When UCLA star guard Arron Afflalo was a 10-year-old youth, he was a stand-out basketball player for Issy Washington’s Slam-N-Jam Development League in Carson.

Washington was one of the first to recognize the skinny kid with the sweet shooting stroke early on.

Afflalo later mushroomed into a teen prodigy playing for the Southern California All Stars elite AAU club team and began to draw attention from major colleges throughout the nation.

While attending Compton Centennial High School, Afflalo was a four-year starter for coach Rod Palmer’s Apaches team. The team also featured USC starting guard Gabriel Pruitt and Jervaughn Johnson, now at San Diego State.

UCLA head coach Ben Howland made Afflalo his first recruit when he landed in Westwood from the University of Pittsburgh and the choice of the kid nicknamed “Straight A’s” has paid great dividends for the Bruins program.

The Bruins have reached the NCAA tournament in each of his three seasons and last season lost to Florida for the National Championship.

Afflalo thought about leaving UCLA for the NBA after just his sophomore season, but decided to return because of the Bruins desire to win a championship for the school.

He will lead UCLA into the Final Four again this Saturday, March 31 when UCLA plays Florida in a rematch of the title game a year ago.

He leads the Bruins in scoring averaging 16.9 points per game and became the first UCLA player to be named to the Associated Press All American team in 12 years.

While UCLA has always been considered the elite championship team in college basketball winning a record 11 National Championships and appearing in the Final Four a record 17 times, it had not always recruited Black players from local urban communities.

Former Crenshaw star Marques Johnson was among the most successful, earning All American honors and helping the Bruins win championships for coach John Wooden before embarking on a successful NBA career. He is now a college basketball analyst for Fox Sports Network.

Verbum Dei in Watts was responsible for sending UCLA such stars as David Greenwood and Kenny Fields. Ten years ago, the Bruins successfully recruited Baron Davis, who grew up in South Central Los Angeles but attended Crossroads, an elite private school in Santa Monica.

Westchester star Trevor Ariza only stayed for one season, and Fairfax star Josh Shipp has been a key contributor this year averaging 13 points and three rebounds. Another key performer for the Bruins has been freshman guard Russell Westbrook of Lawndale Leuzinger.

Much of this growing trend can be traced to Afflalo, who in addition to being a tremendous basketball player is also a polished student in the classroom.

Afflalo has proved that it doesn’t matter where you grow up and attend school but it’s what you do when you get there and there is no better model to follow than the Compton kid known as “Straight A’s.”

Published in : Sports, Basketball