Seattle has been producing elite college and NBA basketball players for years.
Take Peyton Siva, a Seattle-born player, helped lead his Louisville team to the 2013 NCAA Division I National Championship.
Denver Nuggets point guard Nate Robinson, Los Angeles Clippers shooting guard Jamal Crawford and former Sacramento Kings great Doug Christie all played high school basketball in Seattle, and all played basketball at Rainier Beach High School.
The North Idaho College men’s basketball team has four players on its team who hail from the Emerald City, and all of them attended the same high school – Rainier Beach.
Will Dorsey, Fuquan Niles, Wilfred Middlebrooks and Jordon King, all freshmen this season (Middlebrooks is redshirting), have helped their team to a three seed in the Scenic West Athletic Conference tournament this Thursday and will be playing sixth-seeded Colorado Northwestern Community College.
Dorsey, Niles and Middlebrooks have known each other since elementary school and Dorsey and Niles played on the Seattle Rotary in middle school and high school.
Middlebrooks has only one year of organized basketball under his belt. His brother, Michael, played at NIC last season and the season before. He is now playing at Illinois State in Normal, Ill.
Dorsey and Niles won back-to-back 3A state titles their junior and senior years and Wilfred Middlebrooks won one his senior year with the team.
“We like the Rainier Beach program,” NIC head coach Jared Phay said. “They got really good coaches there. Obviously, they win and we want kids from winning programs. We would have recruited each of them individually even if they were at different high schools. Of course they knew each other so they wanted to go to the same place.”
Dorsey and Niles both transferred to Rainier Beach from different high schools. Dorsey transferred from Garfield and Niles from Ingraham – both Seattle high schools.
While Dorsey, Niles and Middlebrooks all signed with NIC, Dorsey and Niles were also receiving interest from Division I schools.
Dorsey was looked at by Seattle University and Niles received interest from the University of Washington and Washington State University.
Dorsey also received interest from other junior colleges after he signed with NIC.
Moving from a metropolitan-area like Seattle to a small-sized town like Coeur d’Alene, Dorsey said one of the differences was the lack of diversity among races in Coeur d’Alene. It was a new scene for all three of them.
Niles said he wasn’t used to being away from home for such long stretches of time.
Dorsey, Niles and Middlebrooks have been friends for a long time.
“He (Niles) makes you laugh,” Dorsey said. “He cares a lot about other people.”
Dorsey said Niles is the kind of person that would give you money if you needed something.
Niles described Dorsey as “outgoing” and “sociable.”
As for Middlebrooks, “He’s to himself,” Dorsey said. “He’s the quiet, mellow one.”
NIC plays in the SWAC, arguably the toughest conference in the NJCAA.
Niles said playing in the SWAC is different than it was playing in high school.
“In high school, we basically killed everybody,” Niles said.
With Seattle’s recent rich tradition of basketball players, maybe the NBA and Division I schools should make room for Dorsey, Niles, Middlebrooks and King.
