Led by a historically loaded Class of 2026, Greater Phoenix is evolving into a prep hoops hotbed to rival the deepest in the nation.
By Jason P. Skoda | Photography by Chris Loomis
Gregg Rosenberg is an NCAA-certified basketball scout and prospect pundit who’s been covering Arizona high school hoops for well over a decade.
He’s watched thousands of games featuring the best talent in Greater Phoenix and seen virtually everything there is to see on a basketball court – buzzer-beaters, coaching tantrums, future NBA No. 1 picks, you name it. But this season brought a personal first: He watched a game with a sports agent. Of a high school underclassman.
A few feet down in the same row was Duke University assistant coach Jayce McCain, and near him were representatives from Stanford University and the University of Washington.
“People can see the [college scouts] because they are wearing a shirt, but I don’t think people realize how many potential agents are at games now,” Rosenberg says. “They’re all there for the same reason, and the two sides will end up talking at some point. It used to be stuff that happened behind the scenes, but now it is out in the open.”
It’s undoubtedly a new world in high school hoops – one of pro-level conditioning, undisguised monetary transaction and, yes, agents for 14-year-olds. And Phoenix, just as undoubtedly, is thriving in it.
This summer, the Valley of the Sun will set loose its strongest-ever class of boys’ basketball players on the NCAA. With five Phoenix-area prospects ranked in the Top 40 nationally, according to ESPN rankings, it’s arguably the strongest class of any city or state this year, period (see sidebar). And 2026 is not a one-off – the classes of 2027 and 2028 are also loaded with four- and five-star prospects, part of a local culture transformed by money, urban growth and the undaunted rise of club-style youth sports.
“There are a ton of top-tier recruits in Arizona right now,” says Rosenberg, who runs the Prep Hoops Arizona scouting website. “This could very well be the Golden Era of basketball when we look back at it.”
Granted, some very good basketball players came out of the Phoenix area in the 1980s and 1990s – NCAA-bound talent like Mark Alarie (Brophy College Prep), Brad Lohaus (Greenway High School), Mike Bibby (Shadow Mountain High School) and Richard Jefferson (Moon Valley High School).
Largely, they were the products of a bygone, grassroots development system driven by playground pickup games at spots like Palma Park in the Sunnyslope neighborhood or Rose Mofford Sports Complex near I-17.
Games ran for hours, if not all day. Not a specialty coach to be found. No officiating and no structure. Instead of referee whistles, the most common sound was the distinctive clink-ching of basketballs rattling the chain-link nets.
“We used to go to Palma Park all day and just play the game,” says Ray Portela, head coach of the Sunnyslope High School boys’ basketball teams, which began February ranked No. 1 in Arizona and No. 3 nationally. “That’s where you got better, played in big moments and learned the game while playing against everyone from around the area.”
That profile hardly describes the modern blue-chip basketball player. By the time they reach high school, many four- and five-star prospects already have a conditioning coach, a basketball technique coach, a strength coach, an agility coach and a club coach in addition to their high school coach. It has become the way of today’s athletes. Parents are willing to put money up-front with hopes of it paying off with at the very least a scholarship – and possibly much more.
Often, they play on travel circuits for non-scholastic teams that touch all corners of the nation during the offseason, or for so-called “college prep” gladiator academies that rack up almost as many airline miles as they do minutes on the court.
Chances are today’s top players are not getting up and down the court at Palma Park.
“They have so much going on that they probably never played anywhere but indoors in recent years,” Portela says. “No shame. It’s working for them. But there was something special about playing all day at the park. It was a different kind of game, but it prepared you all the same.”
Portela’s star player at Sunnyslope, rim-running junior center Darius Wabbington, admits he hasn’t indulged in an outdoor pick-up game in some time. “It’s been a minute,” he says. “Probably back in elementary school, when you are playing with your buddies. It’s where the love of the game begins – just enjoying the game with nothing on the line but bragging rights.”
There’s definitely more on the line now for Wabbington and his contemporaries. With a national ranking (Wabbington is currently ranked No. 19 in the class of 2027) comes with an infusion of NIL (name, image and likeness) money, agents and a free college education – if not a potential NBA career.
Arizona’s 2026 class is studded with such prospects, including St. Mary’s High School forward Cam Williams, a 6-foot-11 gazelle whom the 24/7Sports recruiting website described as having “mobility, athleticism, budding face-up skill and defensive versatility alike.” The Phoenix resident is headed to Duke University this fall as the No. 2 recruit in the nation, while explosive and versatile swingman Bruce Branch III, a Gilbert resident who is playing for Prolific Prep in Florida this season, is No. 6 and undecided. (Brigham Young University and the University of Arizona are believed to be the front-runners for his services.)
The Valley also boasts three more prospects that sit inside the Top 50: Bella Vista Prep’s Miles Sadler (No. 21), a slick two-way guard who signed with West Virginia; Ikenna Alozie of Dream City Christian in Phoenix (No. 32), a point guard from Nigeria with superior court vision who’s off to the University of Houston this fall; and lanky, lefty swingman Cameron Holmes of Millennium High School in Goodyear (No. 38), headed south to Tucson to play at Arizona.
Rounding out the Class of 2026 are the House twins – No. 53 Kaden, a playmaker with finishing skills, and No. 57 Kalek, a pure scorer, who are headed to Maryland and Xavier, respectively, after their careers at AZ Compass Prep in Chandler come to an end.
The Class of 2027 is almost as stacked. In addition to Wabbington, a fluid big man with an advanced inside-outside game, it includes imposing 6-foot-9 Bella Vista forward Paul Osaruyi, who is powerful and quick in the paint, ranked No. 3 nationally; and two more AZ Compass players in DeMarcus Henry (No. 18), a lithe but powerful forward, and Jimmie Haywood (No. 45), a 6-foot-3 point guard with a deft shooting touch.
Arizona’s 2028 class is a little lighter overall but does have two premier talents in Millennium combo guard Adan Diggs and Mesa High School scoring machine Jakyi Miles, both ranked in the Top 10 nationally.
For context, the five Top 50 players representing Greater Phoenix in 2026 is the same number representing the entire state of California. The former has a population of 5 million. The latter: 40 million.
“Pound for pound, Arizona just might have the most talent (in the country),” Rosenberg says. “There are players ranked in the top 10 nationally, and four teams that are ranked nationally.”
Which prompts the question: Where did all this talent come from? The impetus of the surge – at least one of the reasons – might be pinpointed to COVID-19.
In 2020, the Arizona Interscholastic Association – which oversees athletics in public high schools and various private schools in the state and adheres to its bylaws – followed protocol and closed down its season during the pandemic. That included Millennium, Sunnyslope and all the public high schools previously mentioned.
Meanwhile, the for-profit basketball academies that euphemistically refer to themselves as “college prep” schools were not as encumbered. Privately owned and operated, they were free to continue playing – and recruiting. This led to a fresh infusion of out-of-state players finding their way to Arizona to play for Bella Vista, AZ Compass and other college prep giants, which have thrived in the state’s deregulated academic landscape. (Typically, they outsource academics to nearby charter schools.)
Many college prep schools have housing and top-of-the-line facilities; field multiple teams; and play national schedules against other prep schools from around the country. Hoops factories, in other words.
“COVID opened the door for some of this, as those prep schools kept playing,” Rosenberg says. “There was some good talent there, but a lot of players jumped over after the AIA ended the season. It gave [the prep schools] some exposure and it led to a lot of players and their families choosing that route.”
The hoops talent explosion in the Valley can also be attributed to a familiar phenomenon here: growth. People simply love moving to Arizona – including, anecdotally, many elite athletes nearing or entering retirement, drawn to the state’s excellent winter weather and evolving leisure culture.
They were among the score of Americans who moved to Arizona between 2000 and 2020, resulting in a net positive migration of 1.2 million and a surplus of generational talent across the sporting spectrum.
The House twins are the sons of former Arizona State University star and 2008 NBA champion Eddie House, while Wabbington’s father, Derek, played at Wyoming after starring at Washington High. Henry’s father is late Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry.
If the expectations and pressure that come with being a hoops prodigy in the NIL era seems like they might be too much for a teenage kid, the ill effects don’t show up on the court.
They sweep across the lane. Sort through college offers. Dribble through double teams. Think about what’s best for the family. Throw down coast-to-coast dunks. Hit fall-away jumpers. Manage texts and calls from agents and coaches. Catch and shoot 3-pointers. Sign autographs. Be a team leader. Finish English essay. Keep national ranking.
“At first, it can be a lot,” Millennium’s Holmes says after a January 30 win at Desert Vista High School. “This ranking comes out and a lot comes with it – exposure, expectations, pressure – but at some point, it goes away, and you play the game the best you can. You are doing what is best for you and your family. Playing the game is what we do.”
Wabbington agrees that a national prospect ranking, while a blessing, can also be a millstone if it happens to drop after a sub-par stretch of games.
“When it first started, I felt like [the ranking] was a target on my back,” he says. “People are going to play harder against you; they are trying to knock me down. They want to say they scored against you or beat you. I take it on.
“I think I’m the best player in the country. It’s the approach you have to take. [Ranked players] have the same mentality. It’s one of the reasons we’re in this position.”
Behind it all is the inevitability that not all players reach their potential as college and NBA stars – just another part of the game that is far removed from the rattle of the chain-link net at the neighborhood park.
“It’s a great cycle… of elite talent here,” says Millennium coach Rich Thornton, who came to the Valley from Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas and coaches a travel squad in the Vegas Elite program. “It’s unreal, really. There’s the high school guys and prep kids. They’re all finding their spot in this space.
“The best thing to do is to keep them grounded and humble, because how many times does a guy who is unranked [make] it big? And, on the other end, how many highly ranked guys never pan out?”
The field may level and some of these names may drop off over time, but right now Phoenix is an epicenter of a talent bubble that just might be generational.
“The rankings can mess with you mentally and physically, but over the years, I realize the rankings don’t mean anything – it is the work you do,” Holmes says. “You can achieve your goal, and it doesn’t matter if you are No. 1 or No. 100.
“We’re all putting in the work. We’re all trying to accomplish the same thing. We all want to be great. And I want to be the greatest.”
