There are moments in sports that belong to the record books — and then there are the moments behind the moment. The ones happening just out of frame. For Latrelle Yancey, those moments are the job.
As the personal content creator for NBA All-Star Bam Adebayo, Yancey wasn’t watching history unfold from the stands on March 10. He was tracking it through a lens — equal parts instinct, preparation, and faith — while quietly reminding himself to be ready when the moment came.
“I looked up after the first quarter and he had 31,” Yancey said. “I’m thinking, ‘Man… this might be a career night.’”
By halftime, Adebayo was climbing into rare air. Somewhere between the third quarter and the swelling buzz inside the arena, word spread. If he kept going, he wouldn’t just be having a great night — he’d be rewriting history. Adebayo was closing in on a mark set by LeBron James.
Yancey heard it secondhand.
“I wasn’t about to say nothing to him,” he said. “I’m superstitious. I didn’t want to mess up his focus.”
So he locked in. “Be ready for the moment,” he told himself. “Make sure your batteries are charged.”
The play unfolded almost exactly how he imagined it — an open lane, a clean look.
“When he broke the record, I was already there,” Yancey said. “I just had to make sure I didn’t miss it.”
And he didn’t.
But Adebayo kept going. What started as a milestone became something electric. The whispers turned into disbelief.
“People started saying, ‘What about Kobe’s 81?’” Yancey said. “I’m like, ‘Hold on… we still got time.’”
When Adebayo stepped to the line and delivered, the arena erupted. His 83 points was the second-highest single-game total in NBA history. A new franchise record. A night that passed Kobe Bryant’s 81 and trailed only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100.
“It looked surreal,” Yancey said. “Like — this really just happened.”
Then instinct took over again. “As much as I wanted to embrace it, I had to make sure I got the shots,” he said. “That’s what I’m there for.”
A St. Louis native, Yancey’s journey didn’t begin with courtside access. It started with an iPhone, a vision, and a daughter who needed a commitment video — a simple request that revealed a gift he didn’t know he had.
“I realized — I can bring what’s in my head to life,” he said.
From there, he built project by project, teaching himself lighting, angles, editing, and storytelling. He spent nights studying the work of creators he admired and mornings trying to recreate the techniques on his own. He eventually created his own aesthetic and made a name for himself as an in-demand visual storyteller. When opportunity came calling, he was ready. A connection and a conversation led him from St. Louis to Miami in early 2023.
“I packed up everything and drove,” he said. “Didn’t even hesitate.”
His place in basketball history came nearly a decade after the hardest year of his life. In 2016, he lost his mother to breast cancer. A month later, he was diagnosed with lymphoma. He went through chemotherapy while working, coaching, and showing up for his children — sometimes receiving treatment between responsibilities, then returning to the gym or classroom.
“It gave me a different perspective,” he said. “You don’t know how much time you got.”
Before the camera, Yancey’s dream lived on the sidelines. A former athlete whose own aspirations didn’t materialize, he poured himself into coaching — determined to help young athletes avoid the uncertainty he once felt. That commitment led him back to Harris-Stowe State University, where finishing his degree removed a barrier to collegiate coaching. His journey eventually shifted to storytelling, but the mission of guiding, uplifting and preparing stayed the same.
“I never believed people when they said they loved what they do,” he said. “Not until I picked up that camera.”
Today, that camera has taken him places he once couldn’t imagine — NBA arenas, global stages, All-Star locker rooms, international travel. And every time he steps into a new space, he carries St. Louis with him — the lessons, the grit, the perspective.
Even now, Yancey admits there are moments when he has to pause and take it all in. The same young man who once wrestled with unmet athletic dreams now finds himself documenting the pinnacle of sports — from the Olympic Games to the NBA All-Star Game to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
“I still have to pinch myself sometimes,” he said. “I’ll be in these rooms, on these stages, and I’m like, ‘How did I get here?’”
In between the big moments are the quieter ones — building trust with some of the game’s biggest stars.
“It’s bigger than just shooting content,” he said. “It’s the relationships.”
Even with access to icons like Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Anthony Edwards, Yancey keeps the focus where it started — with purpose. And with the person at the center of it all.
“It couldn’t have happened to a better person,” he said of Adebayo. “He’s one of the most humble, hardest-working dudes I’ve ever been around.”
That alignment — between subject and storyteller — made all the difference.
And on the night Bam Adebayo made history, Yancey did exactly what he set out to do.
He didn’t miss it.