Mims brothers had opponents seeing double and Freedom basketball seeing gold – lehighvalleylive.com

Caleb and Malek Mims have had their eyes on the prize for years.

The twin brothers laid out a set of objectives in middle school and chief among them was bringing a long-awaited trophy into Freedom High Schools case.

I've known them since they were in seventh grade. They were very loyal to the program. When they were in sixth or seventh grade, our program wasn't where it needed to be, Patriots coach Joe Stellato said. They stayed with it. They wanted to bring a championship to Freedom High School. That was their goal. That's what they told me in seventh grade and they followed through on it.

The senior guards capped their stellar and record-setting careers at Freedom by ending a 44-year District 11 championship drought, and for that, Caleb and Malek Mims are the lehighvalleylive Boys Basketball Co-Players of the Year.

They are the fourth and fifth Patriots to win the award, formerly The Express-Times Player of the Year. The last winner from Freedom was Nyreef Jackson in 2013.

The brothers are the second set of twins to share a POTY honor, after Voorhees Anthony and Zack Raposo earned the top boys lacrosse distinction in 2012.

The Mims tandem entered their final high school season spurred by the disappointment of their junior campaign, where Freedom saw its promise go up in smoke during opening-game exits in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and District 11 Class 6A tournaments.

Junior year didn't end the way we wanted it to end, Caleb Mims said. So, we just focused on making sure we were ending it right. Everyone came in focused, and Malek and I took leadership roles. Everybody was locked in, everybody played their role and everybody had one goal in mind, which was to win the championship.

The Patriots seemed ready for a title run throughout most of the winter. Freedom was 15-4 late in January before things started to unravel.

The team lost four straight games, including its EPC quarterfinal contest with rival Liberty.

The key for us, honestly, was how close we were as a team. Every time we lost, we talked about what we should do better to improve, Malek Mims said. When we lost that EPC game, I think it was a blessing in disguise. It gave us a lot of time to rest our bodies and get our minds right for districts.

We stayed poised and didn't let things get too out of control, Caleb said. It was basically about staying level-headed and keeping the right state of mind.

A refusal to panic and some extra rest paid major dividends in the district bracket. Freedom defeated East Stroudsburg South, which served as payback for a 2019 upset in the same tournament, before knocking off Allen, the top seed and conference champion, in the semifinals.

Their success against the Canaries put the Patriots head-to-head with Northampton, another program trying to end a run of district disappointments dating back to the 1970s.

The Patriots defeated the Konkrete Kids and captured their first D-11 crown since 1976. The Mims brothers combined for 17 points in that contest, illustrating an important factor, according to Stellato: a willingness to let their teammates shine down the stretch.

When it became playoff time, they really relied on their teammates. They loved their teammates; they shared the ball like crazy and that's ultimately what won us the championship, Stellato said.

Freedom coach Joe Stellato hugs Caleb Mims as Freedom celebrates winning the District 11 6A title.Tim Wynkoop | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Explosive and skilled

Stellato, who just completed his 20th season in charge at Freedom, knew that the twins were going to make a big impact when he saw them in middle school. The brothers played on the freshman team during their eighth-grade year and got varsity action very early after they arrived at the high school.

The initial emphasis was to get the guards, who are speedy slashers to the basket, to finish consistently at the rim and improve their outside shooting enough to keep defenses honest.

The workers that they are, they did it themselves, Stellato said of their improvement. I'd like to take credit for it, but honestly, those two boys worked out harder and more than any kid I've ever coached in my life. That means a lot, because I've had some kids who really put some time in.

Caleb and Malek always exhibited athleticism, but that doesnt mean they were projects who simply relied on their physical tools.

I've seen a lot of very good athletes who can play basketball, but these kids had the skills early on, Stellato said. I knew they were special, because they not only had the work ethic, they had the skill to go along with it.

Part of that is because the brothers come from a basketball household. Caleb and Malek both credited their family particularly their father Derrick, mother Laura, older sister Nia and older brother Elijah for their development.

Their dad, who coached the East Hills Middle School team to an undefeated season this winter, is a longtime AAU instructor and one of the more recognizable fans in the area because of his front-row intensity. The two seniors were happy that he was there and had their backs, providing more than a few tips throughout games.

When I was younger, I thought it was annoying, Malek said. Now, I cherish it.

Most of the time, I hear him very clearly and I already know what he's going to say, Caleb said.

Setting new standards

Caleb averaged 18.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.5 steals per game this winter. He holds the program record with 138 career 3-pointers.

He can really shoot off the dribble from anywhere comfortably, Malek said about his brother.

Malek registered 16.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 4.1 steals per contest in 2019-20. He set school single-season (112) and career (270) steals records.

We used to be defensive backs. I always just knew how to anticipate when the ball was going to come, said Malek, who thanked trainer Imad Azar for the help he provided the team. Now, I can see when an offensive player is going to cross over and things like that I can just see some things before they happen.

When Freedoms season concluded against Reading in the PIAA second round, Caleb and Malek were No. 2 and 3 on Freedoms all-time scoring list with 1,201 and 1,119 points, respectively.

Caleb was 24 points shy of Luis Ortizs all-time mark, but the district gold was more important than personal milestones for the seniors, according to Stellato.

They were as happy as could be, he said. They couldn't care less about how many points they scored.

Freedom's Malek Mims drives past Reading's Denim Adams during the PIAA 6A second round.Kyle Craig | For lehighvalleylive.com

A duo of role models

Caleb and Malek, who plan to attend a prep school next year, set personal goals. That doesnt mean, however, that they were self-absorbed.

The pair made a connection with Stellatos son, Brody, and often spent time with his fifth-grade Bethlehem Township Bulldogs team.

They formed a really neat relationship with the fifth-grade team. They'd give words of wisdom, coach and celebrate with the kids when they did well, Stellato said. You don't find that too often, where you'll have players like that who take time out of their own schedule on Sundays to root on fifth-graders ... The team looked up to them so much.

When I was growing up, I always liked to have a role model, Caleb said. When you're growing up, you're aiming to be something or be somewhere. It's important to have people to follow.

Stellato hopes the Mims twins will serve as models for all of his players in the pipeline.

They are such great young men and they really changed the atmosphere around my entire program, the coach said. My freshman team got the opportunity to see them play ... I hope they (passed) on to my freshmen the way that they worked and that work ethic.

The two brothers dont have identical personalities. And theyd prefer if people knew which was which, even when theyre not wearing jersey numbers. Thats why Caleb sports a longer hair style It doesnt help much.

That's why I grew my hair out. Then, people still kept calling me Malek. So, I stopped caring, Caleb said. If I have my hair like this and Malek has his hair like that, and people still don't know, there's no point caring now.

In the end, when people see the Mims twins, theyre looking at record-setters, 1,000-point scorers and champions regardless of whether or not they match the names correctly.

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Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @KyleCraigSports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.

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