High school basketball classics abounded in western Cook County

The Sun-Times’ high school basketball Mount Rushmore project highlights the sport’s biggest names and greatest stars.

With the prep career as the criteria’s centerpiece — with a sprinkling of post-high school success and overall stature used as a separator — we’ve created a Mount Rushmore for 10 geographical regions throughout the Chicago area.

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There’s a lot of boys high school hoops history to take in within the Western Cook geographic region, but two programs — and all their star players over many decades — are at the forefront. Proviso East and St. Joseph, a school that shut its doors in 2021, were bound to significantly impact this area’s Mount Rushmore.

Even putting together a Proviso East-only Mount Rushmore would be a challenge, with the program having churned out such talents as Doc Rivers, Jim Brewer, Dee Brown, Shannon Brown, Michael Finley, Donnie Boyce, Sherrell Ford, Jevon Carter, Jacob Pullen and Steven Hunter.

And St. Joseph? It won more games in the 1980s than any other program in Illinois and was a state power for 30 years. The stars that legendary coach Gene Pingatore coached there began with the great Isiah Thomas. There also were two McDonald’s All-Americans — Deryl Cunningham and Daryl Thomas — plus Demetri McCamey and Evan Turner, among others.

Glen Grunwald, East Leyden

Grunwald’s success in the 1970s still echoes among high school basketball fans. Until a year ago, he remained the only player named to the all-area team as a freshman and the only four-time selection. He also was a four-time all-stater.

As a freshman, the 6-9 Grunwald averaged 18 points, which he followed with averages of 21 points as a sophomore, 23 as a junior and 27 as a senior on his way to 2,200 career points. By the time he was a senior, he was the No. 1 ranked player in the country, according to one national recruiting service. Coaches from all over the U.S., including North Carolina’s Dean Smith, Kentucky’s Joe B. Hall and Indiana’s Bobby Knight — who ultimately won Grunwald’s services — coveted his size, fundamentals and smarts.

East Leyden went 24-0 in back-to-back seasons when Grunwald was a junior and senior and was twice ranked No. 1 in the state heading into the state playoffs. Although the Eagles finished 94-9 overall in the Grunwald years, they could never reach the Elite Eight, coming close in 1975 but losing in the super-sectional.

Grunwald then headed to Indiana, where things derailed quickly — the result of a severe knee injury the summer before his freshman year. He was never the same, co-captaining the Hoosiers team that won the national title in 1981 but never making an impact.

His post-playing career was fueled by his outstanding academic work in high school and college. He earned a J.D. at Northwestern’s School of Law and an MBA from Indiana. That led to him working in the front office for three different NBA teams.

Corey Maggette, Fenwick

Three of Western Cook’s Mount Rushmore figures all played their high school ball 40-plus years ago. Among more recent contenders, there were plenty to choose from, but Maggette’s talent, stature and résumé are enough to solidify his spot.

It still has been more than 25 years since he played at Fenwick, but there’s a reason why his No. 50 is retired there. He entered high school with a ton of fanfare, already looking like a college player with his 6-6 size and physique. For may, the instant reaction to seeing him up close was, “Wow.” He was an explosive player off the floor and a powerful finisher at the rim with high-flying dunks. But he also had a jumper with range, making more than 40 three-pointers as a senior.

Fenwick won its first sectional championship in Maggette’s junior season. As a senior averaging 23.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, he was the catalyst of a team that reached the Elite Eight. The Friars went a combined 77-12 in his final three seasons as he attained McDonald’s All-American status and became a consensus top-20 prospect.

Maggette spent just one season at Duke before the SuperSonics drafted him 13th overall in the 1999 NBA Draft and traded him to the Magic that same night. He played 14 seasons in the NBA, finishing with a career average of 16 points per game.

Doc Rivers, Proviso East

There was an explosion of interest in boys high school basketball in the late 1970s, thanks in large part to the arrival of three players from Chicago’s West Side and near-western suburbs: Thomas, Mark Aguirre and Glenn “Doc” Rivers.

It was Rivers, a 6-3 guard and McDonald’s All-American, who most put fans on the edges of their seats with his explosive athleticism and speed. The first freshman to play varsity basketball at Proviso East, he became a three-time all-stater. The Pirates went 99-13 in his four seasons, although they never advanced beyond the sectional.

Later, as a highly successful NBA player and coach, Rivers repeatedly expressed his love for high school hoops in Illinois. In “Sweet Charlie, Dike, Cazzie, and Bobby Joe,” former Sun-Times preps editor Taylor Bell’s book on high school basketball, he states, “There was no bigger dream in life than to play in Champaign and win the state title.”

It never happened for Rivers, despite being on one of the best teams in the state. Early in his career, it was St. Joseph and Thomas that kept Proviso East from advancing. When Rivers was a junior in 1979, Proviso East was ranked second in the state heading into the postseason but was upset by De La Salle. It happened again the following year in the sectional, when the Pirates were the No. 1 team in the state and the country.

After an outstanding three seasons at Marquette, Rivers enjoyed a 15-year NBA playing career, then evolved into one of the NBA’s best and most respected head coaches, winning a title in 2008 with the Celtics.

Isiah Thomas, St. Joseph

If he’s not the greatest high school player in state history, he’s the greatest of the pre-shot clock era, not to mention one of the most influential college and pro players of all time, a man often referred to as the best pure point guard ever.

Thomas won a national championship at Indiana. He won a pair of NBA titles with the Pistons. But he never won a state title.

He came close. St. Joe’s reached the state championship game in 1978, Thomas’ junior year, after a quarterfinal win over Aguirre and Westinghouse but lost to Lockport in the title game. Thomas was the state tournament’s leading scorer with 93 points in four games, sparking admiration that was in full force going forward.

St. Joe’s suffered a more painful ending the following season as De La Salle stunned Thomas and the Chargers 59-58 with a game-winning shot just before the buzzer to end Thomas’ high school career.

He was a city kid. His family lived in Garfield Park, then moved to the Austin neighborhood. But Thomas’ mother wanted him at a private school. Pingatore was the benefactor, and Thomas flourished.

The Sun-Times Player of the Year and McDonald’s All-American as a senior, he was eventually inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.