With the entire NBA buzzing over LeBron James stepping into year 23, it’s easy to miss the kid on the other side of the floor quietly turning into a problem for defenses. Utah’s rising star, Keyonte George, just clinched his season-high score with 34 points, barely 48 hours after he ripped Chicago’s heart out with that cold-blooded, double-overtime dagger: the 0.8-second game-winner that sent the Bulls packing and the Jazz bench into orbit.

But while the highlight reels stay on loop and teammates congratulate him after yet another big night, there’s one person who’s always waiting in the quiet once the cameras shut off: his mom. So let’s take a closer look at the family that helped build one of the Jazz’s brightest sparks.

Who are Keyonte George’s parents?

Keyonte George didn’t grow up in a loud, oversized sports household. It was just him and his mom, Kristen. With his father’s details never really coming to the forefront, Kristen appears to have become the entire support system.

Long before she was chanting her son’s name in the NBA arena, Kristen was grinding in the finance universe, trying to make a living. A Paul Quinn College grad, she carved out a solid career in financial services marketing, spending six years as a mortgage professional at Nationstar Mortgage before stepping into a product manager role at Caliber Home Loans. That mix of discipline, grit, and stability shaped Keyonte’s climb.

In a 2022 sit-down with Prospective Insight, Keyonte George peeled back the curtain on his life, saying, “I’ve got my pops with me. I’m with my mom and it’s just me and my mom. But my pop is alright, I’ve got a little step brother and step sister. They are little and it’s just good to have them around sometimes and hang out with them. Most of the time I’m just at home with my mom, kickin it.”

What nationality are Keyonte George’s parents?

From what we do know, Keyonte George’s roots lie firmly in Lewisville, Texas. Born on November 8, 2003, he’s as homegrown as it gets, climbing the basketball ladder straight out of Lewisville High School and then IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. There isn’t a detailed public breakdown of his ethnicity, but it’s widely understood that he comes from an African-American family. And if you look at Kristen’s social profiles, her location still pins right back to Lewisville. So for now, everything about his background leads to a straightforward conclusion: a Texas-raised American family story.

Keyonte George’s relationship with his parents

If you really want to understand Keyonte George, you start with the relationship that’s been holding his world together since day one, the one between him and his mom, Kristen. He once summed it up perfectly, saying, “I take care of her and she takes care of me. She gets me to the camps and stuff like that so all I gotta do is pay her back for it.” That’s the heartbeat of their story. His very first “bucket list” wish isn’t about cars, chains, or flexing on draft night.

It’s simple: “Get my mom a house.” That tells you exactly where his priorities lie. When he was drafted in 2023, Kristen shared a message that could melt a whole arena, writing, “I’ve watched you give your all in everything you do on and off the court and I couldn’t be more proud.”

Kristen has been with him every step of the way. Back in 2022, she said it best, and every basketball parent felt this in their soul: “You don’t have any ‘me’ time when it comes to being a basketball mom. Mother’s Days are spent in the gym.”

Keyonte also mentioned another fact when asked whether sports run in his family’s DNA. “My granddad, he played football, but he passed away. Everybody in my family are mostly athletes, they’ll play any type of sport. It’s a diversity of everything,” George said.