Top hoops prospect Parker relies on faith, family

CHICAGO (AP) - This is what it’s like to be Jabari Parker, the nation’s top high school basketball player.

One day he’s presenting a project in his Spanish class, turns around and sees Alonzo Mourning. Parker takes a seat and grins. The former Miami Heat star is making a surprise visit to give him the Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year award.

And there are nights like this.

Parker and his teammates from Simeon Career Academy are holed up in a classroom after beating Whitney Young in the Illinois state playoffs.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo were in the stands. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his wife were there, too, sitting next to Parker’s mom, Lola.

As Simeon holds its postgame meeting, a crowd gathers in the hallway, waiting to get a glimpse of the team and its 17-year-old star. Parker slips out a back entrance, trying to make a quiet exit.

Nice try, but no luck. It’s hard to hide when you’re 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds.

The young fans see him and run down the street, with one screaming “Jabari!” and begging for an autograph. The thing is, they’re not even from Simeon. They’re from other schools, but they’ve seen Parker on YouTube or TV and want a brush with fame, with the latest phenom from the South Side school that produced Derrick Rose.

Parker slumps down in a car as it pulls away. This is one of those occasional nights when he’s just not in the mood, when he’s weary of the attention and can’t make himself face it.

He is, after all, a teen in unusual circumstances. Parker is a prodigy, and that can be dicey in any era.

Before he was Kareem, Lew Alcindor led his Manhattan high school team on a 71-game winning streak and went on to become the leading NBA scorer of all time. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett all made successful jumps from high school to the NBA when the league allowed it. But for every safe landing, there are plenty of players who never became one of the game’s best _ JaRon Rush and Sebastian Telfair, to name just two.

Parker is determined to follow his own path, keeping all the adulation in perspective. Most nights, he tries to accommodate his young fans. He poses for pictures and signs autographs to show his appreciation.

“I can see myself as a role model,” Parker says.

Good thing, too. In a world fueled by social media, where every move is caught on camera or dissected in 140 characters, the lights are shining brighter than ever on sports’ youngest stars.

“I used to hear all this stuff about Kareem, Lew Alcindor, all the players having hundreds of letters,” says Jabari’s father, Sonny Parker, who played six seasons with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA after starring at Chicago's Farragut Career Academy, where Garnett played as a senior. “Now, he can’t go to the bathroom without it (being posted) on Twitter.”

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