Los Angeles native and Harvard-Westlake School standout Nik Khamenia has relentlessly climbed the rankings. The future Duke basketball forward has done so with a palpable thirst to challenge any peers who, when faced, have stacked up above him — though many no longer do.

His trajectory suggests he is nowhere near finished ascending the 247Sports 2025 Composite, where he has risen 49 spots since June 2023 to No. 20 overall as of the latest update. Now, this surge alone makes him deserving of a spot among the 24 McDonald’s All American Game selections, with invitations to the prestigious April 1 showcase at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arriving later this month.

But there’s so much more to Nik Khamenia than just his lofty ranking.

More Than Just Numbers: Nik Khamenia’s Unique Gifts

For starters, the kid can juggle. (Just tossing this out there, but such a routine to music could make for a perfect act in Khamenia’s official Countdown to Craziness intro come October.)

No doubt, the juggling has only helped in improving his handles and passing in his primary athletic endeavor. This is just one of countless signs that in whatever activities Khamenia chooses to pursue, he sets out to master.

“We’re so fortunate to be able to coach Nik,” third-year Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer explained to Duke Blue Devils On SI this week, taking a moment out of a busy schedule coaching his No. 3-ranked Blue Devils (15-2, 7-0 ACC) to beam about the opportunity to welcome the 6-foot-8, 215-pound prodigy to Durham this summer.

“And like you said, it’s not just the player. You know, he’s got great talent. But it’s his character, it’s his mental makeup to not want it the easy way. He’s got great maturity and humility to understand what he’s really good at, and he’s got great confidence. But he also knows he’s got a lot of areas he can get better. So, I’ve just loved watching Nik play. And I’ve loved getting to know Nik personally.

“And that really, for me, was such a differentiator with feeling like he’s made to wear a Duke uniform.”

Character and Leadership: The Heart of a Blue Devil

As his father pointed out during the Khamenia family’s Zoom chat with Duke Blue Devils On SI on Monday night, Nik Khamenia’s willpower to nip counterproductive habits in the bud is well beyond his years, requiring no disciplinarian outside the top-shelf prospect himself.

“He’s an all-around basketball player,” Val Khamenia, associate head coach for the Los Angeles Valley College Monarchs, said. “But I think what stands out the most for me as a coach and a father is, you know, he likes to win. And I know a lot of people do say they want to win, but they’re not willing to sacrifice and do winning things — not just on the court, off the court too.

“And he’s that crazy kid who does it for a long, long time.

“One thing people don’t know: I think five years now, he does not drink like Coke or Pepsi, doesn’t eat chocolate. In a good way, he’s crazy that way. So, he’ll sacrifice and do a lot of things to continue to get better and winning. It’s not an accident they’re trying to win their third championship. So, he likes to win.”

Of course, the Harvard-Westlake School Wolverines, defending back-to-back state champions and 19-1 overall this season, have greatly appreciated his innate drive centered on ensuring and enjoying group success. Just ask the beneficiaries of his 13 assists in Tuesday night’s 86-45 road victory over the Bishop Alemany Warriors.

Those double-digit dimes should come as no surprise to Scheyer.

“He’s an elite passer,” the 37-year-old seasoned leader said in describing Khamenia’s impressive repertoire. “I mean, he’s a dynamic passer. He can really see the floor, can play pick-and-roll, and he also can score it. He can shoot from three. He’s got good size, so he can score over you in the paint. And he’s a tenacious competitor.

“So, he rebounds, he guards. He just does a little bit of everything.”

This season, as one of only two seniors in the Harvard-Westlake starting lineup following the graduation of three senior starters from last year’s championship bunch, Khamenia has fully embraced taking the next step as a leader.

“I knew I had to take on a big-brother role and just guide everybody,” Nik Khamenia told Duke Blue Devils On SI, as his squad currently checks in at No. 3 in the MaxPreps national rankings. “A lot of the guys still haven’t played in big-time games, so they look at you as like someone to get them going, someone to help them out. So, I’ve been there for them the whole season.

“To be honest with you, at first, you don’t know how to talk to certain guys early on in the season. I feel like now I have a really good feel for everybody and how they take certain things.”

Again, no surprise to his future head coach.

“I think that’s how he’s wired, and that’s who he is,” Scheyer said. “And for us [at Duke], when you talk about leadership and being a leader, that’s got to be earned. And I know Nik will do that, but his makeup is just that he’s about the team…He has all the attributes of what you would want from a guy that can be in a position to have his voice be heard and to speak up and be vocal.”

Competing, particularly in the hoops arena, just comes naturally to the second of four children in the tough-minded Khamenia family.

“To be honest, ever since I could remember, I was always around basketball,” he explained. “I think my dad being a coach, always going to his practices, just because I was always around it, I just started to pick up on a lot of stuff. And I just started to love it.”

Although Khamenia told Duke Blue Devils On SI that he doesn’t model his game after any particular NBA player, he grew up a San Antonio Spurs fan admiring Kawhi Leonard’s tenacity on both ends of the floor.

“I just like guys that play defense and offense the same way,” he added.

On and Off the Court: Nik Khamenia’s Competitive Edge

Rewinding a bit, Khamenia recalls his “Space Jam” obsession back in preschool spawning his countless hours in the gym in the years to come. And his siblings played a part in building his competitive drive.

“I feel like having two sisters, whenever you’re doing a board game or you’re playing maybe the Wii Sports, whatever, like it’s always a competition,” Khamenia, recently named to the USA roster for the prestigious Nike Hoop Summit on Saturday, April 12, at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., remarked about his childhood. “I feel like that helped me a lot…

“Just always growing up in basketball, I feel like there was never anything that mattered to me more than to win…Yeah, it’s cool to score. It’s cool to make a highlight play. But at the end of the day, no one really cares unless you’re on the team that’s on top.

“I always loved getting the championship trophy. If I ever got a second-place trophy, I would just throw it away — like, it didn’t mean anything to me.”

It didn’t take long for Scheyer, on track to secure his third top-ranked class across his four recruiting cycles at the helm, to notice Khamenia’s winning mentality.

“The two attributes, to me, that stood out the most is his competitiveness and his feel,” Scheyer said. “Like, those two things, for me, just jumped off the page.”

Off the court, it was Khamenia’s beyond-his-years approach to life that caught Scheyer’s eye.

“I just love Nik’s maturity,” he said. “I love Nik’s seriousness. You know, like, he’s a no-nonsense kind of guy. His family is the same way…

“He’s just really down-to-earth. And he’s a guy you can tell you just love to be around all the time.”

A Family Shaped by Basketball and Sacrifice

Speaking of his family, his accomplished parents’ journey together began in the late 1990s as a young married couple moving from their home country of Belarus six months apart to attend separate colleges and play basketball in the United States. They eventually made their way to LA and clearly succeeded to an immeasurable degree in raising Nik and his siblings.

“One, they’ve given him amazing independence,” Scheyer noted. “And by giving him independence to fail, succeed, stand on his own two feet, I think that’s really equipped him to be prepared to make an immediate impact in college.

“And then the second thing is, they’re a blue-collar family…They’re tough, man…They’re humble, great people that want their son to have the opportunity to stand on his own two feet, and that’s why I think he has maturity, is because of his parents and his upbringing. I give them a ton of credit for that.”

The Path to Duke: Choosing Challenge Over Comfort

Examples of Nik Khamenia’s resilience and work ethic are plentiful. And the determination to continue pushing himself to reach new heights equated to his acceptance of the challenge to compete for playing time on what figures to be another loaded Duke basketball roster next season.

“Part of the reason I’m going [to Duke] is to challenge myself,” Nik Khamenia explained. “I don’t think you should pick a college where you’re gonna go there and be comfortable because, ultimately, you want to go to the next level, and you want to teach yourself how to grow by yourself. You can’t always stay home and have your parents to go to when things get rough.

“You have to learn how to do things on your own and really grow.”

While his move to Durham will mark his first time living thousands of miles from home, it won’t be the first time he’s had to prove his worth on a daunting stage.

“Going and playing for Team USA, you go into training camp with like 30 guys,” Khamenia, who also took home gold, not to mention MVP hardware, with the USA 3×3 team at the U18 World Cup in Hungary, recalled about his tryout and eventual head-turning performances over the summer in helping power the squad to a gold medal at the FIBA U18 AmeriCup.

“And you have to fight to make the top 12, let alone I ended up being in the starting five.

“So, the amount of work I had to do in just the two weeks to show the coaches that I’m gonna be that guy that you’re gonna want to count on, that’s competitiveness. But ultimately, I think that’s part of my work ethic, always wanting to be the best one. Obviously, I don’t want people to be in front of me, so I’m always going to chase something.”

That chase sometimes entails proving the experts wrong when matched up against a higher-ranked player.

“When people think other players are better than I am, I take that kind of personally,” Khamenia said. “I think I have a chip on my shoulder in many cases. And in the past couple of years, whenever I do play guys that are so-called ranked in front of me, I usually play better just because I want to beat them just as bad and show people that I am better than them or that I can compete at that level.

“I use it as fuel.”

As for his outlook beyond the spring, Khamenia expressed zero doubts about the trust he’s placing in Jon Scheyer.

“Just going through the recruiting process, he was pretty brief and honest about what he saw in me,” Khamenia said about Scheyer. “Whenever he would come to an AAU game, he wouldn’t just send me a text like, ‘Oh, you did great, see you at the next one.’ It would be like, ‘Oh, you played well,’ and then he’d give me like three or four things he saw that I can do better in the next game.

“And I just think that translates. And having a relationship with a head coach is really important to me. I feel like that’s gonna be the best way I can improve and I can trust. And obviously, he trusts in my game as well. It’s two-sided.”

Looking Ahead: Khamenia’s Future With Duke’s Elite 2025 Class

Meanwhile, the excitement in his voice resonates when looking ahead to the 2025 Duke basketball recruiting collection, featuring three more five-stars in Bellaire High School (Texas) forward Shelton Henderson and the Columbus High School (Fla.) twins in forward Cameron Boozer and guard Cayden Boozer, becoming a force in Durham.

All four future Blue Devils committed within a month of each other, beginning with the Boozers, whose Columbus squad currently ranks one notch above Harvard-Westlake at No. 2 in the country, back in early October. They all put their pledges in ink during the early signing period in November.

“Before I committed, I actually talked to the Boozers — and before they committed, just seeing where their heads were at,” Nik Khamenia recalled. “Harvard-Westlake has faced off against Columbus quite a bit the last three years. So, there have been some good battles, and I respect them as players a ton. But as people, they’re good people as well.”

“And it’s going to be exciting to play with them just because they have such high basketball IQs and they win just as much. They like winning just as much as I do.

“And then Shelton, he was actually my roommate at the USA Training Camp…And he was on the same USA team that I was on. So, I kind of already got to know Shelton. We’re pretty close already. So, it’s gonna be super fun playing with him. He’s hardnosed, and he’s tough.”

Nik Khamenia’s mother, Alena, sure hopes to make the long trip to be in attendance for several of their Duke basketball games.

“We’re gonna try our best,” she said. “We’re gonna try to be there as much as we can.”

A McDonald’s All American in the Making?

The Nik Khamenia show, whether as a reserve or starter in Durham, figures to be a joy to watch. After all, considering how far he’s come from his limited action as a freshman, there’s no telling how much more advanced he’ll be by the time the 2025-26 campaign rolls around.

“I had a really good sophomore year, and then in playoffs, I really played well,” Khamenia recounted about his breakout season. “I feel like that’s when I really knew I could be something special.”

So, will the voters deem him special enough to join the record 92 eventual Blue Devils who have become McDonald’s All Americans?

He’ll have to wait and see.

“Just growing up, you see all the guys that go and play in that game that you want to be a part of,” he said about the coveted distinction.

Well, the systematic voting process to identify McDonald’s All Americans focuses on specific key elements, seemingly tailored to Nik Khamenia’s profil