He's Back: Nick Emery returns from mission, lights Marriott Center on fire

The journey of Nick Emery from Lone Peak High School legend to BYU basketball's "next big thing" to actual collegiate player has been a long one. It has included two separate stints as a missionary in Germany, at least two surgeries to address a potentially serious medical condition, and a whole bunch of hype and breathless speculation.

But after many years and several interim steps, it seems that Emery The Younger's journey to Provo may finally have reached its end.

On Tuesday, Nick Emery posted the following video to his Facebook page:

He's back, everybody. Like, really back.

The video shows Emery going through a shooting workout with a rebounder in the Marriott Center — and most notably, absolutely burning the place to the ground. Seriously. During the course of just over a minute, he drops 10 of 13 threes from the top of the key. And these shots weren't just of the easier, standstill variety from a single spot. Each came at the end of a sprint from halfcourt, with Emery stopping on a dime, receiving a pass from his rebounder and launching yet another laser-guided rocket toward the rim — all in one smooth motion.

And this guy spent the last two years either walking around in a suit and tie in Germany or recovering from relatively major surgery? Yeesh. Imagine what he could do if he actually spent a lot of time practicing basketball things...

This, of course, is exactly what most BYU fans will imagine upon encountering this recording. Just the sight of Emery — who, after all these years of "someday soons" and "just you waits," is almost more of a myth than an actual human being who has yet to play a minute of college basketball — lighting up the Marriott Center (even during a solo practice session) is enough to get any member of the Cougar faithful downright giddy.

There's nothing wrong with that. So much has been promised for so long by so many about Emery and his cohort that it's only natural to get a little excited at the first glimpse (however faint) of those promises potentially beginning to come true sometime in the now not-so-distant future. We're fans (and BYU fans at that) — perennially looking to the future is kind of what we do.

So enjoy this innocent little taste of what is to come while you still can — before Emery and his Lone Peak pals actually have to win big games and bring home championships, before the insane expectations swell even more, before the inevitable intra-fan base civil war where a vocal minority faction will declare themselves underwhelmed by his performance no matter what he actually does. If history has taught us anything, it's that all of these things will happen. They are coming. So we might as well get a little excited about a video of a 20-year-old kid shooting in an empty gym in the meantime.

Nick Emery is back, y'all. Embrace it.