He’s an atypical top-100 recruit. Credit his mom, his mind and the WNBA.

On Dec 29, 2023

- Advertisement -

The first thing South Lakes Coach Mike Desmond wants you to know about Jordan Scott is that Jordan Scott cannot hear you.

That, of course, makes them needle for his attention even more. There’s the usual razzing from defenders who clap in his face and common folk who chant “o-ver-rated!” There’s the genuine curiosity — those who wonder if there is a glitch in the junior small forward’s system, who wonder what recruiting services see in a player who has never scored 30 points in a high school game and rarely dunks in so much as a pregame layup line. There are times when the ridicule has become weird and personal; during the playoffs last season, a rival team’s fans made a meme with his mom’s face on it.

It does not matter: He will not break that baby-faced stare. When he looks ahead, his eyes don’t pierce so much as they study. Perhaps that is where the paradox of Jordan Scott begins.

He is a top-100 recruit and a product of Northern Virginia public schools, which have not featured a four-star talent since 2006. His physical and mental makeup have spurred more than a dozen high-major scholarship offers — he’s a 6-foot-7 springboard who guards every position, shoots lights-out and scores from any spot — and yet he remains the quietest player on the court.

Teammates liken his game to that of Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo; he models his play after Candace Parker and wears a sleeve on his dominant leg and arm because of A’ja Wilson. His mom, WNBA and NCAA basketball broadcaster Christy Winters-Scott, has endeared him to the women’s game.

“He knows he can be himself, and he respects that in others because he was given that respect,” Winters-Scott said. “He’s free-spirited. He’s not watered down or filtered out. He’s had that freedom to experiment who he is. He can be the person he wants to be, who also happens to play basketball.”

Scott is the modern product of his local basketball roots. Last winter, he followed in the footsteps of his mom, sister and dad, all South Lakes graduates, by earning All-Met honors. (His mom was the player of the year in 1986.) His dad, Jerome Scott Sr., was a three-year starter at Miami; his mom played and coached at Maryland; his sister, Brianna, is one of the catalysts in Georgetown’s strong start.

At South Lakes, just two jerseys hang on the walls: those of Winters-Scott and Basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill, who is endearingly called “Uncle Grant” in the Scott family. (His actual uncle, Dennis Scott, played in the NBA for a decade.)

Scott seems on track to add his No. 20. And, with a gifted roster by his side, the No. 8 Seahawks (8-1) are within reach of the first state title in program history. Maybe then he’ll talk back — though only within the walls of his home.

“He told me when he was an eighth-grader that he had to be better than ‘Uncle Grant,’ that he was winning us a state title and…

0 0 votes

Article Rating