By MIKE GRIMALA
Special to ZAGSBLOG
LAS VEGAS — On Wednesday, before he announced he was coming home, LeBron James jumped onto the court at his Nike Skills Academy in Las Vegas and threw down a handful of vicious dunks, much to the delight of the high school players in attendance. On Thursday, it was another athletic small forward from Akron, Ohio, turning heads with his finishing ability.
This time it was V.J. King, a consensus top-20 player in the Class of 2016, who impressed by running the floor and converting above the rim. Like James, King attends St. Vincent/St. Mary, and like James, he’s got the skill, size (6-foot-6 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan) and athleticism to dominate in transition, as he did on Thursday.
King said the level of competition at the LeBron camp helped to bring his game to another level.
“There’s a lot of great players here,” King said. “It’s the cream of the crop—the best point guards, the best wings, the best bigs—so it’s fun to play against them. And I feel like I’ve played well.”
Unlike James, King will eventually have to make a college decision, though he hasn’t put too much thought into the recruiting process yet.
“I’m not really serious about it right now,” King said. “I’m kind of not worried about colleges yet. I’ll probably start worrying about that toward my senior year. For now, I’m just kind of taking it slow.”
King is being recruited hard by Ohio State, which has made it a priority to keep him in-state. But schools such as Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Louisville, UNLV and Arizona have also offered.
King is in no hurry to rush the recruiting process.
“I’ve talked to all the schools, but I don’t really have a personal relationship with any of the colleges,” he said. “I have a relationship with Ohio State because they’re the hometown team, but that’s about it.”
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