An HBCU might receive one of the highest rated basketball players in the country after he shared he is leaning towards committing to one. Get the full story on Mikey Williams, who is #3 in the class of 2023 in the article from Chapel Fowler at The Fayetteville Observer below!
Five-star North Carolina basketball recruit and national phenom Mikey Williams is “leaning toward” playing college basketball at an HBCU, his father, Mahlon Williams, told ESPN last week.
The elder Williams’ comments on his son – the No. 3 overall recruit in the class of 2023 and a rising junior at Lake Norman Christian School – came in a wide-ranging story examining the effects of NIL legislation and alternative paths to the NBA on elite high school basketball players across the country.
According to the story by ESPN’s T.J. Quinn, the elder Williams said his 17-year-old son currently plans to attend college as the family takes a “wait and see” approach with new paid ventures such as the NBA’s G League Ignite team, the Professional Collegiate League and the high school Overtime Elite League.
Williams, a 6-foot-2 combo guard and the No. 1 player in North Carolina’s class of 2023, included HBCUs Alabama State, North Carolina Central, Hampton, Tennessee State and Texas Southern among his initial top 10 schools last summer before re-opening his recruitment in full two months ago.
No. 18 class of 2020 recruit and star center Makur Maker made national news last summer when he committed to Howard University over UCLA and Kentucky, becoming the first five-star basketball prospect to choose an HBCU amid nationwide protests against social injustice and police brutality.
Williams was named the 2019-20 MaxPreps national freshman boys’ basketball player of the year after averaging 29.9 points per game for San Diego’s San Ysidro High (and scoring 77 in a single contest).
He transferred last September to Lake Norman Christian, a non-association school 15 miles north of Charlotte in Huntersville. The Ospreys played a national schedule in 2020-21 and went 19-6.
Outside of his undeniable basketball talent, Williams is also a social media sensation with 3.1 million Instagram followers to date. That makes him a prime candidate to cash in majorly on his name, image and likeness under new NCAA rules – if he chooses to attend college when he graduates in 2023.
Other options for Williams after high school include playing with the G League Ignite team or within the PCL, playing overseas or directly entering the NBA Draft if the league drops its controversial “one-and-done” rule, in place since 2005, during its next collective bargaining agreement with the NBPA.
A more pressing question: will Williams join the Overtime Elite League, or OTE, at some point during high school? The Atlanta-based start-up, which pledges a $100,000 minimum salary to each of its players (who in return forfeit their high school and college eligibility), is gearing up for its inaugural season. The league also recently signed a local recruit: three-star 2022 Word of God forward Jai Smith.
Mahlon Williams told ESPN the family isn’t planning an OTE move right now but “this time next year, we might be talking differently. It might have the type of credibility and coaching and development where you have to think about it.
