Top basketball recruit Harry Giles suffers second torn ACL
If you’re a casual college basketball fan, or a casual NBA fan, you probably don’t know the name Harry Giles. Not yet.
But very soon, you will.
At least you would have.
Until, perhaps, this week, when Giles -- far and away the No. 1 recruit in the 2016 high school class, a versatile and insanely athletic power forward from Oak Hill Academy (Va.) who one talent evaluator told me could have been the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft as a high school junior -- tore the ACL in his right knee. It is the second time Giles has torn his ACL. Two summers ago, he tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee.
The news is heartbreaking on so many levels. It’s heartbreaking for fans of Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Wake Forest, who are vying for his services for a likely one-and-done season next season. Giles reportedly still will announce his college choice later this week.
But who cares about that? The only thing that matters is that it’s heartbreaking for Giles, who had labored through a year of rehabilitation and finally, just this past summer, regained his form as a high schooler who has Anthony Davis-like potential. It’s heartbreaking for his mother, Melissa Giles, who has formed her son into an always smiling, always optimistic, incredibly mature young man who has already battled through this once before.
And it’s scary -- terrifying, even -- for elite high school and college basketball players who dream of NBA fortunes just around the corner but get these occasional reminders that tomorrow is never promised.
Giles will come back. He did it once already, and he looked even better than before. Let’s hope he does it once again, and is still considered the runaway No. 1 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
But we all remember what happened to Nerlens Noel, who tore his ACL during his one-and-done season at Kentucky. Kentucky imploded without him, but more importantly, Noel went from the surefire No. 1 pick to being drafted sixth by the Philadelphia 76ers. The injury cost him millions in lost salary and also his rookie season in the NBA, during which he simply rehabbed his knee. It seems to have worked out just fine for Noel. He looks to have a solid NBA career ahead of him.
But Giles’ injury is a sobering, scary reminder that this sort of thing can happen to all of us, even those who look superhuman.
When I heard the news this morning, I thought back to this June, when I saw Giles in the tryouts for the Team USA U-19 team that ended up winning the gold medal at the FIBA World Championships in Greece. Giles was doing things around the basket I’d never seen from a 17-year-old. He is an absurd athlete with solid fundamentals and the developing body of a future star.
Now that stardom is, at the very least, on pause.
When I spoke with him at tryouts, he was beaming. His knee was out of the brace:
“It’s good,” he said.
I told him how USA coaches had been raving about him all week.
“I’m still taking it to another level,” he said. “This summer I just took it there. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to be dominant. I wanted to be known. I just wanted to kill all the questions about me. I’m not taking it as a joke no more. I’m serious now.”
“Five years from now I want to be one of the best in the league, if I’m fortunate enough to go to the NBA,” he said.
At the time, “if I go to the NBA” sounded a bit ridiculous. It was so clearly his destiny. It still is, even with the knee troubles.
But now he must deal with the questions. Is he brittle? Can he still dominate? Will the ACL tears get in his head and affect his game?
What I remembered most about Giles last summer was how he seemed a fount of optimism. He’d been through a brutal injury and come back stronger. He was giddy on the court and giddy talking about all the big-name coaches who were recruiting him. He was surprised they knew his name, and he was still getting a kick out of Coach K walking in his front door.
So say a little prayer for Harry Giles. Not so much that his knee will heal. It will heal. Modern medicine has a way of taking care of those things. He will end up as one of the top recruits for next year, one of the top picks in the 2017 draft.
But say a prayer that he’s able to retain that optimism and that innocence, to not be mentally injured by his physical injury. If he does, then five years from now, you’ll know Harry Giles’ name. And he may just end up as one of the best in the league.
Follow Reid Forgrave on Twitter @reidforgrave or email him at ReidForgrave@gmail.com.
