Lance Stephenson

Lance Stephenson, Jr. (born September 5, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He attended Lincoln High School in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. Stephenson won city basketball championships in all four years of high school, and is New York State's all-time leading scorer in high school basketball. He was named Mr. New York Basketball after his senior year and appeared in the 2009 McDonald's All-American Game. He was drafted with the 40th overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers and played for the franchise until signing with the Charlotte Hornets in 2014.

High school career

Stephenson first caught the attention of scouts at age 12, when Clark Francis, a talent evaluator, saw him play at Rumble in the Bronx AAU tournament. And before his first year of high school, he attended the Adidas ABCD Camp, where he challenged O.J. Mayo to a one-on-one game.

In the summer of 2005, Stephenson enrolled at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, but he only attended the school for three days, before the school lost in the championship game of a youth league and he did not win the tournament MVP. The following week, Stephenson did not return to classes at Bishop Loughlin, and was attending Abraham Lincoln High School near his home in Coney Island.National Basketball Association players Stephon Marbury, Sebastian Telfair, and future Seton Hall University star Isaiah Whitehead had also attended and played basketball at Lincoln High. Head coach Dwayne Morton said, "{Stephenson} always talked about outdoing Sebastian, outdoing Stephon,", and called him "The best I've ever had at Lincoln." Stephenson went on to lead the Railsplitters to the city title that year.