Photo of me on attack my senior year at Croton Harmon High School in New York. Little know secret is that I was a high school attackman. I also played man down an on occasion close defense. Like Chris Paul, I was not highly recruited early in my career.
Launched a series yesterday on recruiting. I recall watching Charlie Rose interview NBA all-star guard Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. I loved Paul story about his recruiting experience as high school player in North Carolina because it parallels somewhat how I earned a lacrosse scholarship to Syracuse University. Like most North Carolinians, Paul wanted to play for the UNC Tar Heels. However the UNC coaching staff, and few other division 1 coaches, showed no interest in Paul until his senior year. Paul never played on the varsity at his high school until he was a junior and he was very tall (still isn’t) as compared to his peers on the court. Paul said the way he caught the attention of coaches at elite programs like UNC is they turned out to see a highly touted guard and Paul was going up against him. Paul scored a bunch of points on his opponent and shut him down offensively. After the game his stock went up including a scholarship offer from UNC. Paul decided instead to attend Wake Forest. Paul’s story makes me think of how many players give up on their dream and how many coaches end up signing players who are pipe dreams. I am amazed of just how short sighted the recruiting process is today in which coaches are asking for verbal commitments from rising sophomores in high school; please someone stop the madness!
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