Note: I used 247Sports for this. Their database only goes back to 2003. So in my research from HS classes 2003(LeBron James) to 2015, there are 75 players that are in the NBA who were ranked outside the Top 100. That doesn't include those were weren't ranked at all. There are 450(?) NBA players. Almost 17% of NBA players are in that category. There are 78 who were in the top ten of their recruiting classes(like our own Eric Gordon who was #1 and Cody Zeller who was #10). Just over 17% of NBA players come from that. There are 146 I think who not ranked, too old for the database or came from overseas. That's about 32.5%. The real reason I researched it was because of people saying that "rankings mean nothing" or "they are never accurate" or pointing to a guy like Oladipo and saying that rankings don't matter. But they seem to matter quite a bit. If each year the rankings reach to 500(which 247 can get to 1000). There are 75 who were outside the Top 100 and let's say they were all in the top 500(even though a guy like Patty Mills was actually outside the Top 1000). Since 2003 there would have been 5,200 athletes ranked from 101-500. Basically saying there is a 1.4% chance of reaching the NBA from that spot. The Top Ten has had 130 players. So a 60% chance. Those numbers will rise and fall but that's where they are at the moment. So rankings do matter in the gran scheme of things and are fairly accurate in the long run. Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners mobile app
