Skip to main content

Video: LeBron James Praises 'Special' Dylan Harper; No. 2 in B/R's NBA Mock Draft


LeBron James is a fan of Rutgers freshman guard Dylan Harper.

"I've been watching him for quite a while," James said Monday about the son of former Chicago Bulls star Ron Harper (h/t Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson.) "He calls me unc, I call him nephew."

The Los Angeles Lakers star continued: "Special kid, special talent. He's going to be really good in this league."

"Comes from a great family, obviously. Me and Harp, his pops, go back, a while back," James said. "So, I'm excited for what he's doing right now at Rutgers, and what he's going to continue to do in the future."

Harper is averaging 18.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.1 steals through 19 games at Rutgers. He sits at No. 2 in the latest 2025 NBA Mock Draft by Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman.

Wasserman wrote about Harper in his latest mock:

Harper has made a strong impression this season with how well he's able to get to spots and finish in traffic. He's been lethal so far from off the ball in catch-and-shoot situations, and despite underwhelming pull-up percentages, he's demonstrated enough shotmaking capability for an 18-year-old to keep scouts' hopeful.

Lottery teams will ultimately view Harper as a scoring lead guard whose creativity and gravity should result in sufficient playmaking for an offense's primary ball-handler.

Harper even impressed when most recently sitting out most of the second half of a Saturday loss to Michigan State.

Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said after the game that Harper was dealing with an ankle sprain suffered earlier that week (h/t NJ.com's Brian Fonseca.)

But both Pikiell and Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo praised Harper for the 13 minutes he recorded in the the loss.

"He's tough as nails. I'm proud of him," Pikiell said, per Fonseca. "He was in that training room, lived there practically for a couple days. I honestly did not think he was going to play. He said 'let me give it a whirl' and he gave us 13 minutes. That says a lot about him."

"That kid is a hell of a player," Izzo said, per Fonseca. "Your quarterback is your quarterback. He makes all the other players better."

Rutgers forward Ace Bailey, who is listed at No. 3 in Wasserman's latest draft, has also lived up to the hype during his freshman season.

That hasn't been enough to put the Scarlet Knights on track for the NCAA Tournament. Rutgers is currently 10-10 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten.

Harper potentially being injured will make it even more difficult to improve those records. Rutgers will hope for him to return soon as possible for the sake of their tournament hopes, while Harper will look to solidify his standing as a top option behind Duke standout Cooper Flagg down the stretch of his freshman season.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NBA Rumors: LeBron James' Son Bronny Is on Draft Boards of 'Multiple Teams'

Chris Coduto/Getty Images Bronny James' USC team has struggled this season, but that reportedly hasn't stopped the NBA interest in the son of legend LeBron James. "When I talk to people around the league, he's on the draft boards of multiple teams," Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Thursday: Charania noted teams around the league believe he is "further along" on the defensive side of the ball than the offensive side, which makes performances like Wednesday's all the more important. The USC freshman finished with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds while shooting 5-of-11 from the field in one of his best offensive showings of the season in a loss to Arizona. The only game that he scored more points in was a Dec. 30 loss to Oregon State when he finished with 15 on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. Perhaps most importantly, James played a season-high 30 minutes against the Wildcats on Wedn...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Happened to the Rivalry Between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony? - Bleacher Report

They were two young stars with unique and special abilities on the basketball court. They had recently played in a high-attention scholastic contest against each other. They were both selected in the same draft. The LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony rivalry was supposed to be the best individual rivalry since Magic and Bird. But while the relationship between Bird and Johnson is dramatized in a new Broadway play , Anthony and James will meet for the 15th time in their careers and do so without much fanfare. James and Anthony first met in a USA developmental camp in 2001 . Much like how Johnson raved about Bird after they played together on a college All-Star team playing in an international tournament, James couldn’t stop talking about Anthony. The two squared off in a high school showcase game the following year that pitted the player regarded as the best senior in the country (Anthony) against the one that was the best junior in the country (James), a game Anthony’s team wo...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘So You Think You Can Dance’ 18 episode 3 recap: In ‘Auditions: Day Three,’ one hopeful was like ‘the LeBron James of dance’

"So You Think You Can Dance" season 18 ended the first stage of the competition on Monday night, March 18, with the last dance hopefuls looking for a spot in the choreography round. So far the bar has been set pretty high by standout performances from dancers representing a variety of dance styles, shapes, sizes and ability levels. So who stood out among the last crop of contestants? Did the show save the best for last? "We've put 25 people through," said judge Allison Holker at the start of the show. She singled out contemporary dancer Braylon Browner and gymnast Dakayla Wilson as standouts from the first two days of auditions. Comfort Fedoke agreed that Wilson is capable of anything a professional choreographer could throw at her. Maksim Chmerkovskiy was especially impressed by contemporary dancer Easton Magliarditi . But "there's so many other things outside of dance that we're also looking at." More from GoldDerby SEE ...
Post a Comment
Read more