By Donnell Suggs
@Suggswriter
Every state in the Union has a could-have-been should-have-been high school basketball star. A player so awesome while at a local high school that every living breathing thing under God’s watchful eye prays every night that when the time comes he or she signs with the local college-see Damon Bailey and Steve Alford at Indiana, Ed O’Bannon, younger brother Charles O’Bannon at UCLA, newly hired head coach of his alma mater and Brooklyn’s own Chris Mullin at St. John’s. The hometown boy stays home and accomplished his dreams where everyone that has helped him along the way-his parents, high school coach, AAU coach, teammates, the old man at the grocery store that gave him his first job, the janitor that allowed him to work on his shot before school every day-all could get down to the gym to continue cheering him on at Old U. Born in Jackson, Mississippi and tested at Callaway High School, Malik Newman is that player and nothing in the Magnolia State college basketball and in college basketball recruiting will ever be the same.
There are a number of videos on the web that demonstrate Mr. Newman’s abilities
and show why he’s ranked anywhere from the #3 recruit in the class of 2015 to the best overall guard in the class. He’s the only player in the history of Mississippi high school basketball history to win four consecutive state championships, two Mr. Basketball awards and two gold medals with Team USA while also starting for the McDonald’s All-American team. Dude had a 77 point weekend for goodness sakes.
With all of the early NBA draft defections Newman might finish the season-potentially his only one in Starkville-as the best guard in the nation heading into the 2016 NBA draft.
Stats aside what ultimately makes Mr. Newman special is the fact that he chose to attend school at Mississippi State this fall. Yes, the same Mississippi State that finished this past season with a record of 13-19, 6-12 in the SEC. The same Mississippi State that hasn’t made a Final Four since 1996. The best guard in the nation has signed with a team that has a new coach (former UCLA and Pitt head man Ben Howland has taken over what was a lost cause till now) and their leading returning scorer-Craig Sword at 11.3 points per-coming off of an injury. The Bulldogs lost both games to rival Ole Miss during the regular season and only beat visiting Division II Clayton State University by 13. A loss in the first round of the SEC tournament to a so-so Auburn Tigers team ended what was once again a disappointing men’s basketball season in Starkville.
Newman’s signing will change basketball recruiting. How? Basketball, especially in the “amateur” ranks is a copycat sport. Once one player does something and it works out, the next players will do the same without even realizing the trend has even started. See: Kevin Garnett’s decision to forgo college basketball (Sorry Michigan!) and enter the draft? The April 13, 2015 issue of Sports Illustrated has an excellent feature by Joan Niesen on a St. Louis basketball player of remarkable talent by the name of Jayson Tatum that was already leaning towards staying home. Just like Newman, whose father Horatio Webster played basketball at Mississippi State during the late 90’s, Tatum’s dad Justin Tatum played for the Billikens at St. Louis University. There, do you see the possibility of the trend slowly morphing into fad? If so it unfortunately benefits college basketball and the powers that be more than it will the players. What will Newman better benefit by playing for what is clearly a bad team at MSU? More minutes and shots than he would have gotten at reigning national champion Duke or perennial Final Four guest Kentucky. Sure. Even more notoriety in his home state. Most definitely. The school looks to gain by a much larger margin however. Starting with what should be a packed ‘Midnight Madness’ at Humphrey Coliseum on to sold out home games all season long which add up to tickets sales, merchandise sales and most like an ESPN game or two versus Kentucky or Florida or rival Ole Miss. Newman and his family will not receive a cent from any of this celebration of his abilities. Such is the price for fame on the “amateur” level. His time will come.
The ghost of Mississippi high school players past will be vanquished however and all will be made well when they are gone from the little gymnasiums of Mississippi. Chris Jackson, now Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was the best until James Robinson was until Othella Harrington was until Jonathan Bender scored 31 points in the 1999 McDonald’s All-American game breaking Michael Jordan’s record and then he was the best. Then came Monta Ellis-The Mississippi Bullet- and Travis Outlaw, along with Bender all were preps-to-pros. All were All-Americans, some were signed to play at Mississippi State, all were NBA players of various degrees of success but none attended school in Mississippi. None. Malik Newman is the exorcist, he is the curse breaker. The one.
Google the word “Mississippi” and click on the images tab and you will see that the Confederate flag is prominent in more than half of the pictures. It is still a way of life down there and that is unfortunate because a young Black man with a special basketball skill set-a unique set of skills to borrow from my man Liam Neeson-is hitching his ride to a school that has a history of bad basketball and state-his own state-that was slow to recognize any good by a man or woman of color for a long time. If nothing else that time is now.
