Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Shabazz Muhammad: Tony Parker to UCLA would be ‘icing on the cake’

TonyParkerLooseBall

During Saturday night’s Jordan Brand Classic, the broadcast team shared an anecdote that illustrates the situation in which Georgia native Tony Parker finds himself.

This late in the recruiting process, he still had a list comprised of seven schools. He wants to have a traditional announcement of his decision at his school, complete with laying out a hat for each team still in the running, then choosing one and ceremoniously putting it on his head.

The problem with that is, seven schools, multiplied by close to $30 per hat, and it turns out to be an expensive ceremony. Time to cut his list.

The Sporting News is reporting that Parker has trimmed his list to five, UCLA, Kansas, Duke, Georgia, and Ohio State, and will announce his choice on Friday during a news conference at his school.

Shabazz Muhammad, who won co-MVP honors at the Jordan Brand Classic and is signed to UCLA, and Rasheed Sulaimon, a 6-3 guard signed to play at Duke in the fall, both told The Sporting News that they hope Parker chooses their program.

“I can’t wait until he decides to come to UCLA hopefully. He’s such a good player, and if we get him, that’s the icing on the cake,” said Muhammad. “It’s a big time program and needs big time players.”

Parker averaged 16.8 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks per game this past season for Miller Grove (Ga.) and led the Wolverines to a 24-9 overall record.

If Parker chooses UCLA, he would join Kyle Anderson of St. Anthony (N.J.), Jordan Adams of Oak Hill (Va.), and Muhammad of Bishop Gorman (Nev.), to perhaps have the best recruiting class in the country.

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_