5'8 and 3/4ths but that was in high school... I might be an inch or so taller, I haven't been measured since. and that's without shoes.
I'm long armed so that helps and I'm pretty athletic. at my height I can dunk with both hands.. at least I could, I probably still can ut it would take alot out of me. I had a 42' vertical.. myb est friend, who was a legit 5'8 could out jump me, he had like a 44' and had the wingspan of a 6'2 guy.
i grew up in a basketball family. My dad played for Florida State for two years than dropped out because of chasing women/grades. my cousin played for arkansas, I have another cousin, that I barely know.. he changed his legal name because his dad (my uncle) is basically a drug addict and wants nothing to do with him, but he I think will be a freshman at Cal this year.. he's somewhere out here, I need to call my grandmom and find out. Even though I loved baseball growing up, I was basically forced to play basketball, and in all honesty, it came pretty easy for the most part, but I never LOVED it enough to put that much effort into it.
I was good enough to play on Joe Johnsons 17 and under AAU rockets team, and get alot of playing time when I was basically 14/15.
of course they weren't who they were back then. The one guy I REaLLy remember playing was chandler, because he had the media following him since he was like in the 9th grade.
honestly.. he wasn't THAT good. I mean.. Joe was better than he was skill wise.. but the dude was so damn long and athletic you coudln't do anything around the goal. But he couldn't shoot and unless it was a dunk he basically wasn't going to score against someone close to his size. i could see the "potential" but still.
lol, the funniest thing ever was when we played Dejaun Wagner. mind you.. I was pretty small. I had no problem guarding someone 6-1 or 6-2. My whole family is over 6 feet.. you get used to it. i wasn't that weak.. but DW was like 200 pounds... he lit my ass up. I"m be honest. It wasn't so much that I couldn't guard him. i could stay in front of him. But you had to make a choice.. he could shot as wel (if it weren't for injuries... this kid was GOOOOOOOD).. like.. REALLY shot. you had to face guard him, but you couldn't because he can blow by you. and he ws strong, cat quick and athletic so if he got a step he can finish. I think he had like 35 on me. Coach was like look.. we can't double team him because there is another player on the team that was pretty damn good as well, and I was the best perimeter Defender on the team.. he said well... just do what you can and we will shut the rest of the team down. we won by 4 but it wasn't by anything I did. I didn't even shoot well that game.
but in high school, regular high school games, you had no chance. by the time I was a JUNIOR, mind you I didn't even play as a senior, there might have been a handful of players at my position that could guard me. Practice was harder than games, because my best friend, who was also a PG (we both started, we had a 3 guard system) was actually probably more athletic than I was, but I was more skilled. I was just too skilled and I can shoot from just about anywhere. But I'm a natural PG so I don't look for my shot and we were so loaded I didn't have to shoot.. we had what ended up being 5 D1 players on our team and the guy with the most upside on our team was (literary) a crackhead who got kicked off the team. a 6-7 true shooting guard straight from the hood that could dunk on anyone and play 4 positions, but couldn't put the pipe down long enough to stay on the team.
anyway.. Damien Wilkens was probably the most over hyped thing I have ever seen. Why he was so highly recruited i have no idea.
the best player (besides Joe, although he had the most potential, he wasn't the best player at that time on our AAU team, Jared Heart was) I have seen with my own two eyes was T-Mac.
words can't descrive how easy the game came to him. He hit us, with Joe holding him, up for 37 and was in foul trouble the entire game. that was the only time I ever heard joe say "man, I can't do nothing with this guy". We actually tried to double team him.. no sir. he was 6-8 and could shoot with ease over anyone, handle the ball like a point guard, but you could tell he was still VERY VERY raw. just natural athletic ability.
When I played AAU ball, I got tic because I'm a very good defender, I don't turn the ball over, I can beat most people off the dribble and I know my teammates, and I can hit open shots so you have to stay off me. we had an all star team, I didn' thave to look for my shot. however in high school, my two best friends were the two best players on the team outside of me, I would be a little more assertive but not really.
I tore my ACL in practice of my senior year and gave it up after that.
