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 are historic boys basketball programs scattered throughout the West Side of Chicago — programs such as Farragut, Westinghouse, Orr, Crane, Marshall and Young, which have produced so many unforgettable teams and won countless state and city titles.
These programs also have churned out what feels like an endless list of high-profile stars over the last 75 years. Not only could you create one Mount Rushmore from them, but you could create a second one, easily.
The backup Mount Rushmore on the West Side? The pickings certainly aren’t slim: Young’s Jahlil Okafor, Manley’s Russell Cross, Marshall’s Patrick Beverley, Farragut’s Ronnie Fields, Crane’s Sherron Collins and the Westinghouse trio of Hersey Hawkins, Eddie Johnson and Kiwane Garris.
But it’s hard to argue against any of the principal four chosen here, highlighted by a Hall of Famer and another of basketball’s all-time greats.
Mark Aguirre, Westinghouse
The high scorer became a household name around the country as a college star at DePaul, averaging 24 points a game as a freshman before surpassing 2,000 career points in just three monster seasons. He was the No. 1 pick in the 1981 NBA Draft and went on to play 20 seasons in the league. That’s a heck of a post-prep career.
But before all that, Aguirre was already a legend in the city, a product of the playgrounds of the West Side. He began his high school career at Austin before transferring to Westinghouse, leading the Warriors to a city championship as a senior in 1977, when he was a McDonald’s All-American.
Then he played in one of the most memorable and anticipated state tournament games in history, scoring 28 points and pulling down 11 rebounds in a 63-60 loss to St. Joseph and superstar Isiah Thomas in the Elite Eight in Champaign.
Aguirre, a wide-bodied, 6-7 small forward, was a force and an anomaly — a scoring machine before there was a three-point line. He can’t really be compared to any players today because of his unique scoring style, rooted in thunderous dunks, pretty finger rolls and an ultra-reliable jumper, all of which defied his pudgy look.
Kevin Garnett, Farragut
Although he played just one season of high school ball in Chicago, Garnett’s presence, dominance and lasting legacy settle any debate of whether he’s Rushmore-worthy.
His arrival from South Carolina created a buzz, making national headlines. So, too, did his tomahawk dunks, precise passing, feathery touch around the rim and lightning-quick spin moves. No player was supposed to be able to do what he could at his size (6-11) and age. He became so famous so fast that Chicago barely had time to process what had happened before he was off to the NBA just three months after his last high school game.
There might never have been a bigger high school basketball traveling road show than the 1994-95 Farragut team, which featured not only Garnett in his lone season but also the explosive, high-flying Ronnie Fields. Squeezing into a gym to see the two was a must if you were a basketball fan in the mid-1990s.
Averaging an absurd 25.2 points, 17.9 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 6.5 blocks, Garnett led Farragut to the Elite Eight. But the Admirals, the No. 1-ranked team in the country, were upset by Thornton in the state quarterfinals.
Garnett, the consensus No. 1 player in the country, was named USA Today’s National Player of the Year. He went on to become MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game, which led to the Timberwolves selecting him fifth overall in the 1995 NBA Draft. Remember, this was before preps-to-the-pros was really a consideration. When Garnett announced that he’d bypass college and go straight to the NBA, it was the first time a player had done so in 14 years and only the fourth time in history.
When all was said and done and the whirlwind of his four-month season at Farragut had ended, Garnett left the impression of being the most talented prep player in state history.
Quentin Richardson, Young
The Class of 1998 in Illinois is often revered as the best the state has ever produced. There were 60-plus Division I players and 18 high-major players, including nine ranked among the nation’s top 100. Richardson was the best.
Even among all that talent and all those first-rate teams, the 6-6 Richardson dominated throughout his career and led two different Young teams to the Elite Eight. They didn’t advance any further his junior year, but in 1998, they bagged their first state championship in program history, with Richardson notching 24.4 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. In four state tournament wins, he averaged 21.5 points and 14 rebounds, including 18 points and 20 rebounds in the title game.
He also played and starred in one of the most consequential regular-season games of the last 50 years. In a matchup featuring two state powers and the top two prospects in the state — both nationally ranked — Richardson and Young beat Corey Maggette and Fenwick. Richardson didn’t disappoint with 28 points and 19 rebounds in the 58-55 win before a sold out crowd at Northwestern’s Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Richardson’s modern NBA game, in which he relied more on his three-point marksmanship, was much different from how he played in his high school days, absolutely dominating as a rebounder and showing ridiculous non-stop tenacity.
He stayed home to play college ball at DePaul, where he immediately exploded on the scene as a freshman with 18.9 points and 10.5 rebounds a game. After two years on the Lincoln Park campus, which included helping the Blue Demons to an NCAA Tournament appearance, he embarked on a successful 13-year NBA career.
George Wilson, Marshall
An old-school legend can’t be forgotten, not when he’s a ground-breaking player with two state championships. Wilson’s résumé speaks for itself.
A 6-8 interior force who dominated defensively and on the glass, he was a three-time all-state selection who scored more than 2,200 points in his career. He averaged 25 points as a sophomore, 27 as a junior and 26 as a senior. Regardless of the era, those are incredible scoring numbers.
More important, Wilson led Marshall to a state title in 1958, making them the first all-Black team and the first Public League team to do so. He also was the inaugural Sun-Times Player of the Year in 1960 after leading the Commandos to a second state title.
And he kept winning in college. While at Cincinnati, he won an NCAA championship as a sophomore and was a national runner-up as a junior. He also was a starter on the 1964 gold-medal U.S. Olympic team.
