Gary Dajuan Trent Jr. was born in Columbus, Ohio, on January 18, 1999, into a basketball family that had already lived the entire arc of the American hoops dream. His father, Gary Trent Sr., grew up in grinding poverty in Columbus — his mother dropping him off for his first job at 3:17 a.m. by the clock on her Cadillac. The elder Trent fought his way to Ohio University, where he earned the nickname “The Shaq of the MAC,” was named conference Player of the Year three times, and was drafted 11th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1995. He played nine NBA seasons, averaging 8.6 points and 4.5 rebounds, with stops in Milwaukee, Dallas, Indiana, Toronto, and Minnesota. His mother Roxanne Holt and his stepmother Natalia both shaped his upbringing. His aunt, Tia Trent, was a two-time All-American sprinter at Indiana.
Gary Jr. grew up in NBA locker rooms. He was around Kevin Garnett as a child. His father began training him at age five, asking the boy if he was serious about basketball. When Gary said yes, the regimen started. At age six, he dribbled a basketball for a mile around a track while doing push-ups and sit-ups at each corner. At seven, he was scoring 30 points per game in youth league. By the time he reached high school, he was waking his father at 1 a.m. to go shoot in the gym — after already completing two or three workouts that day. The Trents’ social media was full of posts from 3 a.m. gym sessions.
At Apple Valley High School in Minnesota, Trent Jr. paired with Tre Jones — the younger brother of Tyus Jones, who had just led Duke to the 2015 national championship. Together, Trent and Tre Jones led Apple Valley to the Minnesota Class 4A state championship in 2015. By his junior year, Trent was averaging 26.4 points and 5.8 rebounds and was named Minnesota Player of the Year.
He transferred to Prolific Prep in Napa, California, for his senior year, where he averaged 31.8 points and 6.4 rebounds while shooting 39.3% from three. He was ranked #8 nationally by ESPN and the #1 shooting guard in the 2017 class. He committed to Duke on November 10, 2016, choosing the Blue Devils over Kentucky, UCLA, and Michigan State. His father called it “the greatest decision of his life so far.”