Former NBA Champion Says Public School is 'Not the Answer' for Prospects

As basketball continues to grow around the world, there's never been more competition to reach the highest level.

With that, though, comes increased visability to players across the globe.

Prospects who may have fallen through the cracks years ago are now given multiple opportunities to showcase their talentes to college and NBA scouts.

As college football and basketball continue to grow, schools specializing in athletic preparation have sprouted all over America, helping the top players in their sports prepare for the next level.

IMG Academy, Montverde Academy, Link Academy, Mater Dei, Sierra Canyon, Dynamic Prep, Prolific Prep, Huntington Prep and others are just a few examples of private and prep schools that have produced multiple college basketball and NBA stars in recent years.

Many of the league's incoming players and prospects like; Cooper Flagg, Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes, Derik Queen, Jalen Green and others played at the aforementioned schools.

As these academies and prep schools produce more NBA players, many of the top prospects have elected to leave their hometowns and head to the aforementioned programs.

In the 2025 class alone, five of the top 10 players in 247Sports recruiting rankings hail from prep schools and academies.

As a result, many of the top picks in the upcoming draft will likely come from private schools.

This phenomanon led to a spirited opinion from former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins.

"If you have plans on playing basketball past high school, at any level, regular public school, is not the f***king answer," Perkins said on a podcast appearance.

"They're wasting three hours of their day doing s**t at that school that's not benefitting them and they're getting behind the eight ball.

Athletes around the country, those top tier players, the ones who are taking basketball serious, they are either in home school, or prep school." As previous outlined, there are plenty of players in college basketball and the NBA who hail from prep schools and academies, but there are still a number of players who reach the highest level staying in their home town.

Cason Wallace graduated from Richardson High School in north Dallas and was a top-five prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.

After one year at Kentucky, Wallace was selected in the top 10 of the 2023 NBA Draft and went on to start games in the NBA Finals by 2025.

Another Dallas-area product, Ron Holland II played for Duncanville High School in south Dallas, where he was regarded as 247Sports' No.

1 prospect in the 2023 recruiting class.

Holland played for the G League Ignite before being selected No.

5 in the 2024 draft and earning playoff minutes as a rookie.

NBA All-Stars like Trae Young, Tyrese Haliburton and Jaylen Brown all played basketball at public high schools, garnering attention from many Division I scouts before playing at high-major colleges and being selected in the NBA Draft lottery.

While there is evidence to support Prekins' argument that prep schools have overtaken public schools in the race to produce NBA players, there is also plenty of examples in the league that prove players from public schools can still reach the highest level.

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