College, High School / Dec 11, 2009 / 4:57 pm

C.J. Leslie HS Hoop Diary: The Intro

By

C.J. Leslie

C.J. Leslie

Word of God Academy (Raleigh, N.C.) forward C.J. Leslie is the #10-rated prospect in the HSH Top 50. Previously committed to N.C. State, Leslie recently re-opened his recruiting and has opted to wait until the spring to decide on a college. That alone makes his one of the most intriguing stories in the 2010 senior class, and Leslie also happens to be one of its most exciting players. C.J. has agreed to give us exclusive access in a bi-monthly diary about his season and the recruiting process as he inches closer to a decision. Here’s an excerpt:

*** *** ***

… I’ve had a few college coaches coming out to my games, too. Coach Sidney Lowe (N.C. State) has been out, and Ernie Kent (Oregon) came, too. There were two other schools that I know were there, but I can’t remember which ones. I’m usually pretty focused on the game.

For those that don’t know, I’m waiting until the spring to get everything decided with my recruitment. I’m just not sure about anything at this point, and it’s important for me to be sure. I don’t have any favorites and I’m just taking my time with the whole thing. (Editor’s note: C.J.’s most recent list included N.C. State, Kentucky, Oregon, Maryland, Connecticut, Georgetown and Florida.)

I did get to watch my boy John Wall (Word of God, 2009) beat North Carolina! We actually had a game that day and I only caught the last eight minutes, but someone recorded it for me and I watched the whole game. Aww man, John did his thing! I was definitely proud of him. I talked to him after the game and he was definitely on his recruiting thing, just saying “You need to come here, man!” …

You can read the rest of C.J.’s diary at HighSchoolHoop.com, where he talks about improving his game over the summer, his biggest game of the early-season schedule, and adjusting to life without Wall at Word of God.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Tags: , , , ,

Posted in College, High School |

  • PHECKZ!?

    Ain’t be surprised wen homedude heads to Coach Cal’s dribble drive motion dunk on you anywhere in the paint offense.. John Wall is comin thru.. Kinda compare his game to the way D-Wade was holdin it down at Marquette, still membah in the playoffs he called a 360 alley-oop and pulled it off, well kinda, it was a 270 but from den on he was forrealz!

  • Boyle Co. Rebels

    PHECKZ! Please learn how to spell before your next post. You are ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • willow

    who gives a fuck how he spells you bitch. fuck it

  • http://www.in-n-outnba.blogspot.com Lucas

    YESSSSSSSSS, C.J Leslie, my favorite 2010 player. Go Word of God!

  • PHECKZ!?

    @willow

    100% co-sign

  • no j mayo

    CJ…come to Kentucky man! Ain’t nothing like playin’ for the blue.

  • http://yahoo JJW

    CJ….KENTUCKY FANS LOVE BASKETBALL AND YOU WILL BE BLOWN AWAY WITH THEIR PASSION FOR THE GAME AND FOR THOSE THAT PUT ON THE UNIFORM OF THE BIG BLUE NATION….YOU WILL BE LOVED THERE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AND WILL ALWAYS HAVE A HOME AWAY FROM HOME! GOOD LUCK WHATEVER YOU DECIDE!

  • Christopher Gray

    CJ….Good luck with your recruiting man. Take your time and keep working hard on your game. Im excited to see what you can do with your talent at the next level, and most definately want you to do whats best for you in your recruitment for your family, friends, and your future. Ready to see your game at the next level. If you go to NC State I’ll definately get to see you play a lot, but if not I support you just as much. Good Luck

  • http://www.WhyCandaceWhySheldon.thatbastard.com Chicagorilla

    “YOU WILL BE LOVED THERE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AND WILL ALWAYS HAVE A HOME AWAY FROM HOME! GOOD LUCK WHATEVER YOU DECIDE!” – JJW says

    really? Maybe CJ should ask Rex Champman (white player) why he was told to not hook up with black girls while playing at Kentucky. Kentucky is one of the most racist states around, but CJ lives in NC and it’s pretty racist there too, so I guess it would feel like home to him.

    CJ, maybe you should change the game up a bit, you and maybe 4 other top 50 guys should attend a BLACK COLLEGE.

    It’s funny how none of the black college’s are even recognized by these top 100 players, let alone have contact with them.

    Funny because just a few years ago, colleges like Kentucky didn’t want black players playing on their team no matter how good they were. Some of these younger players need to take notice and stand up for something or fall for anything.

    @CJ Leslie,
    If you actually read this, think. Without that height and hops, even if you had a 4.0 GPA, would any of those colleges on your list want you? Hell no. Now think, with a 4.0 gpa, would the black colleges want you? Hell Yes! Plus why make millions for these big colleges and not be willing to make thousands for the only colleges that would allow a guy like Martin Luther King attend. There is a reason Jada and Will Smith along with Bill Cosby are always donating large amounts of money to the HBCU’s. Legends were made at these colleges.

    Assuming your major concern would be talent/coaching/competetion… thats why you need to get some of the other top 100 players to commit to such a thing with you. If would be history making, and I’d put my $ on it that someone like President Obama would take notice. Not like he’d notice if you just committed to Kentucy or UNC or NC State.

    I myself never attended a black college and i’m actually at UNC fan. But I’m a black man first, and would just like to see a young black man make a good choice.

  • http://www.dimemag.com Austin Burton

    @Chicagorilla — Totally agree, 100%, applause, all that. Unfortunately we know how the big-time high school/college basketball world works and it’s just too hard for an HBCU to attract top talent. HBCUs aren’t on TV, they have to win the conference to get to the NCAA’s (where they’ll inevitably get a 16th seed or have to do the play-in game), they usually don’t have much NBA alumni, and when you visit a campus like Grambling one week and then UCLA the next, I mean, it just don’t compare. CJ Leslie and other top HS players would be making a statement to go HBCU, but would it be big enough to get them some TV games and all the things that major programs can offer?

  • John Blueblood

    Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, John Wall.

    Now add Kentucky……say no more, Cal gets it done.

    Be the next one.

  • Jack Henderson

    A recruiting class that contains CJ Leslie, Ryan Harrow, Lorenzo Brown, and Luke Cothron can easily make N.C. State a national powerhouse once again. Im a UNC fan, but it would be nice to see NC State become great again. Nothing beats a good rivalry game

  • Clay Graham

    NC STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://www.WhyCandaceWhySheldon.thatbastard.com Chicagorilla

    @Austin,

    CJ may not be the top player in the nation, but CJ and 4 others top 100 committing would send a shock thru the air waves. Especially if they could get a decent enough coach (although many of the black colleges have very good coaches) with connections that could get a nice schedule. Enter a few of those Maui invi/Coaches vs Cancer/Bracket Buster tournaments and win! It would start a movement like no other. Better than the Fab five.

    CJ Leslie (2010), 6-8, 180, PF
    Reggie Bullock (2010), 6-6, 180, SG
    TaShawn Mabry (2010), 6-6, 210, SF
    Ray McCallum (2010), 6-1, 165, PG
    Fab Melo (2010), 7-0, 270, C

    Coach: Scottie Pippen (I think he’d make a great coach but i’m bias)

    That group would easily make the NCAA tournament, and maybe not in year one, but year 2-3-4 they’d make it well past the first round. Put them at any HBCU.

    I coach AAU here in the Chicago Suburbs and I plan on talking to a lot of the talented kids here and everywhere we travel about doing such a thing. We have a few girls from the State Champion Bolingbrook HS in Ariel Massengale, and Morgan Tuck who can flat out ball. Morgan was Freshman of the year in the country and Ariel is one of the top Juniors in the country, both played on the USA under 16 team (altough Morgan got hurt). I would love to see both of them (and Morgans sister)go to a HBCU and bring the Bolingbrook coach (T.Smith) or Ariel’s father (who is a good AAU coach himself) with them. Any HBCU in the country would be silly to turn that down. 4years (Girls stay all four)of two of the best players in the country. They might not be the likes of Tenn and UCOnn but they could make some noise.

  • soundslikeyou

    You all are saying that these states are racist, and that you should attend black only colleges. To me, that sounds like you all are the racist ones, judging others that you do not even know, KY had one of the first black players in the SEC, Rex Chapman is still loved and always was. North Carolina is a great place to live and raise a family, there will always be racism as long as people like you all exist.

    What would you be saying if I said you should attend a WHITE COLLEGE? (There are no white only colleges like there are black only colleges) Why is that? Same reason there is a BET and not a WET. Why do most towns I know of have a miss black pagent and not a miss white pagent.

    I could go on and on, there is arguements for both side that could go on and on.

  • http://www.WhyCandaceWhySheldon.thatbastard.com Chicagorilla

    @soundslikeyou

    See, that’s either the racist in you talking, or the ignorance.

    1) “Black” colleges were formed because people of African American decent were not allowed to attend traditional colleges. So there was no need for a “white” college seeing as how white people had no problem attending those schools.

    2) The reason why they are called HBCU’s and not “Black” colleges is because it’s NOT A BLACK ONLY college. Actually, I have a WHITE friend who attended Alabama State and got a minority grant. See how that works?
    HBCU stands for “HISTORICALLY Black Colleges and Universities”….HISTORICALLY, check the base word in that.

    3)As for BET and there not being a WET…have you watched CNN lately?

    Claiming that it’s reverse racism to have a HBCU or BET is only showing how ignorant you are. Go to your history books, see how many times they mention slavery or black being held down. Take note of how many times they mention someone other than Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. Someone Black history and the sevral hundred years of slavery has been left out of the AMERICAN history books. Don’t get me started, you don’t want to take it there.

  • soundslikeyou

    I do not watch CNN or much TV period, too many lies, scandels, and down right unfit shows to waste my time on. To me though, everytime I here someone throw out the race card, I automatically think Racist, cause if you throw that card you have hard feelings against another race and that is racism.

    American history books are books written by man, so these books will be flawed (there is only one unflawed book). The holding down of one race or another has been going on since the beginning of time. Just here in the USA the african american forefathers were not the only ones oppressed. Try being a poor immigrant in the inner cities during the 1800′s and early 1900′s, not pretty.

    Regardless of how we all got here in this same countrie, someone before us had to suffer for the freedoms we enjoy today. I would guess that not only am I better off than my great great grandfather but you are also.

    I guess what I am trying to say is I get tired of the racist card being played all the time (Some instances I agree it may be needed) everyone should just enjoy our freedoms we have here because this is the greatest country in the world, we cousl be over sees being ruled by a dictator and eating rice and beans everyday that just got flung out the back of some U.N. vehicle.

    Hard work and determination, solid family life and a good faith in christ will take you farther than anything.

  • charles

    You know, some people just want to move on and try to make the world a better place, while others want to dwell in the past and in whatever hatred that gives them purpose. As people, we tend to hold on to what we identify with. Some cling to their misfortune or the unfairness of the past. Others don’t let the past define them. You can tell which set they belong to pretty easily.

    The people still trying to hold the non-HBCU schools accountable for a past they’ve moved away from and tried to put behind them in the best way possible ARE of the same mold as the people that did others harm decades ago. Yep, they’ve become a different form of what they hate. That’s one reason hate was and is railed against in almost every religion worldwide. It transforms as deeply as love, but in a much more sinister way.

    There’s a reason why people leave the dysfunctional of resentment, hatred, and martyrdom behind and rarely look back until they are safely out of its desperate reach. You can’t live that way and be truly healthy or successful. There are people that have been enslaved or put down since the beginning of kingship. The ones that move on are successful (and resented for it) over and over again.

    There are inter-racial relationships as a regular occurrence in KY and on UK’s campus to this day and no one is threatened by it. So, you know not of what you speak. In fact, among people of all races there is bigotry. For some african-americans others are not black enough or are too black. Among asian cultures, as another instance, a woman from a korean family may not be allowed to marry a vietnamese man. Nobody has a corner on the market right now.

    If they want to attend Grambling, cool. Great institution. If they don’t, cool. It’s their life and their decision, and it has nothing to do with anyone else’s agenda. God blessed em with that and may he continue to do so.

  • charles

    Oh, and I hope you would go up north and get the school history books we had 35 years ago and take copies back to whatever horrible place from which you got your education, cause the books we had were pretty detailed on the subject. They were, however, and may still be, very light on the ethnic cleansing of the native americans, many of whose tribes no longer exist. How’s that for a comparison?
    Count your blessings. Remember, the Jews were enslaved for a reason thousands of years ago, and through and in spite of that enslavement, great things were later accomplished. Some african americans have a great opportunity here, because of the enslavement of some of their ancestors centuries ago, that those in Africa would give everything to have.

  • Gennifer

    To Leslie: Go anywhere besides NC State or Kentucky. The NC State progam is going nowhere and will only drag you down, probably harming your NBA potential significantly. And Calipari will dirty up Kentucky like he always does.

  • alock

    Ryan Harrow, C.J. Leslie, Lorenzo Brown, Luke Cothron…

    State could be a power house again quickly…

-->