Jabari Parker: The Mormon LeBron James?

Jake Flannigan filmed every in-state basketball game played by Chicago's Simeon Career Academy during the 2011–12 season. He saw Simeon's star forward, Jabari Parker, score 40 points one day and block 12 shots another. But his lasting impression of Jabari was formed when the camera was off. After a home game in which Jabari barely missed a triple double, Flannigan, a producer at Comcast SportsNet Chicago, waited outside the locker room for an interview. Jabari never appeared. He had used another exit to return to the court for the jayvee game and was behind the bench passing out water.

"The other varsity players were out in the hallway, talking to girls by the snack stand," says Flannigan. "The best player in the city was being the water boy for the jayvee. It's hard to root against a kid like that. He's on top of the world, but he's incredibly humble."

Humble isn't usually the first word that comes to mind when describing a star athlete, but it's the one most often used by people who have been around Jabari: the high school janitor, the hall monitors, the cheerleaders, even hard-bitten sports reporters and Chicago's famously combative mayor. What makes this all the more surprising is that Jabari, 17, is not just the best high school player in the state. He's the best high school player since LeBron James.

Last season the 6'9", 220-pound junior led Simeon to a 33–1 record and a third straight Class 4A state championship. In April he was chosen the Gatorade National Player of the Year, becoming only the fourth nonsenior to win the award (after James, Greg Oden and Brandon Knight). Three months earlier USA Basketball had named Jabari its male athlete of the year for 2011, succeeding 2010 winner Kevin Durant, an NBA All-Star. Jabari got that nod after leading the U.S. to the gold medal and being named MVP of the FIBA Americas U16 championship in Cancún, Mexico, last summer.

Continue reading at sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Admirer

Have to admire someone who actually lives their 'religion'
Evermyrtle

I can add nothing about Jarbari Parker, nor the Mormon religion. Whatever I say about it will not make any difference to GOD, because THAT IS HIS CALL, NOT MINE OR ANYBODY ELSE'S. My job is to look at Myrtle and decide how she will live for GOD or against GOD and study GOD'S WORD and decide what HIS plan is for my life. I can teach and support other sinners and help them to live for GOD or I can tear them apart, because of their sins are not the same sins as are my sins and just as if I had no sin. AGAIN, I CANNOT CONDEMN I CAN ONLY TRY TO LEAD THEM INTO A MORE GODLY WAY..

WHAT I CAN DO IS CONDEMN THE SIN, ITSELF AND AS A CHILD OF GOD I DO KNOW HIS COMMANDMENTS AND WHAT IS AGAINST HIS COMMANDMENTS. I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS I AM TALKING ABOUT HIS MANY COMMANDMENTS.
Esteban Cafe

Nice Mormon "puff piece."

I'm sure Jabari is a nice kid and humble and all. But I'm with Evermyrtle: I'll do my best to live according to the light and wisdom God grants me so that my better life reflects my faith, condemning no one along the way.
http://www.vintagepostcardsecrets.com/ James Hanratty

Mormons holds religious convictions that are wildly at variance with orthodox Christianity. A good Mormon, for instance, believes in polytheism (Many,many gods), not monotheism. In Mormon thought, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do not form a Triune God but are each separate and distinct gods. __Mormons believe that there is a Heavenly Mother as well as a Heavenly Father. __They believes that God was once a man, and that we can follow his journey to godhood. Mormons will tell you, “As man is, God once was
Dionesius3

Instead of just "King James" in theNBA we will now have to add "God Jabari" how cool.
bighoss

No African American who knows the true history of Mormonism's denial of their "priesthood" to blacks would affiliate with that cult. Mormons have contrived their own phony rationale for changing their doctrine and it is just as phony as most of the rest of their homespun frontier religion.
- tglock
  
  I believe that there are things that we can't comprehend at this time. You shouldn't be so quick to judge the Mormons because of something you don't fully understand. Maybe you could pray about it with an open heart? Just a thought.
Curious

Someone better let them know in Africa because they are converting by the droves… many wonderful dedicated spiritual LDS members with heartfelt testimonies of their faith. They are an example of God's work in progress… God Bless them!