(Note: Like the association I did with Bill Russell [which I still plan to try again at some point] this is a four year association with one player at its center.)
Every Division I team in the country has been watching Ali Rice since he turned 12. He’s the kid who has everything. Tall and rangy (grew to be 6’6”), can play all 5 spots if need be, incredible reflexes and quickness, a vertical leap that seems to be four feet (it isn’t, of course), great defensive instincts, a passer as good as the best in hoops history, and born to shoot, with a range of at least 25 feet. He’s a natural SF but again, can play anywhere.
He’s an extremely bright kid who does very well in school, from a family that hasn’t allowed him to become a head case. He has made it clear that he has no interest in pro ball. He intends to graduate in three years, then immediately begin Ph.D. work in Astrophysics (which means, if he stays at the same school, he can play for four years). At 17 he has perspective and good sense that is all but scary. Dad is a professor of Black Studies at Boston University, and mom is a psychiatrist, M. D. and all. She was an All American Shooting Guard and was her son’s first teacher, in hoops and in most everything else. Dad and son are also very close but dad has never been particularly athletic.
The family understands that their son can pick his school, literally any school in Division I. They want their son to play for a good coach, kid friendly coach, not a hothead or a win at all costs guy. In the end they chose Harvard, a school that had never been a basketball power, but in retrospect seems like the inevitable choice. It had the advantage of being dad’s alma mater. Young Ali Rice wanted to be a little further from his parents, not because he planned to raise hell, which he didn’t, but because he wanted to spread his wings and make it on his own, but Boston was big enough for him to feel separated from his parents, at least a little. He would live on campus, of course. Harvard Coach Wes Carter was ecstatic, and couldn’t believe his luck.
Make no mistake, Ali Rice was not just the “phenom of the year,” he had the potential of being among the very best to ever play the game.