willpower.
That’s how Cherri vibes the game with cool confidence. Destiny will have to go through her; skill will get to learn her name. Respect will flow through her because she realizes at a young age that bills are paid in sweat.
She will speak her name to the basketball gods and have her name written in the book. I’ve seen dozens and dozens of great men and women who went on to make it the pros. She has what it takes. 100.
I felt lucky to have gotten to know her family well. Cherri has the most intelligent and sweet mom in Kameika who is a dean of students at a school in Phoenix. The whole fam is just fun to talk to and be around.
Cherri likes to do hair dye coloring on her braiding dolls. She’s into doing things at a high and nurturing level. The whole family has an ethics of being ultra supportive to each other. They all have a great personality that emanates bubbly coolness indeed.
Cherri says she feels lucky to have her super cool twin sister Chaz. I’ll let her explain what they do, “We sacrifice a lot of our time to practice and train with Sean Greene of HoopCode Basketball when we play with that squad locally and with Cal Storm AAU when we go on the road.”
She also has another great mentor in Mike “The Trainer” at Basketball Ingredients in her hometown. She’ll tell you what she does when she gets a bit of free time, which is not often, “We dance, have fun, skate, swim, and keep straight A grades and are spiritually centered young women that have big goals. My goal is to make people smile with the same joy I have inside me.
“I want to inspire others by my actions; that’s important to me. I want to be a children’s neurosurgeon when I grow up. When I have the time I train other kids that are younger than me to get them better. I also like to help with charities when I get time.
“Giving to others is a big deal to us in our family. My mom helps with everything. She doesn’t have a chance to travel, do a lot of things. She sacrifices for us. We appreciate her so much for that, for so much she does for us.”
Their lovely and awesome mom Kameika graduated from Compton High in 2000 and is proud of her Compton roots. She is this blazingly articulate and empowering parent like I’ve rarely encountered in life. She knows many great ballers and is savvy about the game.
Cherri also has a second mom that is such a positive force in her life, Lani Reed Hatter, a nurse of 25 years.
Lately I’ve been helping advise many WNBA talented college players in the transfer portal. I do qualitative analysis of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd round draft picks for the upcoming next 2 years with other WNBA scouts across the country who track the best college prospects.
A first lead assist coach that is working in the Western US that I’m great friends with has seen Cherri play multiple times. He told me straight up, “Cherri is really soooooo good right now and could be at the very top of her class for years to come with her skill set and incredible mentality.
“She has all the physical tools to step into being something that the high school level has rarely seen. If Cherri keeps it up, she’ll likely be a very dominant college player. She already has economy of movement, advanced angles to the rim, thrust and proper form on her shot from range.
“She does so many things intuitively that are way, way beyond her years that high school players aren’t capable of understanding 99% of the time.”
#it’s like that people
I’m sure many fans of girls basketball at the prep and college level in our vibrant passionate community have seen some of Cherri’s AAU friends that are also fire ballers like Kaleena Smith who is known as “Special Kayyy.” They happily support each other in their basketball world.
Me, E-Woods? I appreciate and respect Kaleena’s parents so much and feel proud to have supported them in the past. They’re the best kind of people you can get to know.
Getting Kaleena on the phone with college coaches that the family was interested in at an early age was an honor for me.
Click here for Kaleena's IG page
I believe that Kaleena’s family was very smart, savvy, and proactive in setting up visits to take with coaches on campus.
Prospects need to know that to get offers from college coaches it takes more than talent. It takes a coach to follow them and invest in their progression at AAU tournament games to see them in action and know they have great character, and grades, and leadership.
Kaleena is a great person to be around, along with her family. I was proud to do her first story when she was in 6th grade and I’d love to do another story on her.
I’m also extremely proud to be around SoCal 7th grader Sydney Douglas who is an incredible phenom baller for the ages that I feel blessed to be doing a story on soon.
Click here for Sydney's instagram page
Back to recruiting advice. Cherri is all about improving her skills but she says it’s also important for her to get scholarship offers like her fellow talented friends and players her age.
I guess it’s a sign of respect nowadays so rankings are cool to youngsters. But it seems that offers are the liquid gold they seek. The reader needs to realize something - getting offers this young is an incredible system change to college basketball.
For example, my friend Charisma Osborne, star guard at UCLA who has been its leader since she was a freshman, didn’t get her Bruin offer until she had proven she was the absolute best California high school player 3 straight years. She was a top 20 player like 6 years ago.
Chloe Briggs got an offer from Oregon as a freshman a few years ago which raised eyebrows. Sammie Wagner committing to Baylor a few years ago was big news. My friend Brooklyn Shamblin committing to USC in 8th grade was also big news.
So the trend on the girls side to get offers from big time major colleges from esteemed places like Arizona, Louisville, UCLA, Washington St, Georgia, Mississippi St, is pretty rare.
I’ve personally talked to their coaching staffs in the recent past. Those in the know, know that high major college coaches usually only want to offer late in a prep prospect’s career, wanting to have lead time to what a prospect is going to show as they get closer to graduating.
But colleges want that edge in the end to land a player by offering early. Period. Cherri? She will bend college coaches minds; their heads just need to be turned to see what I already know and believe. 100.
I ask super brilliant minds and they remind me that the staffs at these schools now are not likely to be there in 6 years. Since women’s college coaches make 1/8 of what the men’s coaches make, they’re more likely move on to another program because of better perks.
Me, E-Woods? I help former WNBA players find jobs as assistant coaches at D1 programs so I’m privy to all that is happening in the vibrant women’s basketball community.
Now how fantastically great a player is Cherri? Can you handle “The Truth” people? My intuition tells me that Cherri will be an absolute legend. My confidence in that stems from my decades of being immersed each day in the game helping out at elite levels.
Cherri is the epitome of the phrase “Game reps game.” And because she cares, she takes other players off to the side and reminds them how to handle various situations. She’s just amazing in many ways!
Click here for Cherri's Instagram page
Since we’re talking the laws of recruiting and what’s at stake in college recruiting, let me help educate you the public because I spend 8-10 hours a day helping prospects create lanes to further opportunities, all this after I do my teacher classroom duties.
How can a college coach, whose job depends on finding the absolute best talent, not do their absolute best to find a way for such a talent as Cherri to get on the court for their college team?
Coaches can’t call a prospect until they’re at the end of their sophomore year unless the family calls them first and shows interest.
The transfer portal is what is stopping college coaches from seeing more freshman, sophomores, all prep players, forget middle schoolers. 4,600 women in college have hit the transfer portal. How many of these transfers are colleges pursuing?
There are about 200 hot list players that 45-50 programs are dying to get. The effort takes up 80% of their day. Nothing else much matters other than these hot list transfers. Crazy. Really crazy.
That’s college basketball, and why Covid players (college players with an extra year) have made it impossible for prep players to get much attention.
This makes me sad for average kids with big dreams but regardless of these factors I believe that college coaches will see Cherri Hatter speaking “The Truth” on court and will want to speak the language she and her family would appreciate hearing: “We would like to extend an offer for you to attend our program when the time is right Ms Zaire Cherri Hatter.”
It’s that simple. I believe a good strategy for Cherri is to give a college her schedule if she gets their attention. Getting them to see you play leads them to realize your incredible character and personality.
Many colleges screen out players and coaches from contacting them. They usually only want to interact with serious coaches or individuals that can give them leads, which translates into wins ultimately.
Kaleena Smith has unbelievable character and personality like Cherri, which I think will lead to unprecedented offers from Kentucky and later from great Pac-12 programs I’m familiar with and have talked a lot with.
My point is Cherri is in that same league of skill and is poised to communicate with these same colleges.
Click here for Erik's story that featured Kaleena Smith and others
It’s easy to see Cherri has her own brand of breathtaking skill in her own lane and I easily predict tons of college offers will follow suit in short order for her to take visits and dialogue a bit more with colleges that share a mutual interest with her.
The same goes for the transcendent and incredibly awesome Sydney Douglas, another 7th grader whose parents I have supreme respect for as they support their 4 children.
The Douglas family has dialogued with extremely respected college programs and received blazing recruitment offers lately. I believe Cherri will follow that pattern at some point in the future.
Honestly, I believe much sooner than later as soon as college programs turn their heads to see what I have seen.
I know Cherri is communicating with UCLA, Louisville, Washington State, Arizona, Mississippi State, Georgia, and a few others that don’t want to be identified at this time.
She is scheduled to take campus visits and meet all the coaches of the programs to the first 3 schools I mentioned. It should happen by the summer I believe.
Many have been asking me how does Cherri play E-Woods? What’s her get down in game you may ask.
Cherri always plays relentlessly. Attack, attack the defender till they lose the spirit to slide their feet and just crumble. On defense she uses her long arms to get in lanes, disrupt the opponent’s offense.
One of the most fun places I saw Z-Hatter go off and play was her performance that made me think she was operating like a ready made McDonald’s All American player.
It was my guy Josh Lozano, who is an incredible trainer and AAU coach and basketball mind, that was running his We Run All Star showcase for top 8th graders from Cali and Arizona in the fall of 2023.
From tip to finish it was the Cherri Baller & Sydney Douglas show as they were enforcing their will on any and all in their way. Cherri is a “non pattern” player, a theory like my guy Earl Watkins explains.
Earl is a UCLA legend, former NBA baller and great guy who was the Phoenix Suns’ NBA coach. Of this theory, he says, “A non pattern player is a creative player that is unpredictable and dynamic. You can’t tell what they’re going to do.
“Devin Booker is an example of someone who creates new things in game that can’t be guarded easily because of the non linear format. Regular players can be adjusted and planned for, and can be defended with enough preparation. There is a difference.”
I see Cherri as that fantastically quick off the dribble player. She gets in the lane and finishes with either hand flawlessly. She has super consistent range out to 20 feet, but the crazy part is that she is getting more and more consistent out to 35 feet.
She points to the floor with her eyes and wills her shots in the rim, “Bap, Bap, Bap” with her strong perfect frame that launches bomb rockets through the rim again and again making that “dog sneeze” as my guy John Lucas III says of the swoosh through net sound.
Mom Kameika is talking to the Mt. Rushmore of trainers in Olin Simplis who is a real one trainer for a stable of NBA/WNBA ultra successful players such as Spencer Dinwiddie, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Marina Mabrey, and so many others it’s hard to list them all here.
I could go and on with those in his lab. But Olin is impressed from what he knows of Cherri and is excited to meet her energy to train her.
Sean Greene is that Phoenix based real one mentor and trainer that deserves so much credit. Cherri appreciates who got her going so well this far. Cherri’s family will continue to lean on his great training no doubt.
Sean was a killer player in college and was invited to play for the Sacramento Kings as their NBA practice squad player. His ability to communicate skills is incredible.
Me, E-Woods, I appreciate Sean and have played 1,000s of pick up games with him and I appreciate all his Arizona Hoop Code program does for youngsters indeed.
I’ve been a writer for SLAM, writer of 600 plus features for Rivals.com with talent eval skills the last 21 years. I get think tank advice from elite hoop insiders to aggregate pinpoint projections that I offer for free to prospects and colleges that ask me.
Cherri reminds me of a young Charisma Osborne (UCLA) who is headed to be a fantastic WNBA player. My guy Marlon Wells runs the esteemed Why Not AAU squad on the girls side and is a real one to do many legions of kids over the last 20 plus years. He put an incredible comment on Cherri’s IG, “You play dope.”
From all my incredible conversations Cherri, she impresses me like few people ever, have regardless of age. She is vibrant, excited about life, all in to be that somebody for herself and determined to be a role model to others.
I’ll let her speak on it, “I love playing against my friends and proving myself vs. them, honoring the game by giving my best effort each time. It’s fun to create new moves, combos to the rim, let the ball feel a part of the pulse of my rhythm.
“Sean Greene has been that mentor to me. I’m lucky to have my sister with me each day, a built in best friend for life. She’s there for me each day to wake up for because we care for each other. Chaz and I have fun in all we do and just live life to the fullest each day!”
On court Cherri is that unselfish person always passing, looking to help others. She cares for others, just like Paul Pierce.
P-Pierce came to my neighborhood to train my guy Jaime Jaquez who I’m super tight with. I’ve played 1,000s of pick up games with him as a youngster to help him get a lot better with his footwork. He’s the UCLA Pac-12 player of the year.
P-Pierce cares about all people, and especially youngsters to get better like that. See my californiapreps.com story on Paul and Jaime that was picked up by Yahoo Sports: Click here
Paul’s best friend since childhood is Jason Crowe, also my friend. J-Crowe is a former NBA player that runs the local The Truth AAU team. His son Jason Crowe Jr is “The Truth” as a freshman and I’m going to do an off the charts story on him very soon.
I’ve been high on J-Crowe Jr since he’s been in 6th grade. He scored 1,300 points as a freshman for Lynwood High and won a state chip.
Cherri? I could see her average 36 points per game like Jason Jr. just did as a freshman in high school. I could see her be 4th in the nation as a freshman and go for a 51 point outburst as a 9th grader.
They’re both so smooth, flawless in execution, with crazy gears, confident, impeccable, swag but chill in a way I can’t find words to describe.
Cherri wears a long sleeve cherry red shirt in game, she sticks out and it’s like all red TuPac’s All Eyez on Her 100% of the time in game. My guy writer Scoop Jackson who is the most legend of all SLAM magazine writers and now does much with ESPN told me once to find the coldest ballers on the planet and gift them SLAM gear, shorts, a jersey if you want them to know you truly appreciate them with all your heart E!
We communicate every so often, S is the most real sports writer who I draw inspiration from. I gave D-DeRozan and B-Jennings their first SLAM jerseys when they were Cherri’s age because I was honored just to be their friend and do their first stories. They played so incredibly fantastic that they made my eyes melt out of my head in a fun way. Lol.
Now, Cherri, #7. My eyes melt again. I am proud to create and gift her a shiny red SLAM jersey. It’s the color cherry red like Cherri is The Take Over. It’s my way of saying to her humbly, “You are seen friend. I appreciate you for your unique swag, phenom game and goals I know you will surely achieve.”
Feel the pulse of music selection that she sets music to her games on IG, the sublime and eerie Kodak Black as I drop dope lyrics like she drops bombs, breaks ankles.
Feel the play by play flow with us as the children’s chorus sings in the hype hard hitting urban song Super Gremlin:
“Still only a child, but faithful error
I ain't slimin', I'm grimin'
Any way you put it I'm SG with it, I'm Super Gremlin
Sniper Gang, trust
Nightmare, baby, you know I
I bet you always see me in your dreams.”
Cherri? She is most def puttin’ it on for “The Truth” of the game like Paul Pierce fam did in his career. My prediction? Every and all are going to fall so in love with her spinnin' drops and hesi sidebar dribble kick lows.
I saw the past. She and her friends are the present. Kaleena Smith and Sydney Douglas committed to play for Ontario Christian School.
I know 3 other young high major players who ask me for advice that are likely to land at Ontario Christian. Coach Matt Tumambing who is the varsity head coach at Ontario Christian, he’s a great young coach.
Who else is the future? Zaire Cherri Hatter. #7 is the future of the game. She just speaks the same “Truth” language as my guy from Inglewood, Paul Pierce.
Few can speak in that tongue fosho!
