COLUMN | It's 'Tyran Time' as Rainier Beach Faces Its Toughest Schedule

Tyran Stokes was setting up for an inbound pass midway through the third quarter of a contest at O'Dea High School on Saturday that was as stress-inducing as Santa's workshop during the holidays.

"You got to start being more selfish, No. 4," a baseline spectator suggested to the country's top college-basketball prospect, now playing for Rainier Beach High School.

Bracing against the entire body weight of his defender, Stokes sneaked a glance at the well-meaning fan and replied, "It's not time yet."

"Tyran Time" would come soon enough, as it has at each stop of Rainier Beach's 2025–26 journey so far. At O'Dea, Stokes would lead a 20-3 Viking rampage, leading to a 78-67 Rainier Beach victory. For an encore, on Tuesday night at the Vikings' house, Stokes came out of halftime burning like a three-alarm fire and sparked a 100-72 razing of Seattle Prep.

Tuesday's third quarter almost defies description. Stokes torched the Panthers for 22 of his season-high 52 points. The splurge included back-to-back 4-point plays (a 3-pointer and a free throw). Both and-1s happened so far out on the court that the Vikings senior nearly plunged into the laps of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and NBA agent Eric Goodwin, who were seated courtside.

The pair of fours proved a double knockout blow — the first drew a fifth, disqualifying foul from Seattle Prep's all-state guard, Niko Christofilis, with almost 12 minutes left to play, and both provided the foundation for Rainier Beach's 30-5 run to start the second half. The Vikings had trailed 41-37 at halftime.

"Crazy," is what Stokes' freshman teammate, J.J. Crawford, called the quarter after producing his own 25-point explosion.

Four games in, what has unfolded as the recipe for success for the unbeaten Vikings is something you might call Tyran Time, the second cousin, twice removed, of Magic Johnson's old adage, "Winning Time."

And its revelation is, well, right on time.

After Friday's clash with archrival Garfield at home, the Vikings hit the road for two tournaments that will define their prospects for a national championship.

At the Les Schwab Invitational in Portland, Rainier Beach, ranked No. 5 in the country by MaxPreps, could face No. 9 Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, California) in the semifinals, and could advance to a championship showdown with No. 4 Columbus (Miami, Florida). The Vikings then will pack up their trophies and head to Mesa, Arizona, for the HoopHall West Invitational. There, they will play a New Year's Day game against traditional national powerhouse Duncanville (Texas) and the next day against Mater Dei (Santa Ana, California), another frequenter of national team rankings.

"It gets real for us next week," as Beach coach Mike Bethea put it.

In other words, it's Tyran Time.

The national, even international, stage is familiar territory for Stokes. He's already had epic showdowns against Sierra Canyon during his tenure with Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks, California) and had been rumored to be en route to Mater Dei before enrolling at Rainier Beach. Stokes also has earned gold medals with USA Basketball at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup, the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup, and the 2023 FIBA U16 Americas Championship.

It's a good thing the new Jamal Crawford Basketball Court at Rainier Beach has a dedicated section for "Colleges and Media." Washington assistant Quincy Pondexter and Kentucky assistant Jason Hart were courtside against Seattle Prep; Kansas assistant Kurtis Townsend was at Rainier Beach last week. It hasn't taken long to see why coaches from such luminary programs are traveling near and far to show love to the nation's most desirable recruit.

At 6-foot-8, Stokes is powerful, explosive, and light on his feet. He has an excellent shooting touch from beyond the 3-point arc, is almost impossible to stop when he decides to attack the rim off the dribble, and puts his strength, quickness, and footwork to good use in the post. His diverse scoring methodology for Beach has run the gamut from nine dunks against Renton to seven 3-pointers against Seattle Prep.

Stokes' 7-foot wingspan, explosiveness, and tenacity has made him a force at the defensive end, particularly as the point on Beach's half-court and full-court traps and as a shot blocker. It's no coincidence that Stokes' offensive outbursts have occurred in tandem with Bethea extending his team's defensive pressure.

As much as Stokes profiles as a scoring goliath, to the tune of 35.3 points a game so far, what has stood out most are his instincts for the game, overall unselfishness, and leadership skills. The Vikings' offense operates mostly through him, either by Stokes bringing the ball up court or his being isolated in the mid-post area. He has averaged 6.5 assists per game, an eye-popping total for such a prolific scorer.

Stokes constantly is counseling his younger teammates on the court and has been a willing, even goading target of "O-ver-rate-ted" chants from student sections. The impact has been lifting the tension of the moment or venue from the other Vikings so they could flourish. Successful basketball cannot be a one-player venture, and Stokes had critical support from Marcus Ili-Meneese and Knowledge Wright against O'Dea.

On Tuesday, Crawford kept the Vikings afloat with 11 points, including three 3-pointers, in the second quarter against Seattle Prep. His final tally included five 3-pointers in all, several off nifty dribble moves, plus a run-out dunk. Crawford said he'd been inexplicably "nervous" all season, but now says, "I feel like I got a monkey off my back."

Also read:

Stokes' giving nature is such that he seems to need to be pushed to an edge before engaging Tyran Time and becoming the unstoppable offensive force that leads and wills Rainier Beach to victory. Bethea is often a provocateur, providing a sometimes subtle, sometimes not-so-subtle message for Stokes to "turn it up."

Judging his team as lackadaisical against Prep, Bethea delivered "one of my classics" during halftime. That included challenging Stokes to better engage. During the Vikings' second-half rally against O'Dea, Bethea sensed his team needed an energy boost, so he got into a shouting, gesturing confrontation with Irish coach Jason Kerr. He knew the antics would resonate with his star.

"I'm feisty, he's feisty," Bethea said of Stokes. "We don't know any other way. He's a big energy guy. He feeds off the crowd, what's happening in the game."

Later, Stokes was otherwise quiet after the storm.

"If there's energy in the room, that's what fuels me," he said. "When I first got here, (Bethea) told me, 'I want you to be a second me on the court.' I took that seriously. Whenever I step on the court, I know my teammates are looking at me to be the leader to succeed. I take that to heart."

With so much about to be on the line, it has been a somewhat uneven start for Rainier Beach. The Vikings are defending a state 3A championship with nine new players, after a scant, two-week training camp, and a valuable contributor in Achilles Reyna sitting out the first 40% games of the season because of his transfer from Eastside Catholic. They are so talented, the Vikings often have to improvise degrees of difficulty, so they can learn how to fight through adversity, self-imposed or not.

But their coach and star player are in lockstep. It's one huge thing the Vikings can count on.

"He's a once-in-a-lifetime type of player," Bethea said of Stokes.

Yes, at least by now, everyone knows what time it is.

Glenn Nelson covered the Sonics and the NBA at The Seattle Times for 17 years. He was a founding executive at Rivals.com, a co-founder at Scout.com, and the founder of ESPN HoopGurlz, a national website about women's and girls' basketball. He has won regional awards for his columns about race for the South Seattle Emerald.