Well, let me tell you somethin’ about these basketball fellas from Minnesota. They got some good ones, I tell ya. These boys, they play in them high schools all over Minnesota, and then they go on to the big leagues, that NBA thing. Lots of ’em come from right here. You wouldn’t believe it.
Now, there’s this one fella, they call him Kevin McHale. Heard he was somethin’ else back in the day. He’s older now, around 66, I reckon. Folks around here, they sure did love watchin’ him play. They say he was a real dominant one. Big fella, strong as an ox. That’s what they say. He came from a Minnesota high school, just like some of these other boys. And the folks sure do remember, you can see that with how many voted for him, 330! That’s a lot of people, right?
And then there’s another one, Cole somethin’ or other. Yeah, Cole Aldrich. He went to that Jefferson High School, I think it was. Played a long time, that one. From 2011 to 2018, if you can believe that. They keep track of all these numbers, you know. Like how many games they played, and how many points they got. This Cole fella, he played 339 games. And the points… let me see… 3389. That’s a lot of throwin’ that ball in the hoop, ain’t it?
They got all these lists, you see. Lists of the best players, the ones they say are the greatest of all time. And they come from all over. But a whole bunch are from these Minnesota high schools. They rank ’em, you know. Put ’em in order, from best to, well, not so best, I guess. But they’re all good, far as I can tell.
I hear folks talkin’ about the top 10 NBA players. They say these are the best ones that went to high school around here, in the Twin Cities, they call it. That’s Minneapolis and all them other places around there. Big cities. Not like here. We got more cows than people, I reckon.
- Kevin McHale, that big fella.
- Cole Aldrich, played a long time.
- Lots of others, names I can’t rightly recall.
They got players playin’ for all different teams, all over the country. It’s a big country, you know. And they keep track of their birthdays, and what colleges they went to, after high school, of course. They even keep track of the bigwigs, the ones that run the teams. Names like, uh, Daryl Morey and some fella called Ujiri. Sounds foreign, don’t it? But what do I know? Not from ’round here, that’s for sure. There’s also a Pat Riley and some Danny Ainge, those are names I hear a lot, those must be some good teams they run, right?
And now they’re watchin’ these young’uns. The ones still in high school. They got lists of them, too. The best ones, they say. They’re lookin’ at the boys in the class of 2025, whatever that means. They say they got 300 of ’em on this list, from all over Minnesota. Can you imagine? Three hundred boys, all good at throwin’ that ball around. They call it basketball, but it looks like a lot of runnin’ and jumpin’ to me. They say these are the Minnesota HS Basketball Player Rankings. I guess if you care about that kind of thing, that’s important.
These young fellas, they get awards, too. High school awards, they call ’em. When they’re seniors, that’s the last year of high school. They give ’em prizes and such for bein’ good at the game. It’s a big deal, I reckon. Sets ’em up for the future, maybe get ’em into them colleges, then maybe into the NBA.
I heard some folks talkin’ ’bout some famous NBA player, a big shot named James. They said he was in Rochester, eatin’ at some fancy Italian place. Terza, I think it was called. Now, I don’t know what he was doin’ there, besides eatin’ that fancy food. But it just goes to show ya, these basketball fellas, they get around. Even come to little ol’ places like Rochester sometimes. Maybe he came from a high school around here, too. You never know.
Well, that’s all I can think of right now about them NBA players from Minnesota high schools. It’s a lot to keep track of, ain’t it? All these names and numbers. But it’s interestin’, I suppose. Keeps folks talkin’, anyway. And who knows, maybe one of these days, another one of them Minnesota boys will make it big. We’ll be watchin’, that’s for sure. They are from our high schools, after all.
