10 year old basketball player gets attention from scouts, colleges

There’s no doubt that 10 year old Jaylin Fleming is a hell of a basketball player as evidenced by the video below. But getting calls from high schools and colleges as a 5th grader, well, I guess the line for exploiting kids has been crossed. Then again, I’m sure guys like John Calipari and Tim Floyd have been doing this for years.

Just a few mind jarring quotes from the article in today’s Chicago Tribune

From Illinois coach Bruce Weber

…he’d rather not scout kids that young. “But I just don’t think I have a choice,” he said. “If you want to recruit the right way and do it the way it’s supposed to be done, this is our only choice. And if you take it away, all you’re doing is benefiting the guys who probably don’t do it the right way.”

Sadly, Weber’s mentality seems to fit with how a lot of coaches who are “doing it the right way” feel. If you don’t get into these families’ ears early, then another coach will just swoop in before you.

At this point, you’d think it would be hard to locate kids at such an early age but apparently, there’s a website called HoopScooponline that actually ranks players in the 6th grade. I almost felt dirty visiting the website, thinking I might be labeled as a pedophile. Alas, it’s just of the many recruiting subscriber sites out there on the web. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if NBCs Chris Hansen trolls there looking for his next victim.

As for Jaylin Fleming, remember the name. He’ll be plastered on your TV sets for March Madness when he’s a freshman in college…..in 2017!

Is he the best 5th grade basketball player in the country? {Chicago Tribune}

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