The Courier-Journal
7/17
Prep stars feel need to do more than attend camps
By C.L. Brown
cbrown@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
SUWANEE, Ga. -- Thaddeus Young stays on top of his stat lines for calories and weight as much as he does points and rebounds.
Young, who was the highest-rated player at last week's adidas Superstar Camp, is among a growing number of high school basketball players redefining what it takes to be elite. Basketball is about to get a bit more personalized.
Appearing in a summer's worth of camps and AAU tournaments is no longer enough. The 6-foot-8 Young, who equates basketball as a job at this point, uses what little down time he has to work with a personal trainer for basketball, a weight-lifting instructor and a nutritionist.
"My dad told me I'd need somebody to work with me because I was thinking about taking a big step," Young said. "It's tiring, very tiring, but they teach me a lot of stuff that NBA players do."
His father can teach him, too. Felton Young, who is 6-11, played at Jacksonville University. He was selected by the San Diego Clippers in the eighth round of the 1978 NBA draft and had a brief pro career.
"I wanted to make sure he's on the right diet, eating the right stuff so he can start building up strength," said Felton Young, who also coaches his son's AAU team. "Back in my days, I didn't have it like that. I had to wait until I got to the NBA to put some meat on me.
"This is something that we've been preparing for. He's at a good size, but we wanted to get him the right protein and right calories to get the strength."
Seton Hall coach Louis Orr said having personal trainers are becoming the norm because players want more specialized training.
"It all works together; if you want to maximize your potential you need to be conscious of what you eat, your conditioning and all that," Orr said. "Some people want to be a little more detailed and scientific about things, and there's no harm in that if that's what they want to do."
Rivals.com ranked Thaddeus Young third in the class of 2006. Had the National Basketball Association not established an age requirement of 19, the Memphis native might well have been drafted pick next year straight out of Mitchell High School.
As it stands, the 205-pound small forward -- who is a member of the National Honors Society -- has his pick of the top college programs. He said he won't name his top five schools until the end of the summer.
No matter where he ends up, he'll still be focused on his ultimate goal of playing in the NBA. That's why he said he would spend only two weeks at home this summer. When he's not at a camp, he'll be in New Orleans with his trainers.
"It's been overwhelming; it's like a job," he said. "You have to take it and look at it like a job. But what they're teaching me is stuff that is straight from the league, so I know it's proven to work as long as I work hard."