Draymond GreenForward, Golden State Warriors

CJ was really 5’2 as a high school freshman 🤯 #shorts #nba #warriors #pelicans #draymondgreen

3 Feb 2023 · 1 min

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In this brief interview, Draymond Green asks CJ McCollum about his early basketball prospects when he was only 5'2" as a freshman. McCollum recounts his concerns about a late growth spurt, noting he was 5'6" and 108 lb as a sophomore and felt like a typical high‑school role player. He explains that he dedicated his junior year to improving his shooting, grew to 5'11", and then experienced a dramatic performance surge, breaking his school’s record with eight three‑pointers and 54 points in his first start. The next day he received a recruitment letter from Lehigh, confirming his belief that his size and skill set were now sufficient for college basketball.

Chapters

your freshman year, you 5'2". Were there any worries that your future in basketball wouldn't be quite what it shaped out to be?
There was times where I thought that my growth spurt might come too late. Sophomore year, I was 5'6", 108 pounds, and certified, like, high school role player. Like, think, like, I'm better than Skip Bayless, but, like, but the points per game wasn't, like, where it should be, right, for my skillset. So, like, that's where I was at. And then, My, my junior year, I really dedicated myself to like shooting, right? And I grew to 5'11". And when I got to 5'11", it was like the game was easy. Actually, my first career start, I broke the school record. I hit 8 threes and I had 54 points and I got a letter from Lehigh the next day. And, uh, that's when I knew it was like, okay, I'm good enough to go to school at this size, but hopefully I can get bigger.