Ja Morant never should have made the NBA All Star Game, and here’s why

Ja Morant is an NBA All Star, and an MVP candidate for the Memphis Grizzlies. And they are team who’s all-time leading scorer is Mike Conley Jr. with a career average of under 15 points per game. But his athleticism, passion, and flat out basketball ability, is the biggest reason why they are now NBA title contenders. But Ja Morant wasn’t supposed to be in the NBA. In fact, it is questionable whether or not he ever should have played Division 1 basketball. And that is because Ja Morant was completely unranked in high school.

Before the Politics

Before he was an NBA player, and even before he led an upset victory for Murray State during March Madness, Ja Morant was a high school basketball player. He graduated from Crestwood High School in South Carolina, where he was a three time all-state performer. When it comes to scoring points, he broke the school record for most points scored with nearly 1700. And on top of all that he was the MVP of his entire region 3 years in a row.

Enter the Politics

So how does a player who is as accomplished as Ja Morant end up as an unranked player by every major ranking service. He wasn’t a 1 or 2 star recruit, they literally labeled him as unranked, not even worthy of a score. But this is due to the politics of recruiting. Where for whatever the reason, Ja Morant must not have been playing in the right tournaments either in high school or AAU. These select events are primarily what ranking services go off of, because it is nearly impossible for them to follow who is playing at every school across the country. The assumption is that if you are good enough they will hear about you, but somebody should have told them about Ja Morant. Maybe the state championship scouts were sick that day?

The Bottom Line

Even though Ja Morant was not ranked by the online services, he was still recruited Division 1. Murray State found him, a program known for producing NBA caliber point guards. The rest was history where two years later he came the Ohio Valley Conference player of the year, an All-American, and a lottery pick in the NBA Draft. College basketball recruiting is a game, and fortunately for Ja Morant he was pretty good at basketball games. So the joke is on the recruiters, because if they had been paying attention, like everyone else in the state of South Carolina, they could have gotten that one right.

KNOW THE GAME. WIN THE GAME.

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