Quentin Richardson’s Favorite High School Hoop Stories
Words. dimemag
Occasionally on HighSchoolHoop, we like to check in with NBA and college stars to get some of their best memories of playing high school ball. From monster games to heated rivalries to recruiting chases, every elite player has a high school story to share.
Today we check in with the Heat’s Quentin Richardson, a one-time high school prodigy at Whitney Young in Chicago. Here is Q’s story…
“We were dominant. Thing that made us so good is that our three core guys, me, Cordell Henry and Dennis Gates had all played together since sixth grade. I was the only guy who was a Top 10 recruit, but those guys were still Top 30 or 40. We all knew each other, we
knew different situations and scenarios and we were used to playing with each other for so long that it didn’t matter who we played. We could play any type of style - fast , play physical, uptempo, slow-down. I think that’s what made us so good.
“The most points I ever scored was 63 but that was with my AAU team, the Illinois Warriors. In what was probably my biggest game in high school, we beat King High School in the city tournament when I was a sophomore. At that time, Whitney Young was pretty much an academic institution. King was the big powerhouse but we knocked them out. That kind of let the city know that we were going to be one of the best teams and blah,
blah, blah.
“I also remember the City-Suburban Shoot Out when it was Whitney Young versus Fenwick and we played against Corey Maggette. We were ranked No. 1 in the state and they were No. 2. That was a huge big deal and the game was on TV.
“I wasn’t Mr. Basketball in the state of Illinois. I got stiffed - you can put that in the article. I got stiffed because I was going to DePaul and Frank Williams, who is a good friend of mine, he
got Mr. Basketball. Most of the time, the guy who gets Mr. Basketball is the top player who is going to U of I. Since they didn’t make my 10, you know how it is all of the votes are down state. It was definitely kind of laughable. Not to take anything away from Frank, he was nice. It was just laughable because they said the person who gets Mr. Basketball is the best player on the championship team and blah, blah, blah. I won every other player of the year award in the whole state. The funniest thing is Frank shouldn’t have even been No. 2. It should have been me then Corey. It was opposite - like Frank, Corey, then me. I was laughing the whole time, because Illinois wasn’t on my recruiting board. I didn’t want to go to the Big 10. I was punished for that. I didn’t care, I won state championship and other awards so it didn’t matter.
“One more thing you could put in is for my new teammate Udonis Haslem. He claims his high school team was better than mine. We’re the same year, we beat some of the same teams, but we
didn’t get a chance to play them. You can put in there though that we definitely would have beat Miami High even though they were cheating with all the recruiting and stuff. James Jones gave me the inside scoop so I know everything now …”