![]() ![]() ![]() Sportswriters were writing stories on Gretzky when he was 7 years old and by the time he was 10, when he was a 70-pound scoring machine for Brantford, Ontario., he was already a big name among hockey fans in Canada. By the time his sophomore campaign rolled around in 1966, he was already on magazine covers, proclaimed as college hoops' next superstar. He went to UCLA and increased the hype after averaging 31 points per game on the freshman team (freshmen were not eligible for the varsity). Alcindor (he would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) became a household name while attending Power Memorial Academy in New York. Sometimes they even live up to the billing. No sport is as quick to proclaim its phenoms as basketball. By the time he joined the PGA Tour in 1996, he was still just 20 years old and ready to take over. Junior Amateur at age 15 (and 16 and 17) and, at 18, became the youngest to win the U.S. he was on "The Mike Douglas Show" at age 2, reportedly shot a 48 over nine holes at age 3, appeared in Golf Digest at age 4, won the U.S. 1 pick in the draft.Ī young Tiger Woods won his first U.S. Mary High School in Akron to the NBA, where he is expected to become the No. James is a sure bet to jump straight from St. Sure, it's easier these days to get nationwide attention with television, magazines, newspapers and the internet all trumpeting your impending arrival, but even recent prep stars like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady failed to come close to matching James' pre-NBA pub. And be sure to check our corresponding list of Top 10 Phenom Flops. Here is the list of players marketed as prime-time performers before even reaching the big stage. Most Hyped Phenom ever? It's hard to top that kind of publicity. ESPN2 is showcasing the prep phenom before a national audience, and if you live in Ohio, you can watch James on pay-per-view. LeBron James is three games into his senior year of high school and has already appeared on the covers of ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated. ![]()
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