One of the great unsung stars of basketball — except maybe in Los Angeles — is Raymond Lewis, who became something of a high school legend, scoring as many as 80 points in a game, and drawing interest from 200 schools to recruit him.
Yet he is also a basketball anomaly, as the only first round NBA draft pick who never played a game in the NBA.
The fascinating story is well-told in Ryan Polomski’s documentary “Raymond Lewis: L.A. Legend” even though there isn’t the usual wealth of college or, obviously, NBA footage to depict his skills. What there is an awful lot of is high school documentation — from smudgy, black and white school AV tape. And yet, even through those limitations, Lewis fairly soars down the court, confounding other teams with his ball-handling, his speed and his seeming ability to jump and shoot from anywhere on the boards, racking up all kinds of points even in the days before the 3-point shot.
If there isn’t footage, there is no shortage of friends, fellow players, or old coaches to paint the picture of awesome skills in full detail – half a century after they occurred.
Young Lewis may have known he was good, but he was an unselfish player, happy to make passes as dazzling as his shots. He never received very good advice from elders, though and among all the frenzied recruiting he received, he ended up at lowly Cal State Los Angeles.
These were the days when schools were bribing basketball hopefuls with snazzy cars and cash; and his school in particular was cited for never giving any of its busy athletes an expectation to actually attend classes.