This Throwback Thursday brought on a photo with a crop of future stars in the NBA. One at the time player at the time was already a budding superstar, a young LeBron James. Every summer for the past decade or so, James has held his traditional LeBron James Skills Academy in Las Vegas.
The four day camp is only open to those who are personally invited, offering a mixture of college and high school ballers. It’s where young and talented players can take their skills to the next level in front of hundreds of media members, college coaches and NBA scouts.
Former University of Memphis guard/forward Wesley Witherspoon, who played there from 2008-2012, posted this photo from the 2007 LeBron James Skills Academy to his Instagram.
Wow. That’s a power-packed photo of future stars. Witherspoon agreed, saying “SO MANY PROS IN THIS PIC RIGHT HERE CAMP WAS LEGIT TAG WHO YOU SEE #TBT”.
First up, on the far left sneaking into the picture is Charlotte Hornets point guard Kemba Walker. Directly to the right of LeBron is Detroit Pistons big man Greg Monroe, and to the right of him is Charlotte newcomer Lance Stephenson.
Taking a seat beneath them in the bottom right corner is Toronto Raptors forward DeMar DeRozan, who just came off his first All-Star selection in 2013-14. To the left is Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, who ironically ended up being a teammate of DeRozan’s this past summer on Team USA in the FIBA World Cup. The two help Team USA bring home the Gold Medal against Serbia.
Cousins and Monroe are still hoping to help lead their teams to the playoffs for the first time in more than five years. Walker and Stephenson, now teammates, each enjoyed playoff seasons last year, as well as DeRozan.
To sum it up, this picture had great potential back in the day. Thanks to Throwback Thursday, we can all look at this and realize the great talent present in the NBA today.