Garnett’s Trail: From Preps to Pros

He’s only 18 years old and yet most NBA scouts will be surprised if he lasts 18 picks in the June draft.

Kevin Garnett, the national high school player of the year, is about to make a big leap. From preps to the prom to the pros. From a weekly allowance to a multimillion-dollar contract. A kid who has yet to use a razor soon will cut his teeth against Malone, Barkley, et al.

He stands 6 feet 11 and has marvelous skills. Great passer, scores inside, grabs rebounds. He averaged 26 points, 18 rebounds, six assists and six blocks as a senior at Chicago Farragut High. He displayed the complete package, but only on the high school level.

The downside is obvious. He weighs only 217 pounds. He’s a kid about to enter a man’s world, certainly much too soon. But the lure of big money and the inability to play as a college freshman--Garnett didn’t qualify for a Division I scholarship because he came up short on the ACT scores--means he will become only the fourth player to go directly to the NBA from high school.

Most NBA teams already have scouted his high school games. An army of scouts were in Springfield, Mass., Saturday to see him in a high school tournament game. Films are being studied, and Garnett will be examined thoroughly in pre-draft interviews. “The true evaluation of this kid,” said Orlando Magic personnel director John Gabriel, “will come now.”

Gabriel believes Garnett could go as high as seventh, when the expansion teams pick, or in the middle first-round area, where established teams that don’t need immediate help will grab him. The Seattle SuperSonics selected Shawn Kemp 19th in 1989; Kemp didn’t go directly to the NBA from high school but he didn’t play any college ball, either.