For those of you who've seen NBA players play in HS, how good are they?

[Nasty_Nate]

Shawn Marion was a BEAST in high school, he and his teammate Trenton Hassell. Watched those two and Marques Maybin through their high school careers. Everybody in my small city knew those three were next level. Y'all know about Marion, Hassell ended up playing in the NBA for 10 years, and Maybin went overseas for a few years before getting in motorcycle wreck and becoming paralyzed from the waist down.

 

[scarhead]

Reading all these stories and to think MJ wasn't even a varsity player in high school at one point is fascinating to me. Like how did he made that leap? Did he have one of those AD type growth spurt? MJ is known for mastering all aspects of fundamentals and not just relying on athleticism/size but to not even make the varsity team, his fundamentals must've been shaky at that point too. That summer must've been some Goku's hyperbolic time chamber shyt.

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

Played against Odem, Artest, Marbury and Flipe Lopez when them cats was playing for Gauchos and I was playing for Riverside church... also I played with Malik Sealy... only mofo that was suspect was Lopez but he got all the hype

 

[Bigblackted4]

Seen Terry fukking Rozier in high school. I'm from Cleveland and he was playing the school by my grand parents house. Dude has an easy 45 and dunked on like three days. He's only like 6'0 so to see him dominate so easily was incredible.

 

[Spence]

You went to Hastings? My older sister did too. She knew Rashard.

No I went to Elsik just like Rashad did. He would come and hang at my house and play sega Saturn with me whenever his brother and my sister were off doing their own thing.

 

[Malta]

Reading all these stories and to think MJ wasn't even a varsity player in high school at one point is fascinating to me. Like how did he made that leap? Did he have one of those AD type growth spurt? MJ is known for mastering all aspects of fundamentals and not just relying on athleticism/size but to not even make the varsity team, his fundamentals must've been shaky at that point too. That summer must've been some Goku's hyperbolic time chamber shyt.

He was 5'10 in 10th grade that's why he was cut.

 

[Art Barr]

antoine walker


it was obvious he was the best talented wing forward amoung anyone probably in the country.
he was just so egotistical at the best physical specimen style high school for sports ever in chicago called mount carmel.
that you knew he was better than everyone just off school alone, but in person it was worse and he had an ego.
plus, he played with a seven foot deaf player that was the illest too.
so, beyond all the talent,...
you had the ego, the mouth, and also the entire catholic league built on seeing mount carmel win.

it was like watching the celtics of the 80's cheat and also beat you via pedigree even if you ramped up to win.
so, it was complete domination generally except for that one game when mount carmel kinda cheated to beat a st ignatius team that was undersized to mount carmel and the mouth's team.

other than that,...he was one of the best i ever saw in person live.

garnett, in person.
garnett was just next level and i got routinely dunked on my him and some other shorter but taller than me guard, he had with him.
who was strong as hell and shytted on me being five foot nuffin too.

that game was the only time where i knew playing up and all the focused play in the world was not helping a damn thing.
plus physically both him and garnett were on supersaiyan compared to where i was at seventeen then, too.

ronnie fields before garnett and during garnett was otherworldly and it is a shame he never panned out.


art barr

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

@Negatron if you grew up in NYC on the basketball scene and knew anything about Gauchos and Riverside then you would know what I'm talking about.. All the old heads and Harlem brehs on the board know..

fukk is your problem you hatin ass nikka... fukk you and your neg u fukkin clown

 

[Art Barr]

Played against Odem, Artest, Marbury and Flipe Lopez when them cats was playing for Gauchos and I was playing for Riverside church... also I played with Malik Sealy... only mofo that was suspect was Lopez but he got all the hype

so lopez was never nice like that from your own eye test.

imo, lopez was basically the same type of funk that jamie brandon was and i kinda felt he was overrated.
to finally seeing him play and i felt he was severely overrated, too.
glad to know i saw his weaknesses like someone else via eye test.

imo, he never passed any eye test to get the acclaim lopez had.


art barr

 

[Art Barr]

now, i think about it.

i may not have seen many of the high school players live.
yet, in chicago during the prep star news paper channel seven era of covering chicago bball talent.
they used to show us all the prep games in the days of:

marcus liberty to juwan howard.

juwan, benji, michael finley, rose were the ones for real.
the rest had a question mark, especially liberty and nick anderson.
michael finley was damn near jordan tho.

like that nikka, michael finely was in a jeri curl giving even michael jordan that work.
as he beat mike one on one on channel seven, too.
where it still looks like mike went a bit light but finley was on one tho.



art barr

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

so lopez was never nice like that from your own eye test.

imo, lopez was basically the same type of funk that jamie brandon was and i kinda felt he was overrated.
to finally seeing him play and i felt he was severely overrated, too.
glad to know i saw his weaknesses like someone else via eye test.

imo, he never passed any eye test to get the acclaim lopez had.


art barr

Nope.. Lopez played for Rice and it was their system that made him look all world but real heads knew what time it was.. plus it was always whispers that nikka was older than they let on.. Duke was like 25,26 playing with a bunch of 16-18 yr olds

 

[Art Barr]

Nope.. Lopez played for Rice and it was their system that made him look all world but real heads knew what time it was.. plus it was always whispers that nikka was older than they let on.. Duke was like 25,26 playing with a bunch of 16-18 yr olds

so, the idea of him being older were possibly true, too.

i remember when he finally got to the st john's and i wanna say this is when they first changed their name to the red storm possibly.
that when i watched him and the name change.
i was like their name and this nikka is wack.
he was probably the first overrated prep star that i ever noticed or saw and was like wtf,..is this?

art barr

 

[Motife43]

It looks like they're playing a completely different sport

I saw Lebron vs my HS the year before I went there. We were either in the midst or just coming off a state 3 peat, with the NC POY in Reyshawn Terry (Small Forward, Tar Heels / Mavs). And he had absolutely fukking NOTHING for Lebron. It was honestly frightening how vast the gulf was

Chris Paul in HS? Forget about it. He did whatever he wanted to, whenever, to whomever, and as often as he wanted to. Saw him often since he went to school across town.

Why do I stay hearing about the Reyshawn Terry vs Bron story lol. I swear I've heard it 3-4 times from different people



............................

But i grew up in the Atlanta area, played against or saw a lot of the guys who been in the league last few years. You gotta realize not only skillwise, but athletically these cats were on another level as teenagers. It was ridiculous

Dequan Jones (U Miami) - played for the Magic his rookie, bounced around D-League/overseas/preseason last few years. Crazy bunnies, seen this dude throwin it off the backboard and windmilling in warmups
Travis Leslie (UGA) - played for the Clippers his rookie,bounced around the different leagues the past few years. also had CRAZY bounce
Marshon Brooks (Providence) - 1st rd pick of the Nets. I never thought he'd be in the NBA, but he balled in college
Andrew Goudelock (College of Charleston) - wasn't even the highest rated on his HS team, but balled out in college and got drafted by the Lakers. Making good money overseas
Derrick Favors (Georgia Tech) - on the Jazz now. He was like Dwight Howard, everything in the paint was a dunk

I saw a lot of other D-1/D-League/Overseas cats in high school too. A lot of them were better than the guys on this list, but everybody doesn't pan out to NBA talent

 

[SpacelySprockets]

I saw JR Smith play a few times when I was in elementary school, now keep in mind I wasnt in the know regarding high school rankings and who were the top prospects etc etc it was just another AAU game to me, yet when I saw him play I was easily able to tell he was going to the NBA, I was blown away watching him.. to this day he's the best HS player ive ever seen live

I saw Kyle Anderson play at the peak of his hype as the #3 ranked player in the nation but his game didn't really blow me away, I guess because of the slow the pace he plays at

 

[Wacky D]

I saw JR Smith play a few times when I was in elementary school, now keep in mind I wasnt in the know regarding high school rankings and who were the top prospects etc etc it was just another AAU game to me, yet when I saw him play I was easily able to tell he was going to the NBA, I was blown away watching him.. to this day he's the best HS player ive ever seen live

yea I saw JR Smith at the mcdonalds game and dude was so effortlessly gifted.

Kenny smith always says that JR would've been an elite player or whatever if he would've went to UNC for at least a year. I totally agree.

and I'm still mad that they ripped him off at that dunk contest and gave the trophy to Candace parker and her glorified layups. JR is one of the best contest dunkers to make the league in this century.