Markus Robinson became the 251st high school basketball player in history to break the 3,000-point career mark Thursday night, which is significant for many reasons.
* With 24 points against Atlantic Shores Christian, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound guard from
Veritas Collegiate Academy (Chesapeake, Va.) now has 3,008 points, which nudged him past a pair of former or current NBA players in Mike Bibby and Romeo Langford (3,002 points each), as well as Stanley Jackson (3,005).
* If he maintains his current 33.1 points per game average this season, he could breeze pass more big names like future Duke head coach John Scheyer (3,034) and NBA alums Orlando Wooldridge (3,036), Anfernee Hardaway (3,039), Tracy Murray (3,053) and Bill Bradley (3,068).
* Most significant is that Robinson is only a sophomore, which according to MaxPreps historian Kevin Askeland, means he could potentially score 5,000 career points. "Only nine players have ever done that," Askeland said.
Askeland, who compiled the MaxPreps National Record Book for football and basketball, finished this week gathering the career 3,000-point scorers in high school basketball history.
At the top of the list is Demond "Tweety" Carter at 7,494 points, but he did that over six seasons at
Riverside Academy (Reserve, La.), where players in the state could play varsity well before the ninth grade. Julian Newman, the latest to go over 5,000 points and finished at 6,246, played seven seasons at
Downey Christian (Orlando, Fla.) and
Prodigy Prep (Orlando, Fla.).
Robinson's totals are in four seasons, playing three seasons at
Finney (Penfield, N.Y.) before coming over to Veritas Collegiate Academy to join his AAU coach Puncho McGhee, who says the most significant detail about his prized pupil is not his prolific scoring.
Markus Robinson averaged more than 43 points per game during his freshman season at Finney (Penfield, N.Y.).
File photo by Dennis Joyce
"It's who Markus Robinson is as a person that is most impressive," McGhee said. "I mean, he's a super good kid. Plays incredibly hard. Reliable. Respectful. And yes, unselfish too. People think because he scores all those points he's always shooting. That's just not true. He constantly passes and gets his team involved. He doesn't want to show up his teammates. The kid is humble."
Academic too, McGhee said. "He wants to be an engineer. He knows there's life after basketball."
But McGhee thinks Robinson will make money in the future threading the nets.
He's scored in bunches starting as an eighth-grader at Finney, averaging 22.7 points per game. As a freshman in 2019-20 he upped that to 43.5 per his 22 games to finish
second nationally in scoring, breaking the 50-point barrier seven times with a high of 65.
During a COVID-shortened sophomore season last spring, he averaged 40.4 in 16 games before transferring to Veritas Collegiate Academy.
Markus Robinson broke the career 3,000-point mark on Thursday.
File photo by Chris Cecere
In 24 games this season — the Spartans are 20-5 — Robinson averages 33.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game, while shooting 53 percent from the field and 77 percent at the line. The team, which doesn't play for a state championship, has two more games this weekend at the National Christian School Athletic Association championships in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
Because of the pandemic, Robinson, 16, was able to reclassify to the Class of 2024, according to McGhee.
"If he stays focused, he's going to the NBA," McGhee said. "And the kid is nothing but focused."
McGhee said he knows NBA talent when he sees it. He coached Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo as a youth, he said, and trained current New Jersey Nets guard Cam Thomas.
"Markus reminds me a lot of Cam in terms of work ethic and skills," McGhee said.
Robinson doesn't have any college offers yet but he's a hot commodity with club teams fighting for his services this summer. McGhee said he's had calls from numerous colleges about Robinson, including Kentucky, College of Charleston, East Carolina and South Carolina.
Whoever eventually gets him will be getting a jewel, said his coach.
"I've known Markus and been his summer coach since the sixth grade," McGhee said. "We have a great relationship. He's like a son to me. He's way more to me than a great basketball player. He's special."
