Nets Rookie Day’Ron Sharpe Goes Apartment Shopping.

Day’Ron Sharpe ducked his head underneath the doorway instinctively and scanned his eyes throughout the condominium. Its shape was a straight line running perpendicular to him with two bedrooms and a rest room to his left an additional bed room and lavatory to his suitable and a kitchen area, dwelling place and balcony opening up in vivid light-weight from large windows before him.

In that second, it did not make a difference that this model-new developing in Downtown Brooklyn was continue to coated in dust. It didn’t subject that he’d just taken an elevator that had insulation on the walls and plywood on the flooring. It did not even make a difference that the construction crew had remaining driving a ladder and soda bottles in the living home, or that the fireplace alarm was shrieking a reduced-battery warning each 60 seconds. All that mattered was this: He could picture himself currently being at property in this apartment.

Sharpe had been on his household-hunting journey for only an hour, and currently he was behaving like a lifelong New York City condominium shopper. He disregarded the apartment’s flaws and as a substitute targeted on its characteristics. He smiled and declared: “Oh, yeah, this is the one particular.”

When most people today enter the operate pressure, they get at minimum some say in where they will dwell. But that’s not the situation for elite N.B.A. prospective customers like Sharpe, a 6-foot-11, 265-pound heart from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The Phoenix Suns picked Sharpe with the 29th decide on in July’s N.B.A. draft and traded his rights to the Nets. And his calendar above the upcoming month was as crowded as the city alone. He first flew to New York to full his actual physical and indicator his contract. Then he returned house to North Carolina to pack his bags for Summer months League in Las Vegas. He invested most of August in Nevada in advance of earning an additional pit end in North Carolina on his way back again to New York.

Now it was Aug. 28, and Sharpe, 19, necessary to locate an condominium for the initial time in his adult existence. And he desired to do it just before the Nets began their training camp on Sept. 28.

If all of this felt frustrating, Sharpe did not demonstrate it. He was dressed casually in grey sweatshorts, a black T-shirt and significant-best Jordan 5s. From the back again seat of his chauffeured black Cadillac Escalade, he marveled at Manhattan’s skylines and created mental notes of the eating places men and women had recommended. On the way into the initial apartment — a 1,600-sq. foot, 23rd floor three-bed room with unobstructed sights of Midtown — Sharpe noticed an Enough Hills Creamery shop. “That’s a substantial reward,” he stated. “I’ve heard that ice product is truly fantastic. I just cannot wait around to consider it.”

Sharpe had a number of priorities for his new apartment, and luckily, he experienced the budget for them. The N.B.A. employs a spend scale for initially-round picks, so Sharpe will make all-around $2 million this yr from his Nets wage by itself, and extra than $6 million if he does nothing a lot more than keep on being on the team’s roster for a few seasons. In a city in which almost 50 % of all households spend much more than 30 p.c of their profits on rent, and approximately a quarter invest much more than 50 percent, Sharpe’s wage is a luxurious. Although his money adviser informed him not to stress about his rent, the models he considered price tag no extra than $10,000 a thirty day period, which would sum to about 5 percent of his gross profits.

Other than remaining within just the price range, he wished to be shut the two to the Nets’ practice facility in Sector City and to Barclays Middle in Prospect Heights. He preferred a spot that was pet pleasant simply because he strategies to adopt a doggy. He preferred very good Wi-Fi so that he could play Get in touch with of Duty: Warzone and NBA 2K. And he needed a 3-bed room condominium so his mom and dad, Derrick and Michelle Sharpe, and his cousin, Tre Lassiter, could dwell with him.

“Family is the most important issue to me,” Sharpe said. “I wouldn’t be listed here devoid of them, and I’m happy they will be below with me as I get my start off in the N.B.A.”

Sharpe grew up in Greenville, an eastern North Carolina town with a population a shade below 100,000. He was often a Tar Heel fan, and his childhood desire of enjoying basketball for them started out to come to be a reality when he grew a foot among sixth and eighth quality and entered South Central Significant College at 6-foot-7. In 10th quality, he took his initial excursion to New York, for a basketball match. He gawked at the glowing billboards in Times Square and remembered contemplating: “This location is very seriously crowded.”

As a substantial school junior, he led the Falcons to a 30-1 file and an Class 4A point out championship. He bought his initial come to feel for residing independently as a senior in substantial school, when he transferred to Montverde Academy, Florida’s prep powerhouse. He shared a room — and a bunk mattress — with Caleb Houstan, who now performs for Michigan. Sharpe took the top rated bunk so that his feet could dangle off the foot of the twin mattress. “People assume I want a massive bed,” he explained, “but I’d be delighted if I just experienced a queen at this level.”

Sharpe arrived off the bench during his single time at North Carolina, but he had an outsize affect in his 19.2 minutes for each game. His 18.2 offensive rebounding percentage was No. 1 in the country, for each KenPom.com. When Sharpe declared for the N.B.A. draft, North Carolina Mentor Roy Williams, who retired right after the time, termed him “one of the finest rebounders I have ever coached.” Sharpe’s averages for every 40 minutes of 19.8 factors and 15.8 rebounds pointed to his prospective effects if he had been given more playing time. N.B.A. groups admired his potential to pass out of the publish and his convenience in taking part in in a pick-and-roll offensive style that dominates the league. He figures to suit into the Nets’ rotation — which is skinny on massive adult men — early on this period.

But prior to he finds his place with the Nets, he experienced to locate his put in Brooklyn.

He preferred the 23rd-flooring device, even although the master bed room, he claimed, “was scaled-down than my dorm room.” His realtor, Joshua Lieberman of Douglas Elliman, laughed and advised him that was some thing he may possibly have to stay with. But Sharpe could not abide by their pet coverage. The making supervisor informed him that he could have a pet dog, but it would want to be on the smaller sized aspect. “I want a large doggy,” he said. “I suggest, seriously massive. I’m a massive dude. I can not be out right here with a little Chihuahua.”

Lieberman assured him that the challenges with the second condominium — the one particular with the dust, the litter and the alarm — were being to be predicted in new building. On the furthermore side, he’d be the first man or woman to dwell in the unit, and among the initially renters in the building, which highlighted a roof deck with a doggy playground, two lounges, a small business middle, a two-story gym with a sauna and a steam place, and a mini film theater. Sharpe liked that he and his cousin could have adjoining bedrooms, while his mom and dad experienced the learn on the opposite end of the device. “There’s two of them,” he explained, “and only just one of me. As long as I’ve bought my bed and my game titles, I’m excellent.”

The final listing for the working day was in Brooklyn Heights, nearer to the Nets’ follow facility. The building somehow had even much more facilities, like a dance home and a virtual golf simulator, but the device experienced only two bedrooms and a single bathroom, and Sharpe didn’t want to make his cousin sleep on the couch all year. Not even an envy-inducing perspective of the Statue of Liberty could persuade him.

Just after the remaining listing, he climbed back into the Escalade and requested the driver to take him downtown to get his mother and father some pizza. When the auto stopped, he discovered that he was back again at Ample Hills. Sharpe understood he was only a mile away from the apartment he had dubbed “the one” and he claimed that it was time to get some ice product. Inside of the store, the initial taste he observed was Espresso Toffee Coffee, and he ordered it without having so substantially as wanting at more than a dozen other choices. This was a day for decisiveness.

He took the ice product outside the house into Brooklyn Bridge Park. His realtor pointed to a location where the rapper Nas had done in 2016, and then he confirmed Sharpe ESPN’s South Street Seaport studios across the water. Sharpe took a significant spoonful of ice cream and then leaned on the rail and looked out at the h2o. “Mm-mm!” he mentioned. “I assume I’m likely to like residing listed here.”