high school near his home in coney island the school had some famous basketball alumni such as polarizing figures sebastian tell fair and former nba all-star stephen marbury the former also struggling to settle and the latter being another talented player who sometimes split opinion as to whether he reached his true potential following a fourth overall pick in one of the greatest drafts of all time in NUMBER_TOKEN. what's crazy is the head coach of lincoln high at the time actually felt like lance was the best player he ever had literally saying he's the best i've ever had at lincoln and lance didn't let him down lincoln high were back-to-back champions in both of stephenson's sophomore and junior years while also winning player of the year twice as given by the new york daily news in NUMBER_TOKEN stevenson then went on to break the all-time leading scorer for high school basketball in new york state his passing was just magnificent to behold at such a young age he constantly had the awareness and vision to put it on a dime in the right place at the right time so when the scouts showed up so did stevenson the guy was ferocious and as a result the exposure was reaching fever pitch which is why the offers came flooding in a reality tv show born ready was documenting lance's progress in high school and stirring up more fanfare because of the buzz even the recruiting process became part of the narrative maryland was probed in a potential investigation as it had been alleged that they had tried to sweeten the deal by giving a tour of the under armour headquarters during his visit the under armour ceo was an act student at maryland so it offered many different theories eventually he joined the university of cincinnati for the NUMBER_TOKEN-NUMBER_TOKEN season and now another problem he had eligibility trouble stevenson had issues over documentation which caused another fire that needed to be put out immediately and luckily it was extinguished pretty quickly as the ncaa cleared him to play in cincinnati's season opener against prairie view a m university once again he showed up when it mattered and was the leading scorer among big east freshmen and ultimately named big east rookie of the year this prompted him to enter the NUMBER_TOKEN draft he was selected in the second round most likely because of controversy off the court including legal troubles or maybe even question marks over his character franchises look into character as much as they do talent because with the draft let's face it they're not just investing in the player they're investing in the brand that comes with the player and from the off everything has to be squeaky clean in order to add a new star to your team roster and your brand roster after all ticket sales are one thing but jerseys sell too and franchises need to know they're getting the best representation for their jerseys indiana was the side that bet on him first as they selected him NUMBER_TOKENth overall when asked why he dropped from a top five high school prospect to a second round pick lance responded i don't know why that happened but i just gotta prove everybody wrong this attitude represented hope for the rookie but his opening season was blunted by not getting minutes early on and then being dropped for violating team rules in april lance also ended up in a number of beefs
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