Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Looking Back: The 2002 Recruiting Class

melo

Next week, the first session of July’s live recruiting period will begin, and high school hoopers around the country will take their talents to tournaments across the country, looking to impress coaches enough to earn a spot on a team at some level.

Those that are good enough will be playing for a scholarship. The best of the best will have a spot in all of the top 100 recruiting rankings on the line.

Over the course of this week, we will be looking back at the RSCI — a composite index for top 100 lists — to reinforce a point: recruiting rankings are not a guarantee. Top ten recruits flame out and unranked players make the NBA. The only thing that is a given is that hard work will be talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

Keep that in mind while tracking where a kid is ranked and who is recruiting him.

We’ll be looking at the Class of 1999-2008, the last 10 classes that have finished the five years they are allowed to use their four seasons of eligibility.
To read through the rest of our Looking Back posts, click here.

THE TOP 20

1. Amar’e Stoudemire: Stoudemire, a Memphis commit, never set foot on a college campus as he immediately entered the 2002 NBA Draft. Drafted 9th overall by Phoenix, Stoudemire won Rookie of the Year honors in 2003 and played eight seasons in the Valley of the Sun before making the move to New York. In 11 seasons as a pro, Stoudemire has been to five All-Star games and is averaging 21.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

2. Carmelo Anthony: Anthony may have spent just one year in college but it was an impactful one, as he helped lead Syracuse to the school’s only national title. In ten years as a pro in Denver and New York, Anthony is averaging 25.0 points and 6.4 rebounds per game with six All-Star Game appearances.

3. Raymond Felton: Felton spent three seasons (12.5 ppg, 6.9 apg) at North Carolina, winning a national title in 2005 while also earning first team All-ACC and third team AP All-America honors as a junior. Picked in the lottery by Charlotte in 2005, Felton has played eight seasons in the NBA (13.5 ppg, 6.6 apg) for four different franchises.

4. Rashad McCants: A teammate of Felton’s at North Carolina, McCants averaged 17.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in three seasons as a Tar Heel. His professional career wasn’t smooth by any means, as the 14th selection in the 2005 NBA Draft hasn’t played in the NBA since 2009. McCants played for the Texas Legends in the D-League, this past season, and he’s even dabbled in some acting.

5. Chris Bosh: From a professional hardware standpoint Bosh, who spent one season at Georgia Tech (15.6 ppg, 9.0 rpg), has been the most successful member of the 2002 class as he’s won back-to-back NBA titles with the Miami Heat. Bosh is averaging 19.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in ten seasons as a pro, spending the first seven in Toronto.

6. Jason Fraser: Fraser had a tough time eluding the injury bug during his four years at Villanova, Fraser averaged 5.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in four seasons at Villanova, followed by some professional basketball overseas and even a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters as “Apollo” Fraser.

7. Paul Davis: Davis played four seasons at Michigan State, averaging 13.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game as a Spartan. Selected by the Clippers in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft, Davis has played in three different leagues overseas since 2010 and most recently played for BC Khimki in Russia.

8. Shelden Williams: Williams was incredibly productive in four years at Duke, averaging 13.9 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game as a Blue Devil. A lottery pick of the Atlanta Hawks in 2006, Williams played for seven different NBA teams before spending last season with Élan Chalon in France. Oh, his wife is pretty good at basketball as well.

9. Sean May: May teamed up with Felton and McCants to win a national title in 2005, earning Most Outstanding Player honors in the process. In three seasons as a Tar Heel, May averaged 15.8 points and 10.0 rebounds per game and was picked 13th overall by Charlotte in the 2005 NBA Draft. After four seasons in Charlotte and Sacramento, May has played overseas since 2010 with his most recent action coming in France with Paris-Levallois Basket.

10. DeAngelo Collins: Collins attempted to jump straight from high school to the pros, and with teams voicing concerns about off-court issues he went undrafted. Collins has since played in multiple leagues around the world, playing in China last summer (20.9 ppg, 10.3 rpg).

11. J.J. Redick: Redick teamed up with Williams at Duke, where they helped lead the Blue Devils to a Final Four appearance in 2004 and three ACC titles. Redick won multiple national Player of the Year honors as a senior, and he left Duke as college basketball’s all-time leaded in made three-pointers. Drafted by Orlando with the 11th pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, Redick (who was traded to Milwaukee during the 2012-13 season) has averaged 9.4 points per game in seven seasons as a pro.

12. Bracey Wright: In three seasons at Indiana, Wright averaged 17.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and earned first team All-Big Ten honors as a sophomore. Drafted by Minnesota in the second round of the 2005 NBA Draft, Wright spent two seasons with the franchise before moving on to play in multiple leagues in Europe (most recently playing for Cedevita Zagreb in Croatia).

13. Evan Burns: Burns played one year at San Diego State, posting averages of 9.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. Originally a UCLA commit (academics led to his ending up at SDSU), Burns would be dismissed from the program by head coach Steve Fisher during the summer of 2003 for failing to “meet his academic responsibilities” three months after suffering a torn ACL. Burns last played professionally with the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the D-League in 2008.

14. Shavlik Randolph: Randolph spent three nondescript seasons at Duke (6.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg) before entering the 2005 NBA Draft, going undrafted. But he managed to play 57 games for the 76ers in 2005-06 and he’s been in the NBA ever since (albeit with minimal playing time), averaging 2.7 points and 2.7 rebounds per game in seven seasons as a pro.

15. Daniel Horton: In four years at Michigan the 6-3 Texan averaged 14.7 points and 4.4 assists per game. Horton wasn’t drafted in 2006, and outside of stints with Los Angeles and Albuquerque in the D-League (he also spent one game with the Miami Heat in 2006) he’s played overseas for his entire pro career. Horton last played with Korihait in Finland.

16. Anthony Roberson: Roberson and Matt Walsh arrived at Florida with high expectations, but it would be the group that came in after them (Joakim Noah and co.) that would lead the program to two national titles. In three seasons at Florida Roberson averaged 15.8 points and 2.6 assists per game, and he’s played with 11 professional teams (four in the NBA) since going undrafted in 2005.

17. Chris Rodgers: The Portland native failed to live up to the hype that preceded his arrival at Arizona, as he averaged just 6.3 points per game in four seasons in Tucson. Rodgers was suspended halfway through his senior campaign, only to return later in the season. Now known as Mahmoud Abdul-Awwel, he most recently played professionally in Mexico.

18. Antoine Wright: Wright played three seasons at Texas A&M (15.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg) before being selected 15th overall by the Nets in the 2005 NBA Draft. Wright played seven seasons in the NBA for four different teams, most recently playing with Sacramento in 2010. Since then, Wright has played in China, Spain, Venezuela and the D-League.

19. Dee Brown: Brown played four seasons at Illinois, averaging 13.2 points and 4.9 assists per game in his college career and earning second team AP All-America honors as a senior. Drafted in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft by Utah, Brown played in 49 games as a rookie before making the move overseas. He most recently played for Türk Telekom in Turkey.

20. Hassan Adams: Adams was an incredible leaper during his career at Arizona, in which he averaged 14.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest. Drafted in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft by the Nets, Adams spent one season in New Jersey and part of another in Toronto (2008-09) with the majority of his action coming in various international leagues. Adams most recently played for Guaros de Lara in Venezuela.

OTHER NOTABLE NAMES


  • 25. Lenny Cooke
  • 27. Andre Iguodala
  • 38. Gerry McNamara
  • 45. Brandon Roy
  • 46. Jarrett Jack
  • 48. Deron Williams
  • 56. Randy Foye
  • 57. Steve Novak
  • 65. Taquan Dean
  • 71. Francisco Garcia
  • 86. C.J. Watson
  • 95. Nik Caner-Medley
  • UR: Quincy Douby
  • UR: Marcedes Lewis
  • UR: Nate Robinson
  • UR: Al Thornton

Raphielle can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.