Sugar Minott’s Nephew Josh Minott Signs With NBA Team

Jamaican national basketballer Josh Minott, the nephew of the late Reggae singer/producer Sugar Minott, has signed a four-year contract to play with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

According to the NBA, the youngster was Number 45 overall and a second-round pick in the 2022 NBA draft.   The deal is a standard rookie contract worth $6.8 million. At 19, Minott was one of the youngest players in the 2022 draft in June.

Minott, who is 6ft 8 inches tall, recently appeared in all five games (four starts) for Minnesota during the 2022 NBA Summer League, where he averaged 12.2 points and a team-high 8.6 rebounds.

He declared for the 2022 NBA draft in March this year while maintaining his college eligibility, but thereafter decided to stay in the draft and drop his remaining eligibility for college play.

Josh Minott was born in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2002.

In 2019, while playing for the Jamaican national team at the Under-17 Centrobasket Championship in Puerto Rico, had an average of 26 points, nine rebounds, and 4.6 steals per game.

Josh’s uncle, Sugar Minott, died at the University Hospital of the West Indies in July 2010 at the age of 54.

The elder Minott was one of the hottest Reggae acts of the 1980s and was best known for roots anthems such as Tune In, Vanity, Mr DC, No Vacancy and Herbman Hustling as well as Lovers Rock Reggae songs such as Lovers Race and Good Thing Going.

In 1981 Sugar Minott scored a massive hit in the UK with a cover version of Michael Jackson’s Good Thing Going.  That version entered the British national chart in 1981 and remains his biggest commercial success.

In his role as a music producer, he helped to hone the talents of artists such as Tristan Palmer, Little John, Tenor Saw, Junior Reid, Yami Bolo and Garnet Silk via his label, Youthman Promotions, which he started in 1979.  He also co-produced Foreign Mind, Junior Reid’s first big hit.

Sugar Minott, who was born in the Maxfield Avenue area of Kingston, on May 25, 1956, was one of eight children of Austin and Lucille Minott.

Among his inspirations were Dennis Brown and Rocksteady singers John Holt and Alton Ellis.

In his youth, he attended a trade school, where he learned how to install shelves and thereafter worked with friends who built sound systems, which led to the formation of the African Brothers group and the start of his singing  career in the early 1970s.

Sugar later branched off as a solo act at the legendary Studio One with producer Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd, where, along with Freddie McGregor and Willie Williams led a Studio One revival during the late 1970s, using rocksteady beats from the 1960s.   Among his songs for Dodd were Mr DC and Vanity.

Minott worked with many of Jamaica’s other leading producers, including Mikey Dread and Sly & Robbie. His first solo album, Live Loving was released in 1978.  His second, released in 1979, was titled Showcase and comprised of songs such as Vanity, Roof over My Head, Guidance, Try Love and Oh Mr DC.

Another 1979 album, Black Roots, generated two of Minott’s biggest hits, Hard Time Pressure and River Jordan. Hard Time Pressure was a massive success on the UK Reggae charts, and this prompted Minott to relocate to Britain for a time before returning to his homeland in 1983.