The Imani Christian boys basketball team won WPIAL and state Class 1A championships last season and was a favorite to win both again because of the Saints’ returning talent.
But one of those top returning players has transferred to a prep school in Connecticut, and another player who is ranked among the best juniors in the country might also be leaving Imani.
Dame Givner, a junior guard who averaged 15 points per game last season, has transferred to Putnam Science Academy, a private boarding school in Putnam, Conn. Putnam has won two consecutive national prep championships and four in the past six years.
This will be Givner’s third school in three years. He played for Obama in the City League as a freshman and then transferred to Imani for last season. He has a scholarship offer from Fordham and was a Post-Gazette all-WPIAL Class 1A selection last season.
Cliff Simon, Imani Christian’s athletic director, confirmed Givner’s transfer to Putnam. Meanwhile, Imani might also be losing 6-foot-11 junior Alier Maluk. There have been rumors in basketball circles all summer that Maluk might leave, and Simon said Wednesday afternoon that it looks like Maluk might be going elsewhere. Simon said Imani Christian started classes Tuesday and Maluk hasn’t been in school the past two days. Simon said Maluk’s situation should be known in the next few days.
Maluk averaged 15 points per game this past season and he is one of the most highly rated players in the WPIAL in the past two decades. Rivals.com ranks him a four-star prospect and the No. 21 junior in the country. He has scholarship offers from Pitt, Penn State, Auburn and Texas A&M, among others.
Givner’s transfer and Maluk’s possible departure are examples of upheaval in Imani Christian’s program recently. Earlier this summer, Omar Foster was removed as coach and the job was given to assistant Khayree Wilson.
Foster was upset at his ouster.
“This has to be unprecedented,” Foster said earlier this month. “You win a state title and then this? Even besides the winning, everything I’ve done for that program. I’ve just tried to help kids, and there was no wrongdoing on my part.”
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published: August 22, 2023, 8:12 p.m.
