Why Isaiah Todd isn’t North Carolina Mr. Basketball despite being state’s best player
Isaiah Todd is the best boys basketball player from North Carolina this year.
Full stop.
If you watched Todd this season, you know he’s unguardable. His 6-foot-10 frame suggests he should play in the paint, but his length and athleticism are reminiscent of Kevin Durant — playing against teenagers — with equal ability to drive, post up or pull up for the transition 3. He’s N.C.’s only McDonald’s All-American, a five-star recruit, and has a bright future at Michigan next season (unless he opts to play overseas) — and likely the NBA within two years. But of all the accolades Todd has and will earn over his career, North Carolina Mr. Basketball will not be one of them.
This year’s honor goes to Tristan Maxwell of North Mecklenburg.
If we look at this season as a vertical slice, Todd appears worthy of joining a list that includes Chris Paul, Wendell Moore, Antwan Jamison, Brandon Ingram and Mason Plumlee who’ve won the coveted award The Charlotte Observer has given out annually since 1985. However, Mr. Basketball has always been a lifetime achievement award recognizing what a senior accomplished on the court while playing in North Carolina, and Todd’s N.C. career was limited to two seasons after moving here from Virginia — his junior year at Raleigh Trinity and Word of God Christian Academy as a senior.
Maxwell, however, has been a star since he first suited up for the Vikings, earning all-conference honors every year since he was a freshman. He ranks among the top 20 career scorers in North Carolina history (2,253 points) and top five in 3-pointers made (330), while averaging 24 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game as a senior.
Maxwell will play at Georgia Tech next season.
[MORE: Tristan Maxwell is North Carolina Mr. Basketball 2020 — Mecklenburg County’s first since 2007]
Josh Hall of Moravian Prep, who committed to N.C. State before recently declaring for the NBA draft, was ineligible for Mr. Basketball due to his decision to reclassify himself from the 2019 graduating class to 2020, giving him a fifth season of high school basketball.
Todd isn’t the only high profile player to be ineligible for Mr. Basketball despite being North Carolina’s best player in a given year. In 1997, Jenis Grindstaff from McDowell High School in Marion was named Mr. Basketball over Tracy McGrady, who moved from Florida to play his senior year at Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham. Grindstaff had a respectable career at Virginia Tech and Tennessee, but McGrady was, well, Tracy McGrady.
Keeping company with a guy who had his own shoe named after him in an era before seemingly every NBA player did perhaps isn’t such a raw deal.
This story was originally published April 11, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
