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The all-time NBA top 25 has a couple of players that never played in college
-Bron
-Kobe
-KG
-Moses
-Dirk
Who would you consider the top 10 all-time college prospects? I'm talking about much-heralded players and players that had the potential, whether they maximized it or not. I consider David Robinson a top 10 prospect. It was assumed that he would go on to be a top 10 all-time player when he got to the NBA.
Last edited by Thomas82; 09-25-2015 at 07:38 AM.
The all-time NBA top 25 has a couple of players that never played in college
-Bron
-Kobe
-KG
-Moses
-Dirk
hmm if you dont factor the straight to HS players (because Lebron would be top 10). The list would be dominated by bigs. Jordan wasnt the #1 player in his high school class btw.Also keep in mind David Robinson wasn't that highly rated in HS he was only 6 foot 8 and got no major college offers.
1. Ewing (not because he was the best but the hype)
2. Kareem
3. Shaq
Guards
1. Magic
2. Rose
3. Wall
Forwards
1. Webber
2. Hill
3. Billy Owens (He was a big deal coming out of HS)
That's right.....The Admiral only played 1 year of high school ball.
Lew Alcindor and then everyone else.
Your list is a good starting point. Though, I'll note that I think you're over-rating Owens among HS'ers. I think Lebron and KG were more heralded and expected to do more. And I would challenge Wall (and maybe Rose) being all that heralded. I think Wall was an almost consensus number one in a not great draft is all.
And not sure if you left D-Rob and Duncan off your list b/c of homerism worries or if you didn't think they were that "heralded" coming to the lowly SA market, but they're both up there, imo.
Irrespective of position, this would be my list:
1. Ewing
2. Bird
2. Shaq
4. Bias
5. Webber
6. Walton
7. Pistol Pete
8. Sampson
9. Alcindor
10. D-Rob
11. Johnson (Larry)
12. Magic
13. Duncan
14. Oden
15. G. Hill
16. Fatmelo
17. K-Mart
18. Griffin (Blake)
19. Durant
20. Davis (Anthony)
Honorable mention:
Wilt
West
Big O
(Had they played in a different era, they might have made the list)
Jimmer
(Heralded highly at least in some respects. He certainly wasn't without detractors though.)
Jordan/Worthy
(Playing on a stacked team, they may have canceled each other out some)
Noteworthy: Yao Ming as the most heralded international player; LBJ as most heralded HS'er.
Wall and Rose? Lol not even close. Even Melo and Oden were more hyped than those two
OJ Mayo was cast as the second coming of LeBron when he a freshman in High school. Rose didn't catch up to him until their senior year & Wall was 2nd tier compared to Rose/Wall & actually benefited from Rose's immediate success as an athletically freakish point guard who couldn't shoot.
Lol I used to have a ton of Billy Owens cards and thought he was going to be great. Good call there.
Surprised nobody mentioned Chris Jackson (aka Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) when dude was the best modern day scorer in NCAA history. Dude was the Steph Curry of the NCAA & would have killed it in today's NBA.
Others:
Kidd
Mashburn
Kenny Anderson
Last edited by Kawhitstorm; 09-26-2015 at 05:40 PM.
Unheralded
1. Lew Alcindor - was on cover of TIME magazine in High School
others:
Duncan, Moses, Sampson, Admiral, Lebron, maybe Yao Ming, Ewing, Magic, Manning, Shack, Akeem, Connie Hawkins, Anthony Davis, and maybe Elvin Hayes.
Hard to determine what order these guys would go in a hypothetical draft.
Wilt was featured on Time Magazine BEFORE Kareem while he was still an amateur & America was knee deep in segregation. Besides, how are you going to leave Russell of the list......are we ignoring the 50s?
Never change, Spurtacular. Never change. This board needs comic relief sometimes and the "Porker" crew has long since worn out their welcome.
not when Wilt was in high school.
Hank Gathers
Wilt is from Philly & was in high school in the 50s when segregation was deep in the fabric of America, Kareem is from NYC & was in high school in the 60s when Ali was breaking barriers. They played a decade apart & in two different media markets.
Wilt used to whoop accomplished college players over the summer when he was in high school & as much as folks talk about Kareem defeating the varsity team as a freshman in UCLA so did Wilt at KU. Let's not forget Walton having just as much success as Kareem while playing for the same program & Kareem getting sonned by Elvin Hayes in "Game of the Century".
Last edited by Kawhitstorm; 09-26-2015 at 11:13 PM.
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