CHATSWORTH — A handful of WNBA hoodies dotted the crowd at Juju Watkins’ game Saturday night, orange signposts reminding everyone of the direction she’s headed.
Derek Fisher, the former Sparks coach and one of a handful of former NBA players on the premises for Sierra Canyon’s 74-35 CIF-Southern Section Open Division girls basketball playoff victory over Bishop Montgomery, raved: “What I love most about her, she really, really wants to win – and not just be great individually.”
Lindsay Gottlieb, the former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant and Watkins’ coach-to-be at USC, said in a phone call last week: “I’ve never seen a player in high school perform at a level she’s performing at.”
“She’s the best athlete I’ve ever seen,” co-signed Marlon Wells recently, the decorated Temecula Rancho Christian coach with a quarter century of first-hand Southern California girls basketball knowledge. “She’s a pro,” he added. “She’s a pro right now.”
Different people who have watched way more high school girls hoop than me suggested as much, that Watkins – who has already signed with Klutch and with Nike – is WNBA-ready.
I’ve never been an A&R rep, but I knew that OneRepublic, the Grammy-nominated pop rock band, was going to be big when I heard them play once upon a time at the now-defunct Key Club in Hollywood. And I’m no pro basketball scout, but I’ve watched a lot of WNBA games.
And, yep: Juju is coming.
But the phenom is a fledgling still, and I don’t think people appreciate what big, bad wolves stalk the WNBA. So I can wait to see her join that fray – she’ll probably find a way to float above it – in a few years.
While she’s at Sierra Canyon, playing the game as well as any high school girl before her; as well, perhaps, as California prep legends Diana Taurasi, Lisa Leslie or Cheryl Miller, or maybe better – you know what the greatest thing is about Watkins? She’s a kid playing a game.
That’s what I left…
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