A High School Coach's Impact on Professional Basketball Players

Carlo Rotella of the Washington Post wrote an article about the NBA's D-League and followed up the article with a chat. When asked about some of the things that surprised him, Rotella answered:

I was a little surprised to find how unanimous the players were--at least the ones I talked to--about their high school coaches as the ones who had the most influence on their game. Most didn't see college as the place where their game developed the most. The story they tended to tell was that their high school coach taught them the basics and then playing pro taught them the pro game, often abroad and often the hard way.