He was a lottery pick by the Supersonics but spent most of his first two years on the bench. However, there is another group of players who were better served in going to college than skipping it. Caitlin Clark is a college basketball player who has been involved in the sport throughout her entire life. Dylan Moles, Greenfield-Central: The 6-3 senior and Marian recruit went for 29 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals on 9-for-13 shooting from the field and 9-for-9 from the free-throw line in a 69-53 win over Plainfield in the final regular-season game. Jordan really didn't top that one until the 1988 NBA dunk contest maybe. 6. Dwight Howard's decision to forego college was influenced by KG, who went from high school stardom in Chicago at Farragut Career Academy directly to stardom in the pros. Oden lived up to his billing in college, leading the Ohio State Buckeyes to the National Championship game. Untimely deaths have turned a few hoop dreams into nightmares. Caitlin Clark is an accomplished basketball player born and raised in Iowa, USA. Everyone remembers the Fab Five of Michigan but did you know there was a Fab Five II? 9. The WCAC was the best high school league in the country, as at least 3 teams were nationally ranked. For 15 year old Ryan Chian, love of basketball won't fade away. The No. 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. When he was just 14 years old, legendary Indiana coach Bobby Knight declared that Bailey was better than any point guard his college team had. A summer league stint with the Boston Celtics is the closest Cooke would ever get to the NBA and a pair of torn Achilles tendons ended his career by the age of 25. 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. During a summer camp Cooke, the then No. "You know every move each other is going to make . Get your votes in by noon Friday for our high school boys basketball player of the week for Feb. 20-25: Cast your vote in the poll at the bottom of the article or click here to vote. Due to complicated eligibility issues, Cooke opted to listen to agents instead of going to college, but every team passed on him in the 2002 draft. Fields subsequently went undrafted by the NBA in the late 1990s, never achieving the greatness of his teammate KG. It didn't disappoint. As I was sitting on the baseline under the very basket he threw it down on, covering the game for the Black Explosion student paper, I was one of the few who refrained from oooh-ing, but not because the dunk hadn't earned it. She also finished the season with the fourth-highest points per game average in Iowa history. He waspronounced dead later that evening at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital. He probably scored 30-plus points, and I'm not sure I ever saw him put the ball on the floor. But it became clear very soon that Bailey had peaked in high school. A Lamborghini is a Lamborghini, and Williamson is a Murcilago with a 6.2 L V12 engine. Swift would play a total of 97 games in the NBA and experience more problems off the court. In fact, Oden was ranked as USA Today's top high school player since the 1982-83 season, which means he was ranked higher than the likes of Kevin Garnett and LeBron James. There weren't. He scored 2,124 points in high school and led his team to 50 straight wins. 11 overall by the Detroit Shock in the 2007 WNBA Draft, Ivory Latta was a huge star at York High School. The Mavs were probably a bad fit for Smith, as they were coached by Don Nelson, an old-school type who was particularly hard on rookies. 2 overall pick in the 1986 draft and that was as close to the NBA as Bias would ever get. Layups, jumpers, dunks; they were off his fingertips like electrostatic sparks. 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. Complex Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1 player in the nation and skipped college altogether, going No. Offensively, there is nobody like him.. For the last three seasons hes played for three different teams in the Chinese Basketball Association. After bouncing around myriad high schools in two states, he enrolled at a private school in Orlando for his senior season. But the team played with just five eligible varsity players after a fight during a game last . The Tigers coach, John Calipari, then revoked Wagners scholarship after the season to force him to go to the NBA so Coach Cal was pulling the one-and-done long before he got to Lexington. 1 forward in the Class of 2012 while attending Findlay Prep in Nevada. For those of us who did attend a university, we know the unmatched experience and knowledge that going to college provides a young person's mind, and life in general. The Philadelphia 76ers selected Raymond Lewis with the No. He also attracted the biggest of stars as LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony attended some of his high school games. There are other players like J.R. Smith, Kendrick Perkins and Monta Ellis who also went the prep-to-pro route and churned out serviceable NBA careers. She was leading in the nation in assists (214), points (799), points per game (26.6), made field goals (266), and made 3-pointers (116), and second in assists per game (7.1) and 3-pointers per game (3.87). Luke McBride, Norwell: The senior became Norwells all-time leading scorer with 24 points and eight rebounds in a 48-46 win over Homestead. The No. Inside His Life! He decided to stay local and went to UNLV where he was good but played against inferior competition in the Mountain West Conference. 1 overall pick and an NBA champion) He last played, professionally, in 2005 and was arrested in 2009 for failing to appear in court for a child support hearing. Fans would always wonder, what if? 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. At O'Dea, Wrenn averaged astronomical per-game-numbers for an entire season; 22 points, over eight boards and seven assists. 4 in MaxPreps Top 25 rankings. 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. Hes been arrested multiple times and has been charged with reckless driving, unlawful possession of a shotgun, and an armed home invasion. 18 pick in the 1973 draft, yet on account of a contract dispute, Lewis never played a single game in the NBA. Ebi was well regarded after leading Westbury Christian Academy to three Texas state titles, but then the forward made the crucial mistake of thinking he was better than he actually was, and skipped college. During her junior season, she averaged 32.5 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 2.2 steals per game as she guided Dowling Catholic High School to a 17-8 record and a spot in the Iowa Class 5A playoffs. Caitlin might have a future plan to reveal it, and if she does, regular readers will be aware of it. I was not on the basketball team at Lynn English, my high school, but my friend, Charlie Leslie, was a forward for the team. In alphabetical order, here are 10 Super 5 candidates to watch. Malone was a three-time NBA MVP (1979, 1982 and '83), and in 1981 took alackluster Houston Rockets team all the way to the NBA Finals, before Larry Bird and Kevin McHale won their first title with the Boston Celtics. They will all be in the Hall of Fame one day and are considered some of the greatest players in NBA history. The 'Punks'section of Slam Magazine and maybe ESPN's 'SSA'were the primary ways we caught wind of big-time hoopers elsewhere. The NBA has been home to plenty of elite ball handlers, but in all fairness, point guard Marques Hayenes was on another level. With that in mind, heres a look at the nine best players who fit this description. That also is where the aforementioned indelible moment happened. 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. How good could Wilson have been? He was a two-time All-Star in the Israeli League and at the age of 26 he could still get one more opportunity in the NBA. Buta lack of inner motivation proved to be a distraction, and the closest Ryan ever came to the NBA was a tryout he had with the then-New Jersey Nets in 1990. They arent All-Star caliber players but they still made tens of millions of dollars and proved right in their decisions to skip college. Initially, he committed to Louisville after a stellar run at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, but extenuating circumstances prompted him to change his mind and declare for the 2004 draft. Press Esc to cancel. USA Today has named its top high school player since the 1982-83 season. Caitlin won the Big Ten Freshman of the Week award 13 times, a conference record. Dating back to the 1960s, and with a decade-long heyday beginning in 1995, some of the NBA's greatest talents made the leap right to the pros. 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. At 26.6 points per game, Caitlin set the Iowa freshman record and led NCAA Division I scoring in 202021. Clark started playing basketball at age five. 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. Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649. Unique lists featuring pop culture, entertainment and crazy facts. The closest he would get to the NBA would be an invitation to the Raptors training camp in 2002 and Ward would play everywhere from the Philippines to Japan to Lebanon during his 13-year pro career. Ethan Roseman, Bishop Chatard: The freshman guard had 18 points, five assists, four rebounds and a steal as Chatard rolled to a 67-38 win over Tech. How Tall is Popular Singer and Star Actor Nick Lachey? From there, it soon became clear that not all was right with Smith and he clearly wasn't ready for the rigours and responsibilities of being a professional athlete. 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. He attempted suicide while with the Mavs after he swallowed 250 aspirin tablets and he told police I am an Indian fighting Columbus! Dallas would cut him and he wouldnt make his NBA debut until 2001 with the Hawks. Caitlin has 214 assists, which is the most by a newbie in programme history. Daniel Tippit, New Palestine: The senior hit a 30-footer in New Palestines 61-31 win over Greenwood on senior night as the Dragons finished off a 21-2 regular season. Eventually, Wrenn ran into legal troubles, thus ending his bid at the pros. These guys peaked in high school as they were great players who just werent able to translate their skills to the pros. Only twice has a player won the award two times: LeBron James and Greg Oden. And in the early 1990s, I began to cover recruiting camps like the ABCD and then the elite tournaments like the Big Time and Peach Jam. Williams wound up being a "Summer League" player, when real ballers want to hoop in the winter and spring. I was in the hunt for the starting point guard slot, a battle I'd eventually lose a couple games into the state AAU tournament at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Orlando. 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.". J.J. Redick was one of the best players in Duke basketball history, and he was one of the kings of the college basketball world at the time. But then Jackie decided he was too good to go to the University of Tennessee and declared for the NBA Draft. The National Basketball Association is known for its history ofphenomenal players. Oden was already being called the next Patrick Ewing or the next Tim Duncan when he was just 16 years old. But it was never meant to be in the NBA for Cisse, despite being drafted #46 overall in the 2001 by the Denver Nuggets, as hecouldn't stay healthy and bounced around, getting released by one NBA team after another until heading overseas. The rest is a cautionary tale seen here in this Homage documentary , but for the sake of a modern comparison it felt like watching Derrick Rose and Vince Carter at the same time. After the 2005 draft, the NBA's collective bargaining agreement ended the prep-to-pro pipeline. Oden lived up to his billing in college, leading the Ohio State Buckeyes to the National Championship game. Like Antoine Walker and Juwan Howard before him, Smith was thought to be the next All-Star big man to come from Chicago. O.J. Montverde Academy . Mayo became the first player in 10 years to be banned by the NBA. Those in the Columbus area who remember watching Weaver play in the '90s will tell you 100 variations of thissame legend. She was the most sought-after student at her high school and rose to fame as a result of her performances in high school athletics. He wound up whacking me in the head and I saw three goals as I stood at the free-throw line. Which is a shame because the guy was insanely talented. For head coach Kristin Meyer of West Des Moines Dowling High School, Caitlin started all four years. Telfair also had various run-ins with the law including multiple arrests for possession of weapons. Hes looking at a future of second-rate foreign leagues and G-League appearances. For those who think Julius "Dr. J" Erving is all that, keep in mind that Erving never won an NBA title until the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers acquired the late great Moses Malone to replace the lesser great but also late Darryl "Chocolate Thunder" Dawkins at center. These are the best high school basketball players in the country, state by state, and they represent the future of the game. Jerod Ward was supposed to be the centerpiece of this second wave of Michigan freshmen after winning the Naismith Prep Player of the Year award in Mississippi in 1994. Top 6 High School Basketball Players in California History Guard - Jason Kidd, St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda), 1989-92 Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee Jason Kidd, St. Joseph Notre Dame A four year starter, a two-time state Player of the Year and the National Player of the Year as a senior, Kidd was the most canonized prep in state history. There was no Ball is Life, Overtime or Mars Reel. Howard practically fulfilled the selection by taking the 2008-09 Magic all the way to the NBA Finals. Maggette, a Fenwick (Oak Park, Ill.) star on his way to Duke and the NBA, dominated Deerfield with 27 points, 15 rebounds and three steals. He now plays for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the G-League and averaged 5.9 PPG in 2016-17. 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. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive. Hell, he wasnt even the next Ray Jackson or Jimmy King. Kevin Love 6. I have no idea how many points Williamson scored that day, but I do remember being disappointed when the game turned into a blowout. Her date of birth is not known. A legend of Rucker Park, Hammond destroyed opponents with his thunderous jams and smooth shot.