[paradigmnParticipant]

Thought it would be fun to look back at the past fifty-years of high school basketball’s #1 recruits. That’s the graduating classes of 2012-1963.  To tell you the truth….I had a blast putting it together.  Really cool to learn about the all the top recruits of the past (imo).

Since there were many recruiting publications to put out rankings over the years, there were obviously a lot of discrepencies about who the #1 players were.  I tried to do my best to make it as accurate as possible by using many, many, many,sources.

The article is a video montage of all the #1 players of the past 50 years.  When I felt there could have been a better selection, I added that player beneath.  My criteria for a "better selection" basically boils down to their basketball accomplishments throughout their career.  It’s obviously just an opinion, so feel free to disagree.  You can also click for all of the players stats.  Perhaphs my favorite part are all the old school pics (especially older classes) of the players throught the years.

Anyways…of the fifty recruits, there were fourteen I felt still deserve their ranking.  I had to add some honarble mentions througout as well.  Definitely some strong classes throughout the years (as well as not so strong)…my personal favorite…Class of 1981: Jordan, Malone, Ewing, Barkley, Mullin, Dumars…to name a few…LOL…enjoy!

Class of 2012-2003: http://prospect-central.blogspot.com/2012/09/high-school-basketball-fifty-years-of-1_3327.html

Class of 2002-1993: http://prospect-central.blogspot.com/2012/09/high-school-basketball-fifty-years-of-1_5.html

Class of 1992-1983: http://prospect-central.blogspot.com/2012/09/high-school-basketball-fifty-years-of-1_5205.html

Class of 1982-1973: http://prospect-central.blogspot.com/2012/09/high-school-basketball-fifty-years-of-1.html

Class of 1972-1963: http://prospect-central.blogspot.com/2012/09/high-school-basketball-fifty-years-of-1_23.html

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

Jason Kidd’s high school pic,looks alot like Drake….

[druneave3Participant]

 Several older guys at the gym say Rick Mount was the best shooter they have ever seen. I had never seen him before this highlight here (66′). He does have beautiful form

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Thought I remembered reading it in an article by Charley Rosen, but here it is from Rick’s wikipedia page:

According to Charley Rosen, Mount displayed the most astounding exhibition of pure, one-on-none shooting he ever saw. Rosen was invited by the Utah coach, Joe Mullaney, to participate in an intra-squad scrimmage. After Mullaney officially terminated the session, several players lingered to play HORSE. Because of Mount, the Stars’ rules were unique. Shots had to be perfectly clean, counted only if the ball didn’t touch the rim. Despite this wrinkle, Mount won every game. In the end, only Mount and Rosen were left on the court, and Mount was able to adjust the trajectory of every jumper so that the ball hit the inner part of the backside-rim in such a way that the ball would nudge the iron, split the net, and then bounce back to him. He supposedly could do this about 90 percent of the time.

Was checking up on Rick the other day and also stumbled across this on his Purdue profile:

His efficiency his junior year compared favorably to those of Pete Maravich and Calvin Murphy, contemporaries in feats of scoring. While Maravich and Murphy scored more per game, Mount shot far better from the field. He shot an incredible 51.5 percent, while Maravich shot 45.2 percent and Murray shot just 43.7 percent.

Rick seemed to drain them like few others and it is often believed that he was an inspiration for Jimmy Chitwood of Hoosiers fame (good SI article from "Where Are They Now?"). Rick’s pro career was obviously a shadow of the players listed ahead of him on paradigmns list, but from everything I heard, this guy was an absolute bad@ss. In fact, he still very well may be, even in his late 60’s (For those who wondered I found this, was looking for the Charley Rosen "90%" story).

[joecheck88Participant]

 When you remember J Kidd is 6 4 and then you watch him blow by everyone, it is amazing. That dude was fast!! Haha. I love all the HS pictures. Lol. Seeing Shaq in that Cole uniform reminds me that I played his HS in basketball. Not while he was there though. Lol. In 2006.

[NJHooper95Participant]

Those guys were amazing in high school. J Kidd is my favorite all-time pg, I think people dont realize how good he was and he was pretty athletic too. C-Webb was a cant miss prospect, just a man out there.

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

Great Job on this Post..Might be the Best i’ve seen this Month…

A Few Things:

1.Albert King won player of the year over Magic Johnson in 1977..And Kenny Anderson won high school player of the year over Shaq..Both Anderson & King played in New York..I Wonder did playing in the media market of New York overhyped them? Anderson was an All Star,but not a Hall of Famer..

2. I Grew up a huge fan of Darryl Dawkins..He had a good career,but i wonder if he would’ve been alot better,if had went to college to learn some fundamentals and discipline..Because he played a playground game….

3.I think 1977 was the 1st year that McDonalds started naming high school All-Americans…

[NJHooper95Participant]

Kenny Anderson was ahead of his time. Amazing ball-handling skills, and could get to the rim at will. He never maximized his potential but was still was very respectable pg in the league. He had multiple all-star talent though.

[TheArtistPaysthePriceParticipant]

Still looking through the videos, damn I wish they had HD back then.

[drew2288Participant]

for the most part I agree with your ranking. Most people dont remember Albert King be consider one of the greatest high school players ever back in 77. Also Pearl Washington was the best High School player in 83 over Reggie Williams who was a great his self.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Still remember hearing about building his legend as a 6-6 12 year old in Heaven is a Playground. Probably one of my favorite books of All-Time. I wonder what Bernard was like as a high schooler, guessing he was probably at least nearly as epic. Guessing that timing was the reason Rick probably followed Albert closer than Bernard. Seeing that Albert grew to his full height before he was a teenager, people probably thought he would just keep growing. Even still, as a 6-6 SG, he was considered good enough to be the consensus #1 of 1977. Guessing during their freshman year, people were starting to think that this Magic kid may have indeed been the best player from that class.

[TheArtistPaysthePriceParticipant]

contest against Louis Bullock. I was a big Michigan basketball fan then (always hated football team) but when I saw KG highlights and he was dunking and finishing at the rim then in the 3 pt contest I was sold. During that game he led fast breaks a bunch of times and finished on some of the same breaks.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

That was a cool stroll down memory lane. Never been a fan of "ties" for #1, but I understand that you were probably trying to show the depth of some of these HS Classes. Thought it was really cool that Wes Unseld/Elvin Hayes and Bill Walton/Maurice Lucas ended up being combos that led teams to NBA Championships after battling for top spot in HS. Thought it might be cool to go back in time and see who people here picked as #1 prospects in HS at the time. I know I tended to agree or be fairly close to the vast majority, just also know I had some different ones from the guys who sometimes topped the RCSI.

I will start with 1997, a year which many people might add to the two no-brainers before it in KG and Kobe. Well, in my young naivete, I had a different view from many. 1997 was the first McDonald’s All-American Game I got to watch and probably began my interest in following future pro’s at the HS Ranks. So, here were my choices for top players in the HS Classes 1997-2012:

1997 Lamar Odom: The consensus (and smart) choice was T-Mac, but I thought Lamar would end up being a franchise guy. He turned out to be a great player and play vital complementary roles, but T-Mac was better in his prime and while his lack of play-off success is noted, can’t imagine Lamar coming close to doing better in a similar situation.

1998 Dan Gadzuric: Another one I chalk up to youth. Just thought he had a chance to be a beast. He had a decent 4 year career at UCLA, with a player I also liked a lot in JaRon Rush who unfortunately never played in the NBA (though his younger brothers Kareem and Brandon had more success) for two of them. However, the big guy from the Netherlands never was much more than a back-up. He has had a long NBA career, but even from an HS Class that was agreed to be fairly weak, was definitely not top spot worthy. I also was a big fan of Ronald Curry, who went on to play for the Raiders. Ron won McDonald’s All-American MVP I believe, though Julius Peppers played his two sport role much better.

1999 DerMarr Johnson: No question I was a big time DerMarr Johnson fan. He came to Toronto in his final year of HS for a tournament, I was in 9th grade and I got to go check it out. His Maine Central Institute team won the tournament, defeating a Hargrave Military Academy team lead by David West. They had a tiny PG named Avery Queen who ended up going to Michigan, all of their players probably ended up at D1 schools with coach Max Good taking an assistant job at UNLV that turned into a brief head coaching spot. Got to talk to coach Good for a bit, trying to get intel as to whether DerMarr was going to college or not. Ended up having a solid freshman year at Cinci, 2nd banana to Kenyon Martin. DerMarr ended up going 6th in the draft, though even before an unfortunate car accident that has relegated him to spot roles, he was not exactly tearing it up in the NBA. As for the Tournament, DerMarr won MVP, though they had this other guy who was pretty good. Word was, this other guy was considered by some to be even better than DerMarr. His name was Caron Butler.

2000 Eddie Griffin: I remember Z-Bo being rated quite highly, and the RCSI does have him as #1, but there were some differing opinions. Gerald Wallace is a guy I commonly remember as the top player in this class, though Darius Miles was maybe seen as having more NBA potential than anyone else. The guy I liked the most was this stretch 4 who shared the same name as an acerbic anti-white humored comedian (it is a Family Guy reference, for those who do not get it). Eddie kind of reminded me of Rasheed Wallace, honestly. Very talented, he could hit the boards, step out shoot 3’s and even at times put the ball on the floor. The issues were apparently attitude. He ended up being taken higher than fellow one-and-dones Randolph/Wallace, having a better freshman season than either. Eddie had issues even before he hit college campus with apparently getting into fights, and as a frosh got into a skirmish with teammate Ty Shine after an L to G-Town. He put up numbers, but his team had a horrible finish after a hot start. I thought he was in the conversation for the 1st pick in the Draft, though he went 7th to New Jersey, only to be traded to Houston for three first round picks in the same draft, the highest pick being Richard Jefferson. Eddie showed flashes, but his attitude was apparently an issue and his shooting was spotty. Eddie tragically passed away in 2007, news that definitely shook me up when I heard about it.

2001 Eddy Curry: My favorite prospect in the class was DaJuan Wagner, but I think I definitely had Eddy #1. Thought he should have gone #1 over Kwame and liked him more than Tyson Chandler. Was definitely wrong about the Chandler thing in the long run. Eddy was a big dude, monster wingspan, actually had good hands (cough, Kwame, cough). The big issue with Eddy was whether he would develop the level of conditioning necessary to be an All-Star center. At a point in time, he was pretty close. He had a good three year stretch, though was never close to the rebounder or defender one might expect given his physical, athletic tools. Than, Mike D’Antoni came along, Eddy Curry fat jokes became something that rarely got old (by rarely I mean, immediately, lol) and we have a guy who everyone now points too as the poster boy for Basketball Players against KFC (OK, we get it, he is not slim). Have a good friend who still makes fun of me to this day about buying into the SLAM "Baby Shaq" hype. SLAM is cool, but I am glad I have more sources beyond the hip-hop/basketball publication that is cherished by most b-ball fiends (I still like SLAM a lot, just know that their are indeed other sources for comparisons I might not have known, or had existed, in 2001).

2002 Amare Stoudemire: Could not believe he slipped to 9th. Kid was an absolute beast. Heck, he still can be at times. Melo definitely became the better of the two, though I guess at a time it was close. Both of them are All-Stars who just have never managed to get over the hump to become team leaders. My guess is as their careers go on, Melo will further the gap between them. Amare’s knees have seen much better days and while they have not exactly complemented each other, I still think Melo is definitely the best player on the Knicks right now. Agree with para in putting Melo as the guy who should have been #1 in this class in retrospect.

2003 LeBron James: Duh.

2004 Dwight Howard: Another fair no-brainer. Will say, their was a lot of debate about whether he or Emeka Okafor would go to the Magic in 2004. I got it wrong in my submission Mock for this site, though remember thinking the Magic definitely made the right move as soon as he was picked. Say what you will about the "Dwightmare" situation, the guy was a total beast for that team for a long period of time. He averaged a double-double as a rookie out of HS. He is the premier post defensive anchor in the NBA, had he not been unbearable, think he would have had his 4th straight defensive POY. His offensive game is not even close to the greats of the 80’s-90’s, but the dude is the best center of this current era by a long shot. The guy I probably liked most after him was Bassy Telfair. Take that as one will, lol.

2005 Lou Williams: I remember liking Lou a lot, I definitely liked him more than Monta. Martell and Gerald Green were definitely rated better by quite a few as well, just liked Lou’s explosive scoring ability. Turns out, Monta had even more of that. Have to be honest, I thought Josh McRoberts was not a horrible #1 for this class at the time. He was a solid athlete, had good vision, thought he might tear up his first year at Duke than be a lotto pick. Not really the case. Either way, not the greatest HS Class by any stretch, though if anyone is #1 in hindsight, it is Andrew Bynum. He has transformed his body from high school and should have some great upcoming seasons in Philly, with hopes he can stay healthy. Just know that coming out of HS, Andrew was at the very least near the Eddy Curry body type. Shows how one can indeed turn things around.

2006 Greg Oden: Without a doubt in my mind. I have gone into this ad nauseum, but lets just keep this short: Yes, Kevin Durant would have been the better choice. However, at the time, things were not nearly as clear as they are with the help of our old friend Captain Hindsight. I know not EVERYONE thought Greg was the best in his HS class or should have been the #1 pick in the 2007 Draft. Just know that NBA people were in high percentage on the Greg Oden side June 28, 2007.

2007 Derrick Rose: If people doubt this, I have embarassing LiveJournal proof (if someone really wanted to look it up, be my guest). I ranked Derrick at the top of this class, with Mike Beasley, OJ Mayo, Kevin Love (who is the best HS player I have ever seen live. Got to say him as a 6-8/240 pound freshman up until his senior year, where people used to complain about his being lazy. Dude has worked his butt off, I will tell you that, the skill was always there though), Eric Gordon and Kyle Singler (a player I also got to watch in HS, including two epic finals between Kevin’s Lake Oswego and Kyle’s South Medford teams. Kevin won as a junior, Kyle as a senior. The MVP of the senior year tourney was Mike Hartun, who made all 5 of his triples and looked awesome. Mike started off at Washington State, going into his senior year at Portland State). Just saw an incredibly special athlete with court vision and thought D-Rose was the real deal. Nice to be right, especially considering the huge number of duds I have listed before this.

2008 Brandon Jennings: Another PG I liked a lot. Brandon was just insane quick, flat out explosive at times, fun to watch. He had the makings of a special player in my mind, I honestly liked him above Rubio for 2nd pick in the 2009 Draft (it became of course Hasheem Thabeet, who made LOTS of sense. Hope the internet lets me get sarcasm across here). Thought Brandon would have had a HUGE freshman year at Arizona, though he took his lumps in Italy. Definitely has not lead to much of a trend, think for good reason. As nice as it may be to get paid, it is a huge adjustment out of HS to a different country/culture/playing against grown men that do not give a f#ck about who you are with both of the first two things still weighing into the equation. Swore I could remember some services having Samardo Samuels #1, know that Tyreke Evans and Greg Monroe were both near or at the top spot for quite a while as well. Jury is out who takes it, but I do remember really liking Jrue Holiday and I probably would have have had him #2 just like the RCSI.

2009 John Wall: Of the three PG’s in a row that graced the top spot in my recruiting classes, I have to say I was the least high on Wall. Not to say I did not think he was a potentially great prospect, but for people that claimed he was a "faster Derrick Rose", just was not buying. Wall can still end up being a great player and certainly has a chance to be much better than Brandon Jennings, but I feel John can only dream of being as good as Rose had been the past couple of seasons. Plus, for all of the grief people give Derrick Rose about his jumper, Wall shot 3-42 from deep in his 2nd year. 3-42! Yikes. Well, here is hoping we see better things from John in his 3rd season. If he makes 3 triples in a game, that would go a long way to exorcising the demon that was his shooting from beyond the arc in his sophomore NBA campaign.

2010 Harrison Barnes: Think I have said this many times, but the guys that stood out to me (well, probably everyone) at the 2010 Hoop Summit were Barnes, Sullinger, Irving and Kanter. Think those might have been my top 4 picks in the 2011 Draft, with Barnes possibly still going above or at least in the discussion to go above Kyrie (who I will say, would have had no lower than 2nd in that Draft. Plus, I did like all of these guys over Derrick Williams, though time could make me quite wrong in that assumption). Really liked Barnes and saw him as a likely All-Star 3. He very well could be, definitely feel he provides a skill set at the position and scoring ability that the league kind of lacks beyond the top few wing players. Will also say that he left me with legitimate concerns to his reaching that level with his first couple of seasons. They were solid, just not spectacular on the whole. He showed flashes, but I think that Kyrie Irving does indeed look like the likely #1 player to come out of this recruiting class, probably by quite a bit.

2011 Anthony Davis: Andre Drummond might have taken this spot from him, but when we were still under the belief that he would remain in HS, I had Davis at the top like most people did. The thing that makes him potentially special is the fact that he acquired next to none of the awkwardness one gets from major growth spurts. He runs the floor incredibly well and seems to have a mean streak, plus while I find the KG comparisons slightly ridiculous, Anthony has that similar wiry strength. Think he could definitely become an All-Star PF, still do not think of him as a C. Only time will tell their, but he certainly has the makings of one the stars in the NBA’s upcoming generation. Just do not think he is KG or Timmy, like many others seem too.

2012 Shabazz Muhammad: I guess people like Nerlens upside, he is long and has rare athleticism for a player his size. I still think Shabazz stands head and shoulders above anyone in this class. Could someone catch up to him? It is certainly possible, he is after all far more physically developed than just about anyone in this most recent HS class entering the NCAA. Just feel like Shabazz is a guy who is good enough and strong enough to score anywhere. He goes really hard, the James Harden comparisons are legit though I think Shabazz is even stronger at a similar stage. Everyone in the 2012 Class seemed to defer to him, think it will more than likely always be that way.

 

Well, that was a trip. My current #1 for 2013 still has yet to decide his future, but I doubt that I will differ with many people on that. Just know that sometimes we all see things differently and while certain years have clear cut #1 players (2003, for an example, lol), there are years like this past one and even 2011 where people would debate between Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Austin Rivers. If anyone else wanted to share who they believed was #1 AT THE TIME (As in, when these guys were actually in HS and had yet to play a NCAA or NBA contest), would be really interested in hearing who #1 was in your eyes.

[TheArtistPaysthePriceParticipant]

he had that 100 point game going for him. I thought he would be a beast forever. When I saw the McDonalds game and he was all muscled up forcing up shots I faded a little but still thought he was a beast. Iverson was killing the NBA then and I think that led to some of the facts he was my favorite prospect from that year to.

[paradigmnParticipant]

Thanks guys…glad everyone enjoyed it.  Like I said…I really had fun putting it together.  The history of things is very important imo (maybe becaue it repeats itself) and learning about the history of the game we love is certainly interesting as well as entertaining.

@Rudeboy: No question the alure of New York basketball played into the rankings back in the day.  No disrespect to Kenny Anderson, but Shaq was a BEAST from day 1 and it wasn’t like he was a hidden prospect. Dude was well known, so it definitely makes you wonder.

@Drew2288:  You definitely may be right about Pearl Washington being the #1 player in 83.  Both he and Williams were Parade All-Americans that year and I actually remember hearing stories about how nasty he was. Williams was National Player of the Year though, but it was close either way.

@MikeyV:  Nice job man…really liked your list.  Deciding between Zeebo and Gerald Wallace was actually one of my harder decisions cuz Wallace certainly had his fair share of #1 talk.  Like you said though, Zeebo did have the higher RCSI ranking, so I guess that did it for me.  I also have to say I really liked Eddie Griffin as well.  Very sad story though.

Anyways…some of the videos get me HYPED to play ball.  There are so many good ones.  J-Kidd was obviosuly a bit surprising because we forgot how athletic he was.  Seeing him dunk is wierd (lol). The Garnet video is sick also.  He was a freaking monster.  It seems like Webber dominated ever since he touched a basketball.  Those 2 minutes of Kobe Bryant though…what????…Forget about it…so NASTY.  

One of my favorite videos though…Stoudemire.  A true man amongst boys…very impressive.  Funny part of the video….if you watch the part from like 3:10-3:20….Stoudamire’s going in for a sick dunk and in the background there’s this lady with her pants pulled up to her armpits (lol) getting ready to take a picture….so just as Amare’s throws down…you see the flash of the camera (had to be an AWESOME picture)….and she was soooo excited….she throws her arms in the air like she knew she just got the picture of  a lifetime. (lol) 

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

Viewing this,i saw Marcus Liberty and thought about other prep phenoms that failed to live up to the High Expectations..Guys like Felipe Lopez & Lloyd ”Sweet Pea”Daniels….I dont think i was the only 1 that thought they would 1 day become nba all stars,after seeing them play in high school..

[banggggbanggggwayne]

Good job.. Good effort!!!!!!

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