When Zach Fleer, co-owner of 270Hoops that covers Central Ohio high school basketball, arrived at a high school all-star game in 2014, there was an eighth-grade all-star game taking place on the floor prior to the contest.
He watched as this 6-foot-6 eighth grader drove into the middle of the lane and threw down a powerful one-handed slam.
“I was like OK, who is this kid? I need to find out,” Fleer recalls.
He went to the scorers table, asked who the kid was, and they told him his name was Jerome, but they didn’t have a last name.