Avery Bradley scored a playoff career-high 29 points as the Boston Celtics beat the Washington Wizards 123-101 on Wednesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Bradley is averaging 15.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists thus far in the playoffs.
Long before Bradley helped the Celtics, he was a star at Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.). Bradley was named to the American Family Insurance ALL-USA First Team in 2009.
At the time, he was ranked as the No. 1 shooting guard in the class and the No. 4 player overall by the 247Sports Composite rankings. In his senior year, Bradley was named to the McDonald’s All America Game and the Jordan Brand Classic and was part of the Pilots’ team that won the National High School Invitational (now known as the DICK’S Nationals).
Avery Bradley of Findlay Prep in 2009 (Photo: Steve Marcus, USA TODAY Sports)
After one season at Texas, he was selected No. 19 overall by the Celtics.
In a story by Boston WEEI’s Jessica Camerato that is excerpted on the Findlay Prep website, Bradley set this about choosing Findlay Prep.
“Findlay was the best way,” he said. ” It helped me mature as a person. Sometimes I think about it (if I didn’t go to Findlay Prep) and I went to a real prestigious school in Washington, I probably still would have got a scholarship somewhere, but my basketball skills probably wouldn’t be where they got. I probably wouldn’t have become the No. 1 player, I probably wouldn’t have been a McDonalds All-American, a lot of things. I don’t know where I would’ve been. Findlay was the best move for me.”