Rivals Rewind: USA Olympic team as high school prospects

USA Basketball tips off the Olympic medal round Wednesday with a game against Argentina as they look to continue their dominance. Rivals.com national analyst Eric Bossi takes a look back at his memory of scouting the team members when they were fresh-faced high school stars. The 12-man roster consists of eight former five-stars, one four-star, two three-stars and one unranked player.

Rivals.com rankings: 2017 player | 2017 team | 2018 player

Bossi's memory: It was the spring of Anthony’s junior year that he really blew up on a national level and the event that stood out to me was the 2001 Nike Memorial Day Classic in Bloomington, Ind.

Anthony entered the event well-regarded but not necessarily seen as an elite prospect, even though he had been the Baltimore player of the year as a junior. His coaches for the Baltimore Blue told me at the time that they called him the “Big Stat Sheet” because of his all-around game. Looking back, I remember them raving most about his passing – that’s right, Carmelo Anthony the “passer”.

Anthony was already a done deal for Syracuse even though he hadn’t yet announced and I remember him lighting up everybody in his way that weekend.

Most of all, I remember thinking that he was nuts for not heading straight to the NBA out of high school. He ended up winning a national title at Syracuse and is now USA Basketball’s all-time leading scorer and a nine-time NBA All-Star, so I guess he knew what he was doing.

Bossi's memory: I was at the Real Deal on the Hill event in early April of 2007 and I was going to skip a round of 15U games so I could grab a legitimate lunch. I was walking across Bud Walton Arena when I noticed this kid make a very nice play. He was much bigger and looked way more athletic than everybody on the floor so I stuck around to watch him. It turned out to be Barnes, who was playing for the All-Iowa Attack’s 15U team.

I’ll never forget what happened next. Within a day or so of writing about him – and also suggesting he could be a top 25 player nationally in the class of 2010 – I received a call from a competing summer team coach telling me that I was crazy and that Barnes “isn’t even a top five player in the state of Iowa.”

Now that Barnes signed a four-year, $94 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks, I wonder how all of those supposedly better prospects from the Iowa high school class of 2010 compare.

Bossi's memory: I would love to write about discovering Jimmy Butler in some dark, secluded gym, but it would be fiction. In fact, Butler was so lightly recruited out of high school that he didn’t even have a Rivals.com profile. He did develop a bit of a reputation during his one year of junior college where then-Marquette coach Buzz Williams, who was able to find Butler because he played with Marquette commit Joseph Fulce, beat Iowa State and Mississippi State to land him.

Williams once wrote to me in a note that Butler “didn’t have a reputation, but he had toughness and sometimes that’s all you need.”

He couldn’t have been more right.

Bossi's memory: The first time I saw Cousins was in June of 2006 where he was a dominant force at the Nike Hoop Jamboree (now called the Elite 100) despite being one of the youngest players there.

Even though he was just finishing his freshman year of high school in Alabama, Cousins was already 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds, and bullied kids up and down the court. I simply remember him being one of the meanest dudes that I had ever seen on a basketball court, especially at such a young age. He initially committed to Memphis but followed John Calipari to Kentucky and was in the first wave of Cal’s one-and-dones.

Looking back, he’s one of the first players that I remember being acutely aware of where he was ranked and who had ranked him there.

Bossi's memory: The good half of one of the more hilarious package deals in recruiting history - the other was Romeo Miller, aka rapper Lil’ Romeo, the son of Master P. – I’ve always looked at DeRozan as the first player of the mixtape generation.

He was very well-regarded on the West Coast, but it was a junior year highlight reel that caught the attention of non-Californians like myself and made him a guy that I absolutely had to see on his Belmont Shore summer team, especially since he was teaming with another top five player in Brandon Jennings.

That California high school class of 2008 was ridiculous producing USA Basketball team members Paul George and Klay Thompson plus NBA All-Star Jrue Holiday and center Jeff Withey in addition to DeRozan and Jennings.

Bossi's memory: What is there to say or write about Durant that hasn’t already been written? He had future superstar written all over him from the second he really started to blow up on the national scene as a high school freshman and we’ve not yet seen another true wing player with his size and skill since he came along.

Durant was always ranked right behind Greg Oden and I can’t watch Durant without wondering how great Oden would have been had it not been for a series of injuries derailing his career before it ever got started.

Bossi's memory: George is one of those guys I remember seeing play but I don’t remember him vividly and I certainly never imagined he would develop into the star player he is today.

Playing grassroots ball with the Los Angeles-based Pump ‘N Run organization, I recall him being a thin and athletic forward during the summer of 2007. He was used as more of an active four man who got things done with quickness and athleticism around the rim. I saw him again at the Ocean View Tournament of Champions during his senior year and thought of him as a top 100 player but still didn’t see stardom in his future.

George actually committed to both Santa Clara and Pepperdine before ending up at Fresno State, where he blossomed into a lottery pick.

Bossi's memory: I was only able to see him play a few times and what really stood out to me was his toughness, motor and ability to be a playmaker as a mismatch power forward.

Green initially committed to Kentucky and fans were split between thinking he was ranked too low and wondering what Tubby Smith was doing taking such a “low” ranked player. Smith left UK and Green ended up at Michigan State, and has turned into a classic example of a guy who refused to let traditional positional expectations or rankings define him as a player.

Bossi's memory: I’ve told the story before, but I remember hearing that there were some in his home state of New Jersey who thought that he could go down as the best player ever from the state. Needless to say I was a bit skeptical.

So, when I finally got a chance to see him play it was in a back gym in Las Vegas in the summer of 2008. Somehow, the only college coach in attendance was Billy Donovan. He and I watched as Irving went wherever he wanted via the dribble, scored with a high skill level and dropped 40 points like it was nothing.

Bossi's memory: Jordan burst onto the national scene at the 2005 Kingwood Classic where he entered as an unknown kid from Houston and left one of the hottest big men targets in the country.

What’s crazy about him is that what you see now is pretty much exactly what he was back then. Sure he’s stronger and improved his all-around game, but even back in 2005 he was a high rising dunker and shot rejector who rebounded at a high rate.

Also, with all of the talk these days about package deals it’s interesting to remember that Jordan was a classic package deal with his summer coach Byron Smith. Jordan had initially committed to Billy Gillispie at Texas A&M but in order to secure Jordan’s commitment when he took over for Gillispie, Mark Turgeon had to agree to hire Smith as an assistant coach for the Aggies.

Bossi's memory: First of all, Lowry was a member of one of the three best classes of high school seniors that I’ve ever scouted (2007 and 2016 are the other two). If he had been in nearly any other class he would have been even more highly celebrated. But man was he fun to watch with Philly MJC because of his toughness and physically impressive game for an under-the-rim player.

Lowry, who chose Villanova over Arkansas, didn’t even make the McDonald’s All-American game after his senior year. He had the misfortune of being in the same high school class as Rajon Rondo, Shaun Livingston, Jordan Farmar and Sebastian Telfair. While he’s arguably turned into the best of the bunch, it was hard to argue that those guys didn’t deserve to be in the game at the time.

Bossi's memory: Though he ended up ranked pretty highly, Thompson was fairly under the radar until later on in his high school career.

I remember watching him play in Cincinnati at the Adidas It Takes 5ive event during July of 2007 and thinking that he could really shoot it, had good size and a quick release. However, he was an average – at best – ball-handler and he wasn’t the most physical kid.

By the time I saw him again as a senior at the same Ocean View Tournament of Champions where I saw Demar DeRozan and Paul George as seniors, he was a completely different player. I knew Washington State was getting a giant steal. Tony Bennett only got to coach him for one season before leaving for Virginia, but George helped to establish Bennett’s rep as a coach who could find underrated talent.