The entire TUP crew here at SB Nation Chicago are big fans of the multi-faceted media conglomerate known as The Basketball Jones. I started listening to J.E. Skeets and Tas Melas' podcasts way back in 2007, and I have a t-shirt to prove it. I also have it on good authority that my assistant editor -- "Hybrid" professor Bobby Stompy -- never misses an episode of the Jones. Z.W. Martin even used to fake-employ Tas when he was doing SlowBreaker. I think you get the point: TUP loves TBJ, and we think all you guys and gals should, too.
Last week on the Jones, an episode was dedicated to Trey Kerby packing up his suburban Chicago home and moving it to Skeets and Tas' native Canada. The episode got a little unhinged at certain points, like when Kerby started talking about some of his less than legal college-aged transgressions. That's when I decided to hit up Trey on Twitter.
(I swear, we'll get to the point eventually.)
Here's the conversation between Trey and I in chronological order. Click to make it bigger Actually, just click here to make it readable. I like how it starts out pseudo-inspirational and quickly unravels into both of us making obscure Illinois high school basketball jokes.
Because Trey didn't take my advice and blog about it, I will. Isn't it pretty nuts? Local guy Dwyane Wade -- who essentially won an NBA championship by his lonesome in 2006 -- couldn't crack the top four high school players in Illinois during his senior season.
Before you raise the question: yes, the site that did the rankings -- High School Elite run by Frank Rusnak -- was *super* legit during the era of the Web when everyone used dial-up connections and your parents shared an AOL email address. I remember going on it all the time when I was, like, 12. I also know a bit about Chicago high school hoops having it covered it at the Sun-Times for YourSeason.com for several seasons. I remember my bosses telling me they could have never predicted that Wade would make such massive strides at Marquette and eventually become of the NBA's very best players.
Granted, the local prep hoops scene was loaded in Y2K. Darius Miles was an athletic revelation at East St. Louis High, and would go on to be the third pick in the NBA Draft later that year. This was all presumably before he started sweating whiskey during games. The rest? Former DePaul bruiser Andre Brown, the single most UIC basketball player of all-time (Cedric Banks), and former prep phenom Imari Sawyer.
And then we get to D-Wade. What you got, Rusnak?
- 5) 6'4" Dwyane Wade WG/WF Richards (Oak Lawn) AAU/Illinois Warriors-
- No real weaknesses in his game, Dwayne is a scoring machine on offense, and on defense he is adept at making crucial steals or blocks.
Random fact I came across while Google'ing around for this post: Darius Miles is still only 29.