Towards the end of the first half of the second round NCAA tournament game between the 2 seeded Arizona Wildcats and 15 seeded Texas Southern in the West Region, Wildcats star Stanley Johnson threw down the highlight dunk of the game that prompted Turner Sports broadcaster Reggie Miller to say Johnson might be the next coming of a great NBA player.
You can see the full video here but this is what Miller said.
Manchild. I’m sorry, I mean, we may be seeing the reincarnation of LeBron James. I mean, LeBron James had this type of body at his age. I mean, He just goes baseline, there’s no help… and obviously the finish and the elevation and the athleticism here by Stanley Johnson.
The freshman phenom scored 22 points on 8-11 shooting and pulled down 5 rebounds in the Wildcats 93-72 blowout of Texas Southern.
Now Johnson being compared to LeBron James, has happened before oddly enough. They went at it during LeBron James skill academy camp over the summer.
And that wasn’t the only time Johnson has matched up with a great NBA talent. Here’s a small clip of Johnson and former NBA scoring champion, Tracy McGrady.
Johnson is 19, stands at 6’7″ and 245 pounds he’s expected to be a Top 5 pick in this June’s NBA Draft. If you compare the 2 players to when LeBron was drafted way back in 2003, LeBron stood at 6’8″ and weighed-in at 240 pounds. They do measure similarly in size and the games are oddly similar at the same age but can Johnson become LeBron?
The kid has a tall order ahead of him.
