But even though he was talented, Smith had psychological issues before even joining the NBA as he suffered from neglect as a child and was moved to an Illinois foster home. Best College Basketball Players Who Never Made It in the NBA She doesnt appear to share anything about her private life with others, though. As the top-ranked recruit in his class, Ward was expected to be the next Chris Webber but he wasnt even the next Juwan Howard or Jalen Rose. Our two best players wound up signing with Florida State and East Tennessee State. At one point he might have placed higher on this list, but he'll never compete with the top 3 who became bigger. She also received the most weekly Player of the Week honours in the Big Ten Conference with five. Best High School Boys Basketball Player in Every State 2022: West By Tony Adame on October 24, 2022 Twitter Stadium Talk's annual preseason list of the best high school boys basketball player in all 50 states is upon us, and we're trying something new and exciting this year by dividing the stories up into regions. Thus he didnt enroll until December 2013 but was then suspended 12 more games after it was revealed that he received improper benefits while in high school. The bleachers at the Sumter Civic Center were full by the time Williamson's team took the floor for pregame warm-ups. Some of these high school phenoms did decide to go to college but they still werent able to relive the glory from their high school days. The San Antonio Spurs drafted him first overall in 1997. For this particular list, we take a look at those basketball phenoms that are termed "Prep-to-Pro," meaning thatno college was deemed necessary for this or that particular player to achieve success in the National Basketball Association. When Butler was with the 2006-07 San Antonio Spurs, a very telling comment by coach Gregg Popovich revealed the player's true nature: "Most of (Butler's) playing time in the initial part of the season is going to be in practice, learning what a work ethic is day in and day out and what it takes to play at this level.". Though Bryant was drafted #13 overall by the Charlotte Hornets, of course, such an obscure franchise was beneath Kobe's destined greatness, so he promptly engineered a curious trade to the Los Angeles Lakers (for Vlade Divac?) Tyler remains the first and only player to not only skip college to turn pro, but he skipped part of high school as well. 9 in the next summer's NBA Draft. Maggette was smooth and fun to watch doing everything on the floor." Some context: less than three months before the Capital Classic, in mid-January 1984, top-ranked North Carolina beat fifth-ranked Maryland at Cole Field House, and the win was capped in the final seconds by one of Michael Jordan's most legendary dunks , a swooping breakaway rock-the-cradle jam, silencing the building except for a collective "oooooooohhhhh.". I was not on the basketball team at Lynn English, my high school, but my friend, Charlie Leslie, was a forward for the team. The NBA has been home to plenty of elite ball handlers, but in all fairness, point guard Marques Hayenes was on another level. And even though phone and computer screens set what seemed to be unreasonable expectations, my own eyes could not believe what they saw. The 35 Best Basketball Documentaries Ever (Watch For Free) Caitlin was born on January 22, 2002, in Des Moines, Iowa, and is currently 19 years old. Here are SN's staff picks: "I will always be indebted to my sophomore year biology teacher for noting my passion for basketball and asking if I'd like to go along with him to see the 1976 Dapper Dan Roundball Classic. Indiana high school basketball: Top performers last week of 2023 On the other hand, she can currently make a respectable living as a college player. In three seasons at Loyola Marymount, 6-foot-7 forward Hank Gathers averaged 28 points and 11.1 rebounds per game and was one of the most dominant forces in college basketball. When Bailey was 14 years old, Indiana coach Bob Knight saw him play and said, Damon Bailey is better than any guard we have right now. It is so appropriate that this entry of Fields as a "Never Was" directly follows our previous "Became Bigger"--Kevin Garnett--because the pair were actually high school teammates at Chicago's Farragut Academy. Cooke did have good times, first at Lane High in Brooklyn and then he moved on to La Salle Academy in Manhattan. Below is our take on the 30 greatest basketball players to never play in the NBA. No, that isn't comedian Carrot Top, that's NBA flame-out Robert Swift, a great high school player that managed to get Garces High School (Bakersfield, CA) ranked in the USA Today top 25 teams during the 2002-03 season. And one more player was drafted but never made it to any teams -- he died at age 20 in his own bed while sleeping. I had no motivation to attend beyond my simple desire to verify the internet sensation with my own eyes. How good could Wilson have been? Those players were: 1. Either way, they never really "made it" as a pro. Samaki Walker, Michael Redd, Gary Trent and Kenny Gregory were must-see players too, but I can't remember a time when I was more excited to see a player for the first time than Weaver. Between 1995 and 2005, these nine future NBA All-Stars (including two future Hall of Famers) decided to skip college and head directly to the league. Best high school basketball player in all 50 states You were drawn to Estaban. Smith is the only prep-to-pro to ever be drafted by the Spurs as he was taken in the first round of the 1999 draft. Young is another entry on this list who was so good he starred at two high schools--and he did it in two different states; both Wichita East High School (a coed public school in Kansas) and Hargrave Military Academy (a private, all-male boarding school in Virginia). He started in the McDonald's game and the Capital Classic, then nearly on a par with the McDonald's game in national prestige. (Feb. 20-25), Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. MarylandVarsity - DC Areas Greatest Basketball Players - Rivals On November 25, 2020, she made her collegiate debut for Iowa, scoring 27 points in a 96-81 victory over Northern Iowa. The center/power forward's other "claim to fame" is being the first player to ever skip college basketball and go directly to the minors, the NBA's Tulsa 66ers, a franchise in the former "NBA D League", now called the NBA G League. Was Manigault the original "G.O.A.T"? Lamborghinis are known for their luxury and class in addition to their performance and speed. How Tall is POP Star I Cant Breath Singer Bebe Rexha? First with the Timberwolves, where he never quite had the supporting cast to go all the way, and then with the Celtics, where he teamed with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to bring the C's their 17th championship. My friend gave me the kind of look one would expect from a person who had just seen a human defy physics. His last known basketball activity was a tryout with the Warriors D-League team in 2016. I beat my defender baseline and went up for a layup, but turned my back to him to avoid the contact before flipping the ball over my shoulder. Bill Bender. Brent and Anne Nizzi-daughter Clark's Caitlin is a Clark. The Top 60 Basketball Players to Come From New York City Player poll:These are the 3 best boys high school basketball teams in Louisville Top artist to listen to: EST Gee From Mary Travers to Jack Harlow, Louisville loves to support its local artists. The first thing that came to mind upon watching him was this: Magic Johnson's head on Michael Jordan's body. Washburn, from Hickory, N.C., was 6-11, 230-plus pounds, ran the floor like a forward, handled like someone eight inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter, shook backboards with his dunks and blocked everything in sight. Here's a Butler that no NBA team wanted serving them. Louisville high school basketball players pick favorite warm-up song In fact, in a summer league game, Lewis dropped 52 points against a bunch of Los Angeles Lakers he was still in high school at the time. Oden was already being called the next Patrick Ewing or the next Tim Duncan when he was just 16 years old. 7 recruit in his class would average all of 3.7 PPG in two seasons with the Gators and declared for the 2015 NBA Draft. The closest the shooting guard ever came to the NBA was playing in the Summer League for the Boston Celtics. At Benjamin Franklin High in New York City, shooting guard Manigault set a record by scoring 57 points in one game in the late 1950s. Oh, heck no. That also is where the aforementioned indelible moment happened. The nights watching tournament games at the State Fairgrounds in Columbus affectionately known as the 'The Barn' were the best. He also set a state record for blocked shots in a game--and he did that in the very first half of his very first game! Believe me, I tried. Cell phones throughout that crowd were set in video mode and trained on Williamson before he even finished his stretches. For us, we remember when we saw these players for the first time. Her date of birth is not known. I already knew I wanted to be a sportswriter; seeing all those great players on one night made me realize I wanted to write about basketball more than any other sport. These guys seemed destined for greatness, but they peaked in high school 15 Basketball High School Phenoms Who Never Made It In The NBA. Born in the Dominican Republic, Lopezs family moved to New York when he was 14 and he enrolled at Rice High School in Manhattan. Avon defeats Danville 61-49 on Friday, February 24, 2023. Who is IHSAA boys basketball player of the week? Know All About His Life! Now, everbody knows Amar'e Stoudemire." 10. During his four seasons at Maryland, Len Bias averaged 16.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, was a two-time ACC Player of the Year, and earned All-American honors in 198485 and 198586. With five players ranked in the 2023 ESPN 100 and four more ranked in the 2024 ESPN . A 2008 documentary that follows the lives of 8 of the best high school basketball prospects at the time leading up the 1st annual Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic at Rucker Park. But Telfair wouldnt prove to be the Blazers point guard of the future and was nothing more than a journeyman backup during his 10 NBA seasons. The man who was once dubbed The Spanish Michael Jordan reached his peak at just the age of 14. You cant find her Wikipedia article on the internet. Such was the case when my Tampa Raptors, a rag-tag, best of the rest team, consisting of a band of players not good enough to be scooped up by Nike or adidas' summer outfits. RANKING THE BEST HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PLAYERS IN THE WORLD - YouTube 11 overall by the Detroit Shock in the 2007 WNBA Draft, Ivory Latta was a huge star at York High School. Malone didn't need college; his last two years in high school, his team didn't lose a single game, taking back-to-back state titles in Virginia. Texas (575 Athletes) California (399 Athletes) Florida (389 Athletes) Illinois (308 Athletes) New York (299 Athletes) Georgia (294 Athletes) We all know what happened when Oden went pro as he was drafted by the Blazers first overall in 2007. Cooke's story is proof positive there is a very thin line between achieving athletic greatness and being mired in obscurity. Either way, while these talented basketball players never made it to the National Basketball Association, they certainly had the game required to do so. Unfortunately, Gathers also had an abnormal heartbeat and it proved to be something even he couldnt overcome. He played for eight different teams and was traded six different times including in the deal that sent Kevin Garnett to Boston. USA Today has named its top high school player since the 1982-83 season. Unfortunately, like many of the other NYC playground talents, Manigaults life was destroyed by drugs. He was later recruited by Chicago's DePaul University, but was ruled academically ineligible. He was a lottery pick by the Supersonics but spent most of his first two years on the bench. There's no big tragic story behind Williams' failures; he appears to have not been good enough, at least for any teams to believe in him to sign him and actually play him. Swift has swiftly faded into obscurity, fodder for lists such as this. Since then hes spent his time in the coaching ranks in both Indiana high schools and for the Butler womens basketball team. Bryant, the son of former NBA player Joe Bryant, was regarded as the top high school player in the entire nation in 1996 when coming out of Lower Merion High School in the Philadelphia suburb of Ardmore. He was so skilled that the Lakers even selected him in the NBAs 1971 hardship draft. Mayo AKA Grocery List was the consensus top player of the Class of 2007 and ahead of such players as Kevin Love, Blake Griffin and James Harden. Jerry West is one of the most accomplished players in NBA history. Sometimes, it's a maturity issue, other times, players' skills are simply too raw and it's clear they could have used some more time in college or in a developmental league rounding out their game. High school boys basketball: Panguitch and PIute set for 1A boys Those Spurs went on to win the 2007 NBA title, defeating LeBron in his first Finals appearance. For 15 year old Ryan Chian, love of basketball won't fade away. We will revisit some of these players as we look at 15 high school phenoms who never made it in the NBA. Layups, jumpers, dunks; they were off his fingertips like electrostatic sparks. Kevin Love 6. These are the best high school basketball players in the country, state by state, and they represent the future of the game. Caitlin has 214 assists, which is the most by a newbie in programme history. Professional journalist for 25 years, contributing writer with High Times magazine and High Times.com since 1993. Only twice has a player won the award two times: LeBron James and Greg Oden. Watch James make one routine trip down the court and the whole package hits you at once: the size, the skills, the awareness, the competitiveness. MORE: Jalen Brunson is SN Player of Year. 8. Lance . In contrast, the most well-known NBA contracts, according to Go Banking Rates, are worth more than $40 million for an 82-game regular season, or $487,800 per game. Shes a stunning basketball player with a well-built body. Some of them are legends of the playgrounds; others are individuals whose lives werecut way too short. That's where I saw him, Wearing straight-back cornrows, he was laced in a Tracy McGrady Nike Swingman jersey with a oversized grey tee beneath it, a gleamy gold chain with a matching medallion, shin-length jean shorts (Hey, that was the wave back then), and a pearly white pair of mid-top Air Force 1s. Telfair is 32 years old and last played in the NBA in 2014; however, his 40-year-old cousin, Stephon Marbury, has a better shot at rejoining the NBA than Bassy does. Caitlin has played basketball since she was very little. Hes looking at a future of second-rate foreign leagues and G-League appearances. At O'Dea, Wrenn averaged astronomical per-game-numbers for an entire season; 22 points, over eight boards and seven assists. Young's ego couldn't abide going to college, and while he did get selected by the Detroit Pistons with the 40th overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft, his injury prone and bench-riding career soon went nowhere. It's baffling to think that at one point, Sebastian Telfair shared a Sports Illustrated cover spot with LeBron James and the two were hyped as the two players set to take over the NBA. Fans of 1A boys basketball may feel a sense of dj vu as last year's top contenders, region rivals Panguitch and PIute, are set to face off again. We also made sure that any aspect about her is included in this post. But with Korleone, it was a total surprise. Young would be a second round pick of the Pistons in 1998 but played a total of 15 minutes in the lockout-shortened season before being cut. For the last three seasons hes played for three different teams in the Chinese Basketball Association. Bill Bender is a national college football writer for The Sporting News. Consensus college player of the year Michael Jordan doing it was one thing. He went for 24 points, six rebounds and three steals in a 69-39 win over Wood Memorial. Sara Jane Harris. He would eventually move on to play in the CBA before retiring in 2003. All eight players went on to play in the NBA. Best High School to NBA Players | Stadium Talk Unfortunately, while Los Angeles offered Hammond $50,000 to sign as a rookie, there was just one problem: Hammond was making more money than that on the street, dealing drugs and shooting dice. Some players are just a flash in the pan. IF POLL DOES NOT APPEAR, click here to vote. 3. A Lamborghini is a Lamborghini, and Williamson is a Murcilago with a 6.2 L V12 engine. 15 Basketball High School Phenoms Who Never Made It In - TheSportster It could be Williams' lack of desire or competitive fire, or maybe he didn't get a chance, sometimes it's as simple as that. Wrenn was the 1998 Washington (state) high school player of the year playing for O'Dea High, a Catholic all-boys school in Seattle's famed "First Hill" district. Nick Birdsong. Ward didnt even become a starter until his senior season and by then the luster off his Naismith award had worn away. Go figure: The best high school player performance I saw was on campus when I was a college student attending a game at Evanston's Welsh-Ryan Arena, in Chicago's second-ever City/Suburban Showdown. Bassy remains the only pure point guard to be drafted straight out of high school and the movie He Got Game was loosely based on Telfair among other players. 10 Best Basketball Players to Never Play in the NBA Dr. A's weekly risers and fallers: Jeremy Sochan, Christian Wood make the list, NBA Power Rankings: Kevin Durant's return could rock the West. But before we get to that, here are a couple more losers: Here's a perfect example of a young hoopster who should have attended the college he committed to; in Ndudi Ebi's case, it was the University of Arizona, a strong basketball program. The 6'4" wing guard was equally good off the court where he maintained over a 3.0 GPA and is also an accomplished piano player. 1 entry. In 1984, as a senior, he was the Parade Magazine co-player of the year with none other than Danny Manning. "He was a star guard for Salem High, someone we all saw regularly at the Salem YMCA. Unique lists featuring pop culture, entertainment and crazy facts. Like Antoine Walker and Juwan Howard before him, Smith was thought to be the next All-Star big man to come from Chicago. Who's The Greatest High School Basketball Player Ever? She also won awards including Iowa Miss Basketball, Gatorade State Player of the Year, and the McDonalds All-American title. MORE: Have you seen the legend of Mac McClung? We held the lead deep into the second half before he decided he'd had enough. Fat chance. By Posted google sheets script get row number In los angeles skateboard deck Selby would start just 11 games at Kansas and the team seemed to perform better when he didnt play. Unfortunately, once Wagner reached the NBA his body started to fail him as he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and ended up having to remove half his colon. Chet Holmgren named top high school player in the country - Yahoo Sports Weve watched our fair share of ESPNs 30 for 30 documentaries, yet few affect us as much as, BENJI, the story of Ben Wilson, Chicagos pride and joy and the best high school basketball player in the country. Pee Wee Kirkland, another legend of Rucker Park, made a name for himself in two highly distinct ways: as a drug kingpin and superstar basketball player. But in the final seconds, with his U.S. team's win in hand, Washburn got the ball in the open court, on the same side of the floor as Jordan had. It certainly seemed at the time as if only Jordan himself could even have matched that any time in our lifetimes. As a sophomore in 201718, Caitlin averaged 27.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.3 steals, leading her squad to a 204 record and the state quarterfinals. However, he can thank Calipari for not giving him the option of returning to Memphis as Wagner made over $8 million in the NBA and he wouldnt have made a dime had he gotten sick while in college. Sean Marbaugh, Cathedral: The student manager got a chance to suit up on senior night and made the most of it by scoring a basket in the fourth quarter of a 67-55 win over Zionsville. Chris Washburn's one moment makes him my choice." He attacked the rim like it had stole something from him. Players who made the most successful jumps from high school to the NBA, The paths of KD and Kyrie: How one month changed three franchises and two superstar legacies, Morant to miss two games after video with gun, Grizzlies' Clarke tore Achilles, out for season, 'Not going out this way': Nets, down 28, stun C's, Kerr touts 5-0 homestand: Dubs 'turned a corner', KD: Mavs tilt, Kyrie meeting 'just another game', Sources: Dragic joining Bucks for rest of season, Nets filling out big-man depth with Noel signing, Isaac has surgery on adductor, done for season. Swift then transferred to the dully named Highland High School where he had to win a court battle to be eligible to play. Top 50 ever! Colorado High School Hoops | BAC Magazine Fields subsequently went undrafted by the NBA in the late 1990s, never achieving the greatness of his teammate KG. Shooting guard Fields became the first sophomore high schooler to play in the "Best of the Best" all-star game with the likes of Garnett and future NBA superstar Allen Iverson, and he justified the selection by becoming the number three all-time leading scorer in Chicago public league history. In the documentary, Hooked: The Legend of Demetrius Hook Mitchell, former NBA superstar and current Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd said the following: Hook could jump over a building. His problems off the court were worse than his problems on it as in 2014 he pleaded guilty to battery for punching his ex-girlfriend. Aside from throwing down monster dunks, he was also known for blocking the shots of opponents much bigger than him. It wasn't the best decision for each one, but for a select group of superstars, skipping college paid off. Despite his stock at an all-time low, he declared for the draft and was taken in the second round by the Grizzlies. But I had seen what I needed to see: the most impressive display of human athleticism Ive ever witnessed in any athletic competition or showing. Hell, he wasnt even the next Ray Jackson or Jimmy King. McCain grew up in Sacramento and spent a majority of his life in the . "Growing up in Charlotte in the mid-90s, it was impossible to ignore the hype surrounding a local basketball star named Antawn Jamison. "Normally, when a kid is thinking about something like this, you'll hear about it, said Youngs high school coach. Telfair was arguably the most famous basketball player in the New York City area in the early 2000s. Follow Nonstop Sports Instagram - https://instagram.com/nons. Other stories are more positive; some international players elected to ball out and stack paper in their home country instead of making the leap to the States.