04/19/24
February 24, 2003
Meet the "the nation's best player in the high school class of 2009.": Kendall Marshall, all 5-foot-2 and 95 pounds of him, has been tabbed as the top sixth-grade basketball player in the nation by one recruiting analyst. He starts for his private school's varsity team and averages a team-high 12.8 points. Is this, as some folks say, cruel or just a result of a competitive recruiting industry? Or both?
posted by thescoop to basketball at 09:31 AM - 3 comments
It's both inevitable and bad, I'd say. Lots of activities already have this...we know (or can easily find out) who the best 12 year old figure skater is, or 12 year old chess player, or 12 year old half-miler, or 12 year old tennis player. I think the only reason we haven't known about 12 year old basketball players before this is you don't know how tall they might get. God forbid something stunts this kids growth and he never makes it past 5'6" he won't even make the freshman squad at his high school. It's bad for him because it's going to make him identify himself as a basketball player first and everything else next and because if his parents weren't already earmarking him for the big time, they probably will now. Once kids started going straight from high school to the pros, watching out for even younger ones was inevitable (remember Damon Bailey? By high school he allegedly had security guards for away games...and Tiger Woods appeared on That's Incredible when he was 3).
posted by vito90 at 02:48 PM on February 24, 2003
Hoop Scoop Online is the site mentioned in the Post article.
posted by kirkaracha at 03:33 PM on February 24, 2003
This brings us one step closer to genetically engineering NBA players right in the womb.