Rankings have been a big thing for upcoming basketball stars of the new era to see who’s the best of the best. From late Freshman to Senior year, websites like ESPN, 247 Sports, and Maxpreps, every few months update their rankings and express their thoughts on who’s the best in the grade year.
Basketball rankings started in 1959,the USA Today Super 25 national rankings, which started in the fall of 1982, helped popularize national high school rankings around the country in both boys basketball and football.
Ending on Dec 10,2019, brought many new rankings up and grew popular like ESPN and 247 Sports. From Dunbar(Baltimore,MD )to Montverde Academy(Montverde,FL) Rankings have been around forever. Even teams showing who’s the best of the best.
Back to the 2023 new year that came up this past year as a freshman, the media was roaring about who should’ve been number 1.
With names like Mikey Williams and Bronny James getting their names brought up in conversations for that spot. Before the 2020-2021 season started, the rankings from ESPN finally came and the list was great, but not as people thought.
When the rankings came out, many thought Mikey Williams would be #1, but no. A new kid that didn’t get that much recognition from Camden,NJ, DJ Wagner(Camden High) was the king of the mountain.
At #2 Jalen Lewis(Bishop O’dowd High School),a 6’8 center was up next,but many did not like this choice, particularly because nobody knew who Jalen Lewis was.Surprisingly at #5, Mikey Williams came(Lake Norman Christian). As of today, on 247 sports, Mikey has moved up one and dropping Jalen Lewis all the way down to 24.
Bronny James(Sierra Canyon High School) ended the ESPN top 25 list at #25 which was understandable for people, because of the fact Bronny was a freshman on a stacked team with the likes of BJ Boston, Zaire Wade, Ziaire Williams,Shy Odom,and Amari Bailey.
He wasn’t the biggest scoring option, but he helped the team tremendously.
A few words from Sebron Baker the day after rankings started he commented, “Mikey going number 5 is crazy.Why is he that low? He’s 15 dunking like that and doing all he can. Bronny too which I personally hate him being at #25 but he should go higher soon once it’s his team.”
The best thing about Rankings is that it’s always changing, always updating to see who’s gotten better. You’ll eventually see new kids getting better that are new and being the best in the world.
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/playerrankings/_/class/2023 2023 Rankings
https://247sports.com/Season/2023-Basketball/CompositeRecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool 2023 Rankings updated
https://grassrootshoops.net/high-school-basketball-rankings-history/ History of rankings