I plan on doing plenty of writing about the Heat/Bulls Eastern Conference Finals this weekend and until it's over, and after the NBA Draft Lottery I also plan on getting my NBA Mock Draft on, but for right now I wanna write about who I think the top 5 senior high school basketball players were this year.
Disclaimer: I'm obviously no scout. I've never watched any of these young cats play in person, I'm basing this list off what I've read about them, and what I've seen of them on YouTube, tv, SLAM or other venues.
With no further ado (what the hell is an "ado" anyways?) here's my first annual Straight Off The Dome High School All-Americans (SOTDHSAA, if you will). Huge shoutout to ballislife.com and anyone else I got these videos from.
AUSTIN RIVERS 6'4" SG WINTER PARK, FLORIDA
Doc River's kid has been at or near the top of many lists over the years, and rightfully so. While I'll readily admit, I'm not a big fan of his college choice, the kid can flat out play, and thus I'll be forced to catch a few Duke games next season. Looking ahead, if he stays at his current height he'd be undersized for the SG spot in the NBA, but that hasn't seemed to stop OJ Mayo or Eric Gordon just yet.
BRAD BEAL 6'4" SG ST LOUIS, MISSOURI
The next Ray Allen? Similar sweet shooting stroke. Similar height. Even the well-spoken and humbleness is there. The Gatorade Player of the Year will ball for the Florida Gators (coincidence? Nah, I'm playing) and should form a deadly backcourt with Kenny Boyton.
JAMES McADOO SF/PF 6'8" NORFOLK, VIRGINIA
Alright, if I'm gonna be really real, James McAdoo would've been in my top5 even if he wasn't in anyone elses'. Not only is he uber-talented, not only did he committ to one of the schools I love rooting for (UNC), but he's from Norfolk, Virginia. I spent 2 years stationed at Norfolk, and it wasn't until I lived there that I realized Norfolk, and the whole Hampton Roads area, have some ballers every year. Alonzo Mourning (Chesapeake), Joe Smith (Norfolk), Allen Iverson (Hampton) are all from the Hampton Roads area (and Portsmouth is represented by being home to the Portsmouth Invitational) and McAdoo is next. His North Carolina team will be LOADED next year.
MICHAEL GILCHRIST SF 6'7" SOMERDALE, NEW JERSEY
I've been a fan of Gilchrist for a minute now. He somewhat followed in the footsteps of LeBron James and OJ Mayo, being in the public eye way before any of their peers. As a sophomore, some people were openly debating whether he was the best player in the country, regardless of class. Unfortunately, like Mayo, being in the public eye for so long allowed scouts to absolutely pick apart his game and he has thus fallen out of the top spot in most, if not all, scouts' eyes. Fortunately, like Mayo, in the end it won't mean a damn thing because this kid is NBA bound. Next year he will be at STACKED U, better known as the University of Kentucky, where he will team up with, among others, Marquis Teague, Terrence Jones, and our last SOTD All-American.
ANTHONY DAVIS PF 6'10" CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Every year there's always a previously relatively unknown high school kid who balls his way into the lists of the top 100, or top 50 recruits in the nation. Rarely does a kid go from being previously relatively unknown to a consensus top 5 recruit, however. I can only think of Tracy McGrady back in 1997 as the only other time that's happened in my lifetime. Anthony Davis is absolutely loaded with potential and the sky's the limit for this kid. As previously noted, he will play next year at ONE AND DONE U, better known as the University of Kentucky.
IT AIN'T OVER...
Every year there's a few high school kids that are, for whatever reason, sentimental favorites of mine. Kids like Waukegan's (IL) Colin Nickerson from a few years ago, who just finished his sophomore year at Fairfield University (that's my own alma mater, Dundee-Crown High School, that they went up against in the state semi-finals in that video, BTW. DC What!). He was a sentimental favorite of mine simply because he stuck out to me when I went to check out his then-teammate Jereme Richmond. Great kid off the court too, by the way.
So you may not have heard of these kids, and they may or may not play in the NBA one day, but I need to give a special shoutout to the following youngins' -
RYAN BOATRIGHT 6'2" PG, AURORA, ILLINOIS
Boatright's a consensus top 100 recruit, and will be playing for the defending national champs UConn, but he still somewhat flew under the radar nationally. People will know about him soon enough. Especially with Kemba Walker set to play in the NBA. Shoutout to Aurora, Illinois too.
SHANE LARKIN 5'11" PG, ORLANDO, FLORIDA
Of course I had to add a future DePaul Blue Demon on here. Shane Larkin will be a great addition to Oliver Purnell's squad at DePaul. As seen in the video, he led his school to the state championship game against super stud Austin Rivers and held his own. Larkin might be one of the first dominos to fall in place in what could be a Purnell-led resurgence of DePaul.
DEVON BOOKERT 6'2" PG ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
Well now that Illinois and DePaul have all been represented, I gotta give it up to my new home state of Alaska. And the state's 2011 Gatorade Player of the Year. He may not reach the heights of past Alaska notables Mario Chalmers, Carlos Boozer and Trajan Langdon, but Bookert was balling out of his mind in his senior season at West Anchorage, to the tune of 25.0 ppg, 7.1 rpg and 3.6 steals while leading his school to the state championship (where they lost to Chalmers' alma mater, Bartlett High). Forward the video to the 3:27 mark for what might've been one of the dopest plays in Alaska high school basketball this past year.
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