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Kevin Durant, Victor Oladipo, Markelle Fultz, Jeff Green, Quinn Cook, Ty Lawson, Michael Beasley, Jerami Grant, Jarrett Jack, and Rodney McGruder.
This isn’t someone’s fantasy basketball roster, it’s the list of current and very recent NBA players to come out of Prince George’s County, Maryland.
If we go back even further you can add in names like Len Bias, Adrian Dantley, Walt Williams, DerMarr Johnson, and Danny Ferry. I could probably spend the rest of this article just rattling off names of good professional and collegiate basketball players to come out of D.C.’s direct eastern suburb.
There’s long been the claim that more NBA players have come out of this area than any other state in the country. Don’t believe it?
Make sure to check out Basketball County: In The Water which premieres on Showtime at 9 p.m. on Friday, May 15. That’s tonight!
Basketball County is a documentary being produced by Kevin Durant that intends to set the record straight about just how much talent the county produces.
Los Angeles Lakers guard and former DeMatha Catholic High School star Quinn Cook is also from PG County and is an executive producer of the documentary. He opens the trailer to the documentary by saying, “On my high school team we had five guys make it to the NBA.”
Former Wizard Jeff Green recently joined the Wizards Talk podcast to talk about his hometown. According to Green, the point of the documentary is “helping people recognize the talent that has come through that has touched the NBA floor, touched the basketball court.”
“People don’t understand because it’s a small hub but the only people that get recognized are Chicago, L.A., New York. So it’s like we’re put on the back-burner but people don’t realize how much talent has come out of PG County. It’s way beyond just a couple of people,” said Green.
Former University of Maryland star and NBA veteran Walt Williams joined the Bleav in Wizards podcast with Larry Hughes to talk about his appearance in the documentary and why it’s important.
“Just being from the PG County area, they publicize it a lot now but it’s rich in tradition and the number of players and the legendary players that come from that area…When you look at per state, you look at a state who produces NBA players, I mean, we’re not even talking about the state of Maryland, we’re talking about this little county within the state that just produces a mass amount of major D1 players and NBA players.”
Williams went on to explain how this wasn’t well-known when he was younger and why it’s important for people coming up to know that others from their area have accomplished great things.
“I’m one of the guys who was early on in the process. You know, during my time-frame they didn’t publicize in the NBA where guys were from as much. You didn’t know it like you do today. For me coming up, I had no idea that I could be an NBA player. I just didn’t imagine someone coming from where I was from being on TV playing basketball. When I watched the NBA game, I always looked at it as these guys come from somewhere else.”
The embed to the podcast is below, or you can click here.
Basketball County: In The Water intends to set the record straight about PG County as a basketball factory. For more anecdotes like these, make sure to tune in Friday, May 15, at 9 p.m. on Showtime.