Life & Work with Isaiah Bowens

Today we’d like to introduce you to Isaiah Bowens. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Isaiah “NBA Zay” Bowens is a rising youth basketball star in the Phoenix Metro area. He is an exceptional young man and scholar student. His “top four priorities,” which have been reinforced by his dad since age six are 1. God 2. Family 3. School and 4. Basketball. Isaiah is an easy-going child off of the court but on the court a completely different beast of a personality.

When it comes to his dedication and commitment to the game, he is simply laser-focused. He is self-motivated to succeed. Isaiah has worked exceptionally hard to excel, even though the challenge of growing up in a single-parent household, being raised solely by his dad for most of his life. Isaiah’s mother struggled with many personal challenges throughout most of her adult life, which ultimately resulted in her moving across the country to Massachusetts and severing the traditional relationship between a mom and a child.

Isaiah’s love story with basketball starts around the age of four when he started to display signs of natural athletic ability. Even as a small child, Isaiah simply could not be pulled away from a basketball court. For hours on end Isaiah would play on basketball courts near his home, and then come home only to play with the toy hoops that his dad, Darren “Pahpoe” Bowens gifted him. Eventually, Darren enrolled him into a youth basketball league and the rest was history.

On the court, Isaiah was determined to outwork everybody. He seemly took the game more seriously than many of the other kids around him. For him, it wasn’t a game. It was a dream. One that despite the odds of failing at, he was determined to succeed. One day, when Isaiah was about six years old, Darren showed his son some statistics that revealed that only about 1 out of 10,000 people who attempted to go pro would actually have the opportunity to do so.

Isaiah left his dad speechless when he responded by telling him “I am the one.” From that day forward, Darren understood that his son had an insatiable desire to not only be good, but to be great, and he dedicated his life to helping Isaiah chase his dream.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
1. Growing up without a mom in the household. 2. Having the challenge of helping to raise his baby sister Sophia “Silky Sophie” Bowens (Who looks up to him and is following in his footsteps as a basketball player herself). 3. Having to relocate from Virginia to Oklahoma to Arizona.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Isaiah is most proud that he is not just an athlete, but a scholar first. His most recent report card was all A’s and two B’s.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
1. Working hard even when you don’t feel like it. Pushing yourself to be more than good, but to be great. 2. Learning how to lose without losing your passion for the game. When you learn how to lose without giving up, then you start to learn how to win. You begin to understand better why it feels so good to win.

3. Understanding that not everybody has the same dream as you and that everyone does not want it as much as you do. Because f that, you have to do things differently than other people sometimes. You have to make different choices. Sometimes when everyone goes left, you have to go right. That’s what it takes to succeed.

There are times when I can’t do the relaxing things that other kids get a chance to do because I spend most of my life sacrificing blood sweat and tears on the basketball court.

Contact Info:

• Website: PahpoesProductions.com
• Instagram: @ziggyzay11
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dp95Yv-Nzc&t=20s