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He's considered the best high school basketball player in the country, and is the nation's most highly-recruited prepster entering his senior season. He is Jabari Parker, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and this week, the cover subject in Sports Illustrated. That Parker keeps BYU among his list of potential collegiate destinations makes his remarkable story all the more intriguing to Cougar fans.
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LDS writer Jeff Benedict authored the SI story, and gave an interview to the Deseret News' Jeff Call, who wrote an excellent piece going behind-the-scenes of the magazine feature.
While the Sports Illustrated story notes that "this fall Jabari will probably announce which college he will attend," there have been other indications that Parker may indeed wait until 2013's spring signing period to make his decision. Either way, Parker's selection will be most highly-anticipated among those in the Class of 2013.
Schools like Duke, Kentucky and Kansas have the inside track among the highest-profile institutions, while regional favorites are programs like Illinois, DePaul and Michigan State. BYU is positioned as an appealing outlier, for obvious reasons of religious affiliation.
Dave Rose's program has been considered a long shot to acquire Parker's services, but the sense I get is that BYU has emerged as a more serious consideration, just outside the top tier of schools mentioned above. Parker has given no indication that BYU should back off of its efforts, and those efforts have been as earnest as are permitted by regulation.
Parker would ostensibly be comfortable in the BYU environment, and he would clearly find a kinship with his teammates in Provo, but the ability to stand out as a Mormon student-athlete--which makes his story so interesting in Chicago, and to the nation--would be somewhat diminished in BYU's more religiously homogenous community.
It is also safe to assume that were Parker to attend BYU--as the most acclaimed recruit in school history--he would be unable to navigate sidewalks and classrooms in relative anonymity, which would more easily achieved at a school where African-American student-athletes and/or superstar hoopsters are more prevalent. Jabari Parker would simply be the most popular person in Provo, and while it remains to be seen whether he would relish or recoil from such an identity, his natural humility might be at odds with such day-to-day stardom.
That said, were Parker to choose BYU, it is conceivable that he could help enhance BYU's athletic image and national perception to an extent even surpassing that of recent phenom Jimmer Fredette--if not in intensity, then certainly in novelty.
A relative unknown coming out of high school, Jimmer and BYU seemed like a natural fit, for the stereotypical reasons related to height, religion and ethnicity. As the Fredette phenomenon built over time, it allowed BYU fans and basketball observers around the nation to see that in "Jimmer Time," there was also much of the atypical to appreciate, and his SportsCenter appearances, numerous national awards and top ten NBA Draft status helped to show that there was more to BYU Basketball than met the eye. It is reasonable to believe that the LDS Church also benefited from "Jimmermania," as Fredette's exploits likely piqued curiosity about the religion that played such a formative role in his life.
As the biggest prep basketball name in the country, already ticketed for an NBA career, Jabari Parker deciding to attend BYU would be a tremor with potentially lasting repercussions. A minority member of a minority religion, Jabari Parker playing at BYU would be sealing the stamp affixed by Fredette: a declaration that even an athletic supernova could be attracted by not only a comfortable campus environment but also a competitive athletic environment, with, as Fredette showed, the ability to achieve every meaningful individual and team goal desired. The fact that Parker is not seen as a "typical" BYU player would only serve to broaden the scope of interest in the program. The fact is, Parker selecting BYU could change the way many people look at Cougar sports.
From a pure basketball standpoint, Jabari Parker would take Dave Rose's current run of success and give it a jolt that would vault his team to a place among the nation's elite. Having already secured a Class of 2013 commitment from Lone Peak star Nick Emery, Rose has acquired a talent ranked in the national Top 100. Parker is the nation's Number One. Oh, what a season 2013-14 would be for BYU, if Parker were to play in Provo.
The Cougars' every game would be an event; the Marriott Center would experience a string of sellouts, and the modest venues of the West Coast Conference would be rocking. ESPN and its networks would make appointment viewing of BYU games, and "Jabarimania" might very well become a buzzword. Could Parker achieve such acclaim elsewhere? Certainly, but whereas at BYU he might not stand out due to his faith, he would certainly stand out in every other possible way.
Some have reasonably speculated that that West Coast Conference might not provide Parker with either the kind of exposure or competition he could be seeking in a higher-profile league, and if that is a relevant factor in his college choice, so be it. If, however, he were content to be the biggest thing to hit WCC hoops and were he to be satisfied with energetic sellouts on national TV, then BYU's new league would suit him just fine.
It will be completely understandable should Jabari Parker choose to play for a legendary leader like Coach K, or at an NBA factory like Kentucky, or close to home at Illinois or DePaul. Wherever he ends up, he will be a success, and a shining example. BYU fans should wish him the very best wherever he decides to play, and while they might wish for what might have been should Parker pass on Cougar blue, in the big picture, a player and a person like Parker is to be admired--even if it ends up being from afar.
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