Video: Jordan Brown highlights
USA Basketball gold medalist leaving Sacramento-area school.
It was rumored shortly after he arrived at
Woodcreek (Roseville, Calif.) in 2014:
Jordan Brown would leave for a basketball academy.
On Wednesday, following three highly productive seasons, that became official when the nation's No. 13 recruit from the Class of 2018 (by 247Sports) transferred to
Prolific Prep Academy (Napa, Calif.).
Projected as a lottery pick in the
2019 NBA draft, the 6-foot-11 senior post leaves Woodcreek, which last year won the CIF Northern California Open Division championship.
Considered the Sac-Joaquin Section's most heavily recruited basketball player since Bill Cartwright in the 1970s, Brown averaged 25.3 points, 13.8 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game in his three seasons at Woodcreek.
All 15 Prolific Prep players will attend
Napa Christian (Napa) this season, said the academy's co-director Philippe Doherty. Josh Jackson, drafted fourth in June's NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns, played for Prolific Prep two seasons finishing in 2015-16.
"We are like a European basketball academy at a private school," Doherty said. "Players get great academics and elite coaching by our staff. They get the best of both worlds. They don't have to sacrifice one or the other."
But leaving Woodcreek, his teammates and coaching staff wasn't easy for Brown or his family.
Woodcreek coach Paul Hayes took the high road.
"He was tremendous to coach and he's a tremendous person," Hayes told Joe Davidson, who broke the story for the
Sacramento Bee. He later wrote a
follow story examining the move more closely. "I know Dion (Brown's father) has his son's best interest at heart, and it's hard to fault someone who is doing something he feels is best for his son."
Jordan Brown averaged 26.3 points and 15.8 rebounds per game last season as a junior at Woodcreek.
File photo by Gary Jones
