What’s My Name? Phil Pressey
Words. dimemag
For Phil Pressey, basketball has been embedded in him ever since he can remember.
“Since I was maybe around three years old, I just remember having a basketball,” says the Episcopal School of Dallas point guard, a top prospect in the high school Class of 2010. “I used to watch my dad play whenever I had a chance, and just went from there.”
Working in young Phil’s favor was the fact that his dad is Paul Pressey—an 11-year NBA vet and three-time All-Defensive pick who played for the Bucks, Spurs and Warriors—and that watching him on a daily basis also meant watching the rest of the best players in the world. (Paul Pressey is currently an assistant coach with the Hornets, affording his son the opportunity to regularly talk shop with Chris Paul.)
As a junior this season, Phil Pressey averaged 19 points, 10 assists, five steals and five rebounds per game. Despite his small size (he’s listed at 5-9, 155) he is weighing scholarship offers from the likes of UConn, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and Baylor.
“He’s just a magician with the basketball,” says Adam Finkelstein of New England Recruiting Report, who watched Pressey up-close when he was a sophomore at Cushing Academy in Massachusetts before transferring to Episcopal last year.
Watching Pressey play is like watching lighting strike; he’s that quick getting the ball from end-line to end-line, and with his 39-inch vertical, he can finish above the rim. “Pushing the ball up the court is what I do best,” says Pressey. “As a point guard I like getting my teammates involved and making the right plays. Offensively, the floater shot is my best move. I just feel comfortable driving into the lane and letting the ball glide through the air over defenders.”
Last summer, Pressey made a name for himself when he led one of the elite AAU squads in the country, Boston Amateur Basketball Club (BABC), which also featured ’09 UConn signees Alex Oriakhi and Jamaal Coombs-McDaniel. Pressey also shined at the Nike Global Challenge tournament, the LeBron James Skills Academy, and the Steve Nash Point Guard Academy. He was also chosen to play for the Nike Select Global team that toured Brazil in August. At the end of the summer, Pressey was considered a Top-20 player in his class by several scouting services, and one of the top three point guards.
“Last summer was definitely a good experience for me with BABC,” says Pressey. “We had all played together for so long that I knew where everyone wanted the ball and I just got it to them.”
BABC assistant coach Chris Driscoll believes that Pressey was just as important to the squad’s summer run as the two senior UConn recruits. “Phil was a leader in every sense of the word,” says Driscoll. “He knew when to be passive, but he also knew when to take matters into his own hands and score.”
Going into his senior year, Pressey has some goals left to accomplish: a Texas state championship, state Player of the Year, and All-American selection among them. So while his list of potential colleges continues to grow as his profile gets bigger, he’s staying out of the recruiting circus for now.
“I let my mom and my coach handle all the recruiting stuff,” Phil says. “When’s it’s time for me to get involved and make a decision I will, but for right now I’m focused on the season and getting better on the court.”
[...] When we featured Phil Pressey in Dime #49, we knew that the 5-10 point guard from the Episcopal School of Dallas stood out from his peers. When we saw him hold his own against some of the best players in the country at the Boost Mobile Elite 24 a few weeks ago at Gauchos Gym in NYC, we knew that he’d have a choice from some of the top programs in the country. So it may come as a surprise to you that after receiving scholarship offers from Arizona, Baylor, LSU and UCLA, Pressey committed to Missouri. [...]