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Adonis and Darius Ratliff hated losing as kids. They still do, it’s just that the losses come less frequently these days. But as kids, man. The pain of an L hit the heartstrings in a special type of way. After games, they’d stroll over to the sideline and vent to their dad, 16-year NBA veteran and All-Star Theo Ratliff.
Even when they were towering over kids their age, the Ratliff twins knew how much they loved the game because of how much those moments affected them. Working through the losses and growing in spite of them was a lesson learned from day one. And ever since, the brothers from White Plains, NY, have built up their bags and résumés to make sure those feelings surface as rarely as possible.
“I fell in love with the game when work no longer felt like work. It felt like, I’m getting better, this is what I want to do. And I knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Darius says.
From starting out on the freshman team to securing back-to-back-to-back city titles during their time on varsity, Adonis and Darius have channeled their love for the game into becoming two of the most imposing high school players in the nation.
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Both are 7-0 with even longer wingspans. Both are McDonald’s All Americans. Both have committed to USC. Ever since seventh grade, they’ve had former NBA Rookie of the Year Chuck Person as their shooting coach. And for as long as they can remember, they’ve been building up a pro mindset.
“Us wanting to get all the goals we wanted, we would get extra reps, extra shots in the gym, because we wanted to make those goals happen,” Adonis says. “It just comes about [from] getting your work in early. Going to see the trainer before practice an hour early, going to see [them] after, getting extra treatment is probably where the mentality starts.”
As their dad moved from team to team during the latter years of his career, the twins were immersed in the game ever since they could remember. Memories of Lakers games during their dad’s final 2010-11 season come to mind on this particular day inside Archbishop Stepinac High School’s gym in early March. Each summer, they’d head back to his hometown in Alabama for their dad’s annual basketball camp. While they were fixated on the highlights and lives of high school stars like Sharife Cooper, Josh Christopher and Jalen Green—shouts to SLAM 225—they also saw the love their dad received when they went back to Philly after his retirement. “I could see the work that he put in and what he did for the city,” Darius says. Being on top was the dream.
But their freshman season at Stepinac didn’t pan out like most highly-rated recruits. Instead of jumping straight to varsity, the twins spent that first year on the freshman team, stoking the fire inside even more.
“We just wanted to get better and show that we were supposed to be there. And I felt like we did that, we did a decent job doing that,” Adonis says.
Their games not only complement each other but also the natural flow and spacing of the game. Adonis, ranked No. 15 by ESPN in the Class of 2026, is more fluid on the perimeter, dicing and slicing by defenders for extended lays at the rim or uncontestable middies. Darius, ranked No. 29, is more physical in the interior, tenaciously hunting down blocks and swiftly maneuvering around double-teams on the block.
But it wasn’t until Adonis’ and Darius’ senior season when the brothers— known as Twinbanyama—started to truly click in the two-man action. “I think our games started to come together this year,” Darius says. “In the summertime we were both hurt, so all the time we spent together playing one-on-one, doing drills, we just learned each other’s games. And then when we went to Vegas, we showed the world that we could play together and we’re two of the best in the country.”
With each brother equally capable of spreading the floor, ball screens and hand-offs typically end in either a pull-up, lob or pick-and-pop trey. They’ve been extending that range ever since they were tweens, watching Person net 20 shots in a row before they joined him for a workout. The confidence in each launch from the shot pocket is built on that work. Plus, the reps put in at 5 a.m. before school and again after practice at night.
“The vision for me going into the year was just dominate,” Darius says. “I feel like I showed it in Vegas, showed the rest of the country. Now I just had to prove it to myself and win matchups and play on the big stage and be ready to play.”
Since spending the summer honing their powers, they’ve been on a tear, from Adonis netting 9-11 threes in one game during the Border League to Darius averaging more than 2 blocks a game at the City of Palms Classic. Together, the twins helped Archbishop Stepinac bring home its fourth straight CHSAA City Championship, becoming the first team to do so since 1928. At the season’s end, Nike named them both to the inaugural Class Crown All-City teams—Darius first, Adonis second.
Looking back at their body of work in White Plains, the similarities to their dad’s own local imprint are present. Before they take their Stepinac jerseys off for the last time this spring, the twins have goals for the lasting impact they hope to leave in Westchester County and the city as a whole.
“I want to be known as one of the best players to graduate coming out of New York and probably one of the best players in Stepinac history,” Adonis says. “I think I’m up there with a lot of them. They could say that was like old news, but I feel like I could compete with them even when they were at my age.”
“I want to be remembered as someone who went for a four-peat,” Darius says. “Also, somebody that played on the freshman team and could be a guy for those guys that’s also on the freshman team, just to look up to me and see, Oh, he’s all the way up here doing all this now and he came from this level. The level doesn’t really matter; the work really matters more.”
The dozens of college jerseys that line Stepinac’s home gym, just an hour north of New York City, will soon be accompanied by the Ratliffs’ threads, as the twins head off to Southern California this summer to join USC. But before that, the most satisfying win of all remains.
“We’re not the same team that we were earlier in the season. The team that you saw earlier in the season—we’re completely different. A lot more humble,” Adonis says. “We all just want to get to that goal of going to Chipotle and competing for a national chip.”
