This is what the USA Today first-team high school basketball All-American looked like in 1996.
It was Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O'Neal, Mike Bibby, Tim Thomas ... and Ronnie Fields.
The first four players had productive NBA careers while Fields never got to realize his dream. While in high school, he was involved in a car accident that slowed a once promising career.
Fields has no regrets, especially after becoming a high school coach in Illinois. This month, he led Hope Academy out of Chicago to the Class 1A state title in only his second season.
"You only look at it that way when you don't end up being successful in life," Fields told Back In The Day Hoops. "That's when you look back but when you end up doing something that probably no one has done in my shoes as a coach in the first two years of coaching, that's different."
In the mid-90s, Fields drew comparisons to Michael Jordan while playing at Farragut Academy in Chicago. He eventually teamed with NBA Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett to form one of the greatest duos in Illinois high school basketball history. He was lumped with the likes of Allen Iverson until breaking his neck in the accident in 1996.
He never played in college and went undrafted. Still, he had a successful stint in the CBA with the Rockford Lightning. While the NBA goals never materialized, Fields is content with being a mentor and positive influence on today's youth. He also runs a basketball academy.
"For me, if I wasn't successful and I didn't have a calling to do what I'm doing, then I could look back and say, `Hey, I missed my opportunity,"' Fields said. "... My peers in the NBA, played, retired. I'm talking about the best of the best, AI, KG, all of those guys, and then I'm doing what I'm doing ... This could have been my [expected] path as well."
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Back In The Day Hoops On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com
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