The Sun-Times’ high school basketball Mount Rushmore project highlights the sport’s biggest names and greatest stars.
With the prep career as the criteria’s centerpiece — with a sprinkling of post-high school success and overall stature used as a separator — we’ve created a Mount Rushmore for 10 geographical regions throughout the Chicago area.
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There is no geographical region in the Chicago area with a longer list of high school basketball superstars than the South Side. There are legitimate icons of the sport who didn’t make the South Side’s Mount Rushmore.
When you start thinking about the players who were left out, you begin to go down memory lane as a high school basketball fan. And you start asking, ‘‘How do you leave these players off?’’
We’re talking about Vocational’s Juwan Howard; King’s Efrem Winters, Jamie Brandon and Rashard Griffith; Simeon’s Nick Anderson, Deon Thomas and Ben Wilson; Carver’s Tim Hardaway and Terry Cummings; Hirsch’s Rickey Green; DuSable’s Maurice Cheeks; and Morgan Park’s Levi Cobb and Ayo Dosunmu.
But it is a memorable quartet of players who made the final cut.
Marcus Liberty, King
Liberty remains one of the most celebrated players in Illinois high school basketball history. He dazzled with his versatility and played with a smoothness and flair that belied his 6-8 size.
Liberty made his initial mark as a junior. With a game-high 18 points, he led King to an upset victory against No. 1-ranked and unbeaten Simeon in the city championship game. The Jaguars went on to win their first state title in 1986.
Then in the summer before his senior year, he became the No. 1 prospect in the country and was profiled in Sports Illustrated.
His 143 points in the 1987 state tournament remain a Class AA record. He scored 41 points in a supersectional victory and 38 in the state semifinals before putting together a 41-point, 15-rebound effort in a title-game loss to East St. Louis Lincoln.
Liberty went on to play at Illinois, where he was part of the famed ‘‘Flyin’ Illini’’ that reached the 1989 Final Four.
Jabari Parker, Simeon
There are few careers more historic than Parker’s.
The hype surrounding Parker began well before he entered high school. He was one of the best freshman players in state history and the first freshman to start at powerhouse Simeon.
College programs from across the country were courting Parker immediately.
Parker’s legend grew over his time at Simeon. At one point, he was the top-ranked high school basketball prospect in the country, on the cover of Sports Illustrated and was named a McDonald’s All-American. He was one of only two players in state history to be named Mr. Basketball twice.
He lived up to the early buildup. At 6-8, his game featured skill and versatility, and he played every position on the floor for the Wolverines.
As a senior, he averaged 18.3 points and 10.4 rebounds, knocking out Jahlil Okafor and Young in the sectional final and Jalen Brunson and Stevenson in the Class 4A championship game.
His legacy is highlighted by leading Simeon to four consecutive state championships and 118 victories in his four seasons.
Parker signed with Duke, headed to the NBA after one season and was the No. 2 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.
Derrick Rose, Simeon
As one of the most electric players in state history, the 6-2 guard captivated the city even before he played for the Bulls and became the youngest player in NBA history to win an MVP.
An Englewood native, Rose was a generational talent who wowed fans with his physical gifts and playing style. In high school, Rose possessed matchless athletic ability, including maximum speed and explosiveness.
He was the rare individual player who sold out high school gyms, leaving a legacy that will be remembered many years from now.
As a junior and senior, he led Simeon to a combined 66 victories and back-to-back city and state titles in 2006 and 2007.
There were few, if any, players with as many signature moments in their high school careers as Rose had. That includes a game-winning shot with 1.6 seconds left in overtime to beat Peoria Richwoods in the 2006 state-championship game.
There was also the 28-point, nine-assist and eight-rebound performance on ESPN in a victory against unbeaten Oak Hill, the No. 1 team in the country.
Rose was a McDonald’s All-American, Mr. Basketball and Sun-Times Player of the Year.
A consensus top-five player in the country, Rose chose to play college ball at Memphis and helped the Tigers to a national runner-up finish as a freshman.
Cazzie Russell, Carver
Before all the post-high school success, including becoming a three-time All-American at Michigan and being the No. 1 pick in the 1966 NBA Draft, Russell was one of the first high school megastars in the city. He is almost a mythical figure at this point because of the time that has passed.
He made his mark by leading Carver to a city title and put an exclamation point on his senior season with a monster performance in Champaign.
The 6-5 Russell scored 22 points in an upset of top-ranked Centralia in the quarterfinals and followed it up with 25 more in a semifinal victory against McLeansboro. In a loss to Stephen Decatur in the title game, Russell scored 24 points. Fans, media and opposing coaches raved about Russell after his performance.
In a Sun-Times survey in 2002, Russell was rated the No. 1 high school player produced in the Chicago area — four decades after he graduated from Carver in 1962.
