Shaq of the Mid Penn Devin Thomas

If you didn't know who this kid was before, I bet you know him now...  Devin Thomas from Central Dauphin HS has God given ability and work ethic and that's what has helped mold him into the player and person he is today....  












Now, taking down a backboard, that's a result of doing those 25 push ups during each commercial break as he's watching tv and not just going to the weight room, but actually having a work out plan once he gets there.....

For those who didn't hear about it, with roughly 3 mins to go in the 3rd quarter of a very good championship game between CD and Green Castle, Nick Seefelt tossed Devin an alley oop as he was cutting to the basket, he caught the pass perfectly and made the dunk, but also tore the rim off after he flushed it....

This play was so incredible that ESPN had a 3 min segment on this dunk....  That's a kids dream to make it to Sports Center top plays and he did it while still in HS....  That's huge.....

Don't get it twisted though, he did have 17 points and 18 rebounds at the time also...  He's not just big, he can play...

Devin Thomas going for the rim shattering dunk

Some people get caught up in all the McDonalds All American hype of other players in the country but fail to realize that kids make that game due to the political aspect of the game....  Those kids aren't always the top players in the country....  They just happened to play on some of the top aau teams and went to the top camps and performed well at the right time....  This is why far too often we see a McDonald All American go to College and look like a very average player and sometimes a below average player (Look up Ronald Curry, Ronnie Fields, Casey Sanders, DeAngello Collins, )

Then there's some guys who were little known, just like Devin, but they made a huge name for themselves (Look up Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Dwayne Wade, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen) just to name a few...

I said this before and I'll say this again, If he continues to progress the way he has since I watched him as a 7th grader and every year after, he's going to have a nice career playing professionally somewhere....   Most people will dis agree but it doesn't matter, I've seen lots of players in my days of growing up in NYC and I know what it takes to get there...  When I coached Elton Brand and Troy Murphy at 5 star basketball camp when they were 17 and 15 respectively, I said they were going to the league if they kept working hard.....  Both did and been there for over a decade....