best california high school basketball players of all time

Accolades. "Once in the Best of Summer (AAU tournament), Alonzo Mourning was blocking everyone's shots, except John," said Danny Griffin, who played one year behind him at "The Shaw". That success translated to the NBA, where Naulls averaged 15.8 points and 9.1 rebounds for four teams while earning four All-Star nods and winning three league titles. 12. Predictions, analysis ahead of Warriors-Kings Game 7, Stanford preschool teacher held on suspicion of murder, Warriors crush Kings 120-100 as Steph Curry scores Game 7-record 50 points. Jermaine "Three Ring" king Wolfe Perry Tough as nails point guard who won tons of big-time games edges East Bakersfields J.R. Henderson as final Central Section choice. Brunner ran the point for 137 games at Dominguez, and the Dons won 123 of them. Similar to New York's Albert King, Cotton was a basketball prodigy. He left high school at 6-foot-8 and weighing more than 230 pounds. One of three Holiday brothers in the NBA, Jrue clearly is the one who had the most impressive high school career. Jason Works, Dorsey (Los Angeles) '78 Scott Williams (Wilson, Hacienda Heights) 86 WhatIs The Best Team In The NBA Right Now? Less than two years later, he passed away at age 20 following an acute stroke. 17. Jimmy "Helicopter" Payne If ODowd wins a state title, Id put Rabb right behind Kidd and Gordon based on his sheer dominance of the game for three years, said Mitch Stephens, a Chronicle correspondent who is a MaxPreps national columnist and has been covering Bay Area high schools for 30 years. 2005-2023 CBS INTERACTIVE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. High school basketball nears the end of the 2023 season, with many states already crowning champions. By the time he played one season for Jerry Tarkanian, he was already a legend at Rogers Park in Inglewood, and even turned out the Drew League one year playing left-handed because of a bum shoulder. Kind of the boys hoops version of our No. Eldridge "El Hud" Hudson, Carson (Carson) '82 But the more we talked to people in the know, the further we got from narrowing down the list. Ivan Rabb has led Bishop O'Dowd to a second state Open Division title game. This list is different than the top 50 we just did of the best football players weve seen in our more than 40 years of doing Cal-Hi Sports in various platforms. Taylor King beat him out for Mr. Basketball (career achievement), but Harden was as good an offensive playmaker as anyone to come down pike. Ronnie wasnt born yet and I was just starting high school when Marques was at Crenshaw. Despite an injury wiping out his freshman season, the 6-foo7 Murray still scored 3,053 points the most in California prep history at the time. 34. All rights reserved. With his zero-gravity dunks, Baby Jordan is one of the most influential SoCal players of all-time. The moment that's still talked about came during his team's victorious 1961 Los Angeles City championship, when Goodrich scored 29 points and broke his ankle in the process. He went for 28 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists in the regional title game over archrival Banning. 21. All-time scoring leaders come in all shapes and sizes, as evidenced by the MaxPreps list of the top all-time high school boys basketball scoring leaders from each state. Caldwell was the predecessor to Cali's great leapers such as, Darnell Hillman, Joey Johnson and Harold Miner, but his game was complete. Beats out his teammate John Staggers (who didnt play D) and his son Ethan Thompson by winning two CIF D1 crowns. He was the best player in Northern California for two, if not three, years, said Mark Tennis, the CalHiSports.com editor who keeps track of the state records. One of the states smoothest scorers ever, Mills had a NBA-ready game in high school. Just a delight to watch and a delight to coach for Tim Kennedy and NorCals most dominant talent since 2000. Kawhi Leonard (M.L. Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images, www.nasljerseys.com/UCLA Athletic Department, www.archaeologychannel.org/info@raymondlewis.com, Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images, Scott Varley/Contributing Photographer/Press-Telegram, Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Vince Compagnone/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Scott Varley/Digital First Media/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. 20. At Compton High, DeRozan was a four-year varsity standout, hitting the ground running by averaging 26.1 points and 8.4 rebounds as a freshman. 24. 20. Honors. DeShawn Stevenson (Washington, Easton) 00 Will Alexander (Dublin, CA), Archbishop Mitty A street-court star, Lewis averaged 24 points and was a second-team ParadeAll-American at Verbum Dei, the Catholic school where he was known for his tremendous ball-handling abilities that helped it win three California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section titles (before the state champions were recognized). The whole list is a farce without Marques Johnson anywhere in sight!!! By Scott Watkins. The 10 Best High School Basketball Players of All Time. He was a smooth jump shooter who could get to the rim effortlessly. The 247Sports Composite is a proprietary algorithm that compiles rankings and ratings listed in the public domain by the major media recruiting services, creating the industry's most comprehensive and unbiased prospect and team rankingsMore Info, Powered by innovative technology products, 247Sports employs a staff of more than 50 full time recruiting reporters and evaluators that rank and compile data on the nation's elite high school recruitsMore Info. Kevin "Bean" Bradley 21. Some others that perhaps could have been on either list: Hassan Adams (Westchester, Los Angeles) 03` 2. Wish I had room for both. USA Today also ranked Westchester the country's No. Johnson was all-city for the Pilots and finished at Arizona State, in between winning a JUCO national title at College of Southern Idaho, where locals still marvel at his legendary leaping feats. Right IconThis ranking is based on an algorithm that combines various factors, including the votes of our users and search trends on the internet. When it came time for college, Miner traveled just a few blocks east to USC, where he was a three-time, first-team All-Pac-10 performer, the league's player of the year in 1992 and had his No. No player has dominated there quite like him. DeMarcus Nelson (Sheldon, Sacramento) 04 He was so fast, could jump out of the building and just rip the ball away from other players. 6-8 / 190. 's hottest neighborhoods sell Beautification Day launches first I Love Tenderloin Week for neighborhood, Missed the northern lights in California? Paul Caldwell Ed OBannon (Artesia, Lakewood) 90 The California Mr. Basketball award is the second oldest such award in the nation; only Indiana Mr. Basketball, which was first awarded in 1939, predates it.[2][3]. Jason Kidd tops list of Bay Areas all-time basketball team Darius McNeill, Juhwan Harris-Dyson, Justice Sueing, Marcus Lee, He took his own life in 1994, at age 30, by jumping from a bridge. 11. John Staggers, Crenshaw (Los Angeles) '88 Apart from making his presence felt in the NBA, Paul George also played a key role in helping the United States men's national basketball team win Olympic gold in the 2016 Summer Olympics held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We both saw that 1986 D1 state title team and loved what Stevie could do on the court. Lee attended Clark (Atlanta, Ga.) when the coach at that Div. In stark contrast to many playground legends, Lee was obsessed with playing in the NBA. "He was a born-again Christian that would take the bible on road trips just one of those different cats." All California Basketball teams are listed. Michael "Mountain Man" Johnson He was part of the United States national team that won the gold medal at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. With Cal-Hi Sports having a history of more than 40 years and with these types of lists gaining in popularity during the current COVID-19 sports shutdown, we thought it would be fun to do it for our own years of covering California high school boys basketball. (San Juan Capistrano, CA), Monterey Trail Johnson perfected his craft at Joe Weakley's Run, Shoot and Dunk League, when it was still played at Denker Park, against the likes of Jerry "Money" Chambers, Walter Ned and James "Arkansas Red" Allen. A 10-time NBA All-Star, three-time scoring champion and MVP, Harden will go down as one of the greatest NBA players of all time, and it all essentially started at Artesia, where he averaged 13.2 points as a sophomore varsity starter. 20. Yes, but he also was only a part-time starter as a sophomore at Canyon Springs. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. It could be argued that the stir he created at the 1975 NorCal TOC led to the state playoffs beginning a few years later. As a senior, he led the Knights to a 31-3 record and was named Cal-Hi Sports Div. The following is a look at the all-time scoring leader for each state. King, Riverside) 09 (Los Angeles, CA), Capistrano Valley Christian School Jordan Farmar (Taft, Woodland Hills) 04 Sean Higgins (Fairfax, Los Angeles) 87 A nasty dispute with management led to him being unofficially blackballed from the pros, but he was well respected by his pro playground peers such as Dr. J. He only averaged 18 points per game because Berkeley had a good, balanced team, said former USF, St. Marys and Cal State Hayward assistant coach George Baljevich. Dont forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports. 78 The Best SoCal Hoopers We've Seen w/ Eric Sondheimer, Stephen Thompson & Pooh Jeter. We didnt have to wonder about him going to the NBA straight from high school because the two-time Mr. Basketball was the No. The five-time NBA all-star nearly invented the point forward position with the Milwaukee Bucks. High school Mr. Basketball awards by state, https://web.archive.org/web/20091015072057/http://myespn.go.com/blogs/calhisports/0-6-77/Mr--Basketball-2009--Kawhi-Leonard.html, "Aaron Gordon Bio The University of Arizona Official Athletic Site", "Ryan Anderson Profile BCEAGLES.COM Boston College Official Athletic Site", "Allen Crabbe Profile The University of California Official Athletic Site", "Player Bio: Kawhi Leonard San Diego State University Official Athletic Site", "Player Bio: Jrue Holiday UCLA Official Athletic Site", "Player Bio: Taylor King Villanova University Official Athletic Site", "Player Bio: Chase Budinger University of Arizona Wildcats Official Athletic Site", "DeMarcus Nelson Duke University Blue Devils | Official Athletics Site", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=California_Mr._Basketball&oldid=1146640462, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 1980 NBA Draft: 4th Rnd, 76th overall by the Indiana Pacers, This page was last edited on 26 March 2023, at 03:02. Take Bill Russell, who went on to lead USF to consecutive national titles and the Boston Celtics to 11 NBA Championships. MaxPreps is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. 2 Grizzlies, Bayern back in charge, Yamal makes history, Napoli's party spoiled: Weekend Review, Man City go top of Premier League as Haaland scores 50th goal in win at Fulham, Man United end Villa's run, take step towards top-four finish against backdrop of fan protests, Legacy pick: Cardinals take great-great-nephew of team's first-ever draft pick, The story of the Cowboys scout and prospect son Dallas just drafted, UFC 288: Why Burns and Muhammad are taking the biggest fight of their careers on short notice, Transfer Talk: Man Utd, PSG to battle for Abraham's signature. A prep teammate of Hassan Adams at Westchester, Ariza was California's Mr. Basketball in 2003, marking the first time since 1971 and '72 that different players from the same school San Joaquin Memorial's Cliff and Roscoe Pondexter took home the honor in back-to-back seasons. Why? After three quarters of the 1992 D1 state final, Jason had outscored the other team by himself and that team was Mater Dei (Santa Ana). B5. 1. Also Verbum Dei greats such as Cliff Pruit and Kenny Fields should be added to your list. The Iceman is not only the states all-time leading scorer, hes top 15 in rebounding and assists. Bishop ODowd-Oakland center/power forward Ivan Rabb made a late run, and is still making it as he plays for a state title Saturday night at Cals Haas Pavilion. 13. Hey sports fans please dont forget about the greatest shooter of all time in the great Raymond Lewis from Verbum Dei. Russell couldnt even make the honorable mention list. Polee was already a street icon by the time he got a cup of coffee in the NBA. You can now join for one-month rate of just $3.99. Theyll probably be back, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). Third-team All-American shooting guard went on to Cal, left early for NBA. His body control and command of the game were second to none en route to three CIF state titles. Silas, meanwhile, was just plain strong. He got better and better each season. 18. In the ABA or on the playground, Hillman is remembered just as much for his prodigious dunks as his Afro. 9. It was fun seeing DeMarcus break the state career scoring record that night at old Arco Arena. For my last spot it was between the Big O and Ivan Rabb of Bishop ODowd. John Williams (Crenshaw, Los Angeles) 84 An all-around talented athlete, Lacy could do it all on the court as a prep star, and that ultimately led him to UCLA. tech companies have mass layoffs; one blames rise of AI, Warriors lean into championship DNA, beat Kings behind sublime Curry. Jumpin Joe Caldwell (Fremont), Billie The Hill McGill (Jefferson), Gail Goodrich (Polytechnic) for fun. wine startup leaves customers with thousands of Two more S.F. He did see Crenshaws John Williams in the season before that. SoCals best all-around player ever. Kevin Beal (Stevenson Ranch, CA), Harvard Westlake Robert "Pookie" Smith (San Diego, CA). 17. He still puts in work overseas and when he's ballin' at Venice, HAX, or the Drew League, people know who he is now. "Jumpin" Joey Johnson, Banning (Wilmington) '85 Holiday, whose parents both played college basketball, had already proved himself to be a star prior to his senior campaign, for which he also was named Gatorade National Player of the Year and a first-team ParadeAll-American. 2. The key to his game is his ability to score from nearly any angle and spot on the floor. In addition, Mills was named California's Mr. Basketball, a two-time Parade All-American (first team in 1988) and a McDonald's All-American. Who was the Coasts best girls basketball player during the 2022-23 season? Ernest Lee, Kennedy (Sacramento) '82 10. At Kansas, Pierce was an All-American, who had his No. The best part about writing up a list of the best players to have been seen in a long period of time is that the only debate is with ones own memory. Kennedy went on to Nevada-Reno, but got his big break at L.A.'s Bel-Air Park when he tried out for the AND 1 Mix-Tape Tour in 2001. 14. His overall athleticism was obvious during his prep days, and opened the door for a successful run at UCLA, where he was twice selected a first-team All-PCC performer and consensus All-American. James Harden (Artesia, Lakewood) 07 John Staggers (Crenshaw, Los Angeles) 88 Jrue Holiday (Campbell Hall, North Hollywood) 08 Gene Ransom, Berkeley (Berkeley) '75 One of the few players who was an all-star in the ABA and NBA, Caldwell led Fremont to back-to-back city titles and was the city player of the year in 1960, pumping in 24.8 ppg. Feel free to add any Bear freshmen, NBA rookies, or California alumni missing from the list. The first-team ParadeAll-American then played two seasons at LSU and was a first-round pick of Washington in the 1986 NBA Draft. I State Player of the Year while averaging 29.4 ppg and shooting 41 percent from 3-point land. Perhaps more impressive, Lacy was a two-time, first-team Parade All-American selection. Averaged 30 points a game, won three Tournament of Champions titles from 1958-60. The way he ran the floor and attacked the basket was special. He was a two-time ParadeAll-American, including a first-team selection as a senior in 1992-93. In addition to playing for Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA, Lillard is devoted to music and has been creating life-inspired songs under his rap persona, Dame D.O.L.L.A. It was unbelievable." "Jumpin" Joe Caldwell, Fremont (Los Angeles) '60 This is a carousel. All of our state class by class player rankings, final team rankings for more than 40 years and all of our recently updated all-time state records (team & individual) are for Gold Club members only. After playing at Cal State Los Angeles, Lewis was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. The Pasadena native did not have a well-known prep career, but he flourished at the JUCO level and on the streets. He went to 3 CIF finals and won 1. In 2017, his family's sports apparel company Big Baller Brand released a signature shoe for Ball, making him the youngest sportsperson to own a signature shoe. 6-foot big man once received 10-minute standing ovation after Peninsula Invitational Tournament loss. "He could catch and shoot, off the dribble and stop on a dime," said Reggie Morris, Sr., then a young Manual Arts assistant. From there, Vaughn went to Kansas, where he won Big Eight Player of the Year in 1996, and had his No. Zach "Chestnuts" Fray Tommie Lipsey 4. Featuring Hall of Fame greats, superstars, and active players, this list of basketball players who were born in California includes Kawhi Leonard, James I state title as a sophomore. Ernest Lee (Kennedy, Sacramento) 82 He can be reached atronlocc1977@gmail.com. 0:36. A four-time All-Star and six-time All-Defensive Team member, Kawhi Leonard has helped two teams win NBA championships while earning the Finals Most This Drew League veteran is known nationwide and you can still catch him crossing over defenders up at Venice Beach in the summer. Eugene Wright, 'It's going to be epic': Stephen Curry and LeBron James face off -- again, Panthers in awe after ousting 'unbelievable' Bruins, Kraken win 1st playoff series, oust champion Avs, Curry sets G7 record with 50 as Dubs move on, Bergeron undecided on future after B's stunner, Harper may return Tue., 160 days post-TJ surgery, Grizz's Brooks doesn't regret verbal jab at LeBron, LB Barrett's 2-year-old daughter drowns in pool, Griner: 1st practice 'everything I wanted it to be', Which teams will reach the NBA conference finals? Four state titles in highest classification, he willed Monarchs to final one with skill and IQ. Steve Thompson (Crenshaw, Los Angeles) 86 Killum grew up on the tough streets of Watts, but he won over teammates with his leadership and classmates with his wit. Jason Kapono (Artesia, Lakewood) 99 He even dropped 52 points in a summer league game against a group of L.A. Lakers before entering college and his 53-point performance against No. DeMar DeRozan is an American basketball player who currently plays for the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA. 3 Long Beach State is still spoken of with detail as if it happened yesterday. The players all walk to the baseline to get picked for a historical run down the hardwood. Similar to "The Goat" in New York City, his legacy lives on because of the court named in his honor at Watts' 109th Street Recreation Center. His career has been decorated with honors and championships. 8. Add to List. Ernest Killum (Lynwood) 90 At one time during the 1980s, the all-time leading scorer in the state was Brian Clark of Mililani with 1,093 points. Murray earned McDonald's All-American honors and then went on to star at UCLA , where he was a two-time, first-team All-Pac-10 performer, before embarking on a 12-season NBA career. Each year the California Mr. Basketball award is given to the person chosen William Theodore Walton III, popularly known as Bill Walton, is a former basketball player. Web2023 High School Pos Rankings State Rankings Top247 247Sports Composite Rank Player Pos Ht / Wt Rating Team 1 4 AJ Johnson Southern California Academy (Castaic, The documentary "Raymond Lewis: L.A, Legend" chronicles his life. 9. 21 retired by Dominguez in January 2023. Didnt he graduate in 92 as the #2 All Time leading scorer in CA HS history?!?! We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. 25. Chuck Hayes (Modesto Christian) 01 1 Justices went 28-0, captured Class 2 state title and notched big wins over Columbus and Wheeler. (Chatsworth, CA), Bishop Montgomery Wasnt Ricky Price a more highly regarded talent coming out of high school than Paul Pierce? A teammate of the aforementioned Jacque Vaughn at Kansas, Pierce ended up in Lawrence thanks to a stellar career at Inglewood High, which retired his No. Max Whittaker/Prime / Special to The Chronicle. Other states, like Texas, California and Florida, etc., had state record books compiled by independent sources. By clicking "Accept," you agree to our use of cookies and our, Ep. Carrick DeHart The five-time NBA All-Star is the son of former basketball player Mychal Thompson. Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Ronnie Coleman If a player isnt listed, its likely just because we didnt get to see that player in a game. Theus seemed destined for greatness while starring at Inglewood High, just blocks from the famous Great Western Forum (as it was formerly known).

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