The Path of Least Resistance

The Golden State Warriors' influence on basketball on all levels continues to grow.  It wasn't enough to have 5th grade boys launching 27-foot jumpers without throwing a pass to any teammates on an offensive possession--and not get benched immediately.  Nor was it enough to see a college team attempt 40 three-pointers in losing the National Championship game.  Now we have high school kids forming their own "super teams" here in Wisconsin.

That is the way it looks as two of the top players in the state have decided to transfer to the same school this year.  Jalen Johnson--a junior--has up and moved from Sun Prairie to Glendale--so he can attend Nicolet High School.  That announcement (made on Twitter) came after another highly-recruited player, junior Desmond Polk, suddenly left New Berlin West to attend Nicolet last spring.  At Nicolet, Johnson and Polk will join another top college prospect--Jamari Sibley, who is also a junior.

Interestingly enough, all three of these kids played together this summer on the AAU tournament circuit with the Phenom University team out of Milwaukee.  It's not to hard to imagine that they probably spent time Snapchatting each other--while all sitting in the same row of chairs in the gym--about how they should all play together and win a couple of state championships--instead of competing against each other for the title.  Just like Kevin Durant couldn't beat Golden State while playing in Oklahoma City--so he just joined them.

There is a potential holdup to the formation of Wisconsin's High School Superteam.  Transfers of athletes after a player's sophomore year require approval from the WIAA before they can play--otherwise the kids have to sit out a year.  But families only need to show that they did move to the new school district for a valid reason--beyond the basketball team is better--and the transfer is almost always approved.

As you might expect, backlash to this "free agent" formation of a high school team has come mainly from us older folks that cover sports.  We like to point out that Larry Bird never joined the Lakers to win championships with Magic Johnson and that kids today try to find the easy way when it comes to everything.  We also like to wring our hands and worry that the days of kids playing together from 5th grade through high school and living out the dream of winning a championship as life-long friends is over.  It's just a matter of time before certain schools in certain parts of the state will become "magnets" for top athletes looking to win--and gain recruiting attention--and the rest of the state will be left with the scrubs.

So Nicolet will likely be the target of scorn by us "old-timers" for the next two years--as we root for say a plucky, underdog group of kids from somewhere like Oshkosh West to "out Golden State" Nicolet in a state semi-final game and make 30-three pointers to pull off the major upset--and prove that there are still "right ways to win".