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Vernon Scheavalie "Schea" Cotton (born May 20, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. He was highly touted as a high school player, when he seemed destined to play professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 10 years professionally, but never reached the NBA. Growing up in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Cotton was physically mature beyond his years. He gained national exposure before even playing in high school. The interest level in his prep career was arguably as high as any player ever. Due to disputes over his entrance examination scores with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), his college basketball career was delayed two years. After a lawsuit with the NCAA was settled, Cotton played one season with Alabama. He decided to forego his final two years of college eligibility to enter the 2000 NBA draft, but he went undrafted. Cotton played professionally for 10 years, both domestically as well as in numerous foreign countries. After retiring as a player, he became a basketball coach and trainer for young players. ==Early life== Vernon Scheavalie Cotton was born in Inglewood, California, to Gaynell and James Cotton.〔〔 He was named by his father after singer Maurice Chevalier. As kids could not pronounce his name, Cotton came to be known as Schea. After his family moved from San Pedro, California in 1990 due to concerns with gangs, he enrolled at St. Irenaeus Catholic School in Cypress. The school did not have any openings in the seventh grade, so Cotton repeated the sixth grade. His mother denied that he was held back to gain a physical advantage to earn an athletic scholarship. At age 12 and in the sixth grade, he stood and and was captain on a team which included seventh- and eighth-graders. That year, Cotton was featured in the ''Los Angeles Times''.〔 He became nationally known before even reaching high school. According to ESPN in 2010, the expectations for Cotton were "as great as any pre-high school aged player ever, even LeBron James."〔 By the time he was a high school freshman, Cotton had grown to and . He started the year at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, where he played four games. Citing a desire to play with teammates from his summer team, he transferred mid-season to Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, where many of them attended. That year, Cotton averaged 20 points and seven rebounds per game, and Mater Dei won the 1994 Southern Section Division I-A championship and advanced to the Southern California regional final. He was profiled in ''Sports Illustrated'', who billed him as one of the nation's top high school players.〔〔 "Don't laugh. This kid could pull it off," wrote the magazine of Cotton's desire to jump directly from high school to the NBA.〔 His games had developed a following, drawing well above-average crowds. In an era before the Internet, high school games were not televised, and his fame spread through word of mouth.〔 Still, the interest level in Cotton at the time has been compared to the fanfare of LeBron James' prep career, and some have referred to him as "LeBron before LeBron."〔 Youngsters would wait for over a half-hour for his autograph. In 2014, ''Cal-Hi Sports'' hailed him as "arguably the most ballyhooed youth player in () history." In his sophomore year, Cotton averaged 24 points and 10 rebounds, leading Mater Dei to a 36–1 record and a state championship, their third in 13 seasons.〔 He was voted All-Southern Section Division I Player of the Year, and was named to the All-Southern Section Division I Team for the second straight year. Cotton also became the first and only sophomore to be named ''Cal-Hi Sports'' Division I State Player of the Year, and was honored nationally as a fourth-team ''Parade'' All-American. He wore 37 pairs of shoes that year, a new pair for each game courtesy of Nike. According to Cotton, "I basically had a shoe contract in high school, to be honest, without the money."〔 After two years at one of the country's top programs in Mater Dei, Cotton returned to St. John Bosco. The school received little press coverage, and he had grown weary of the attention he garnered at Mater Dei.〔 In his junior year, Cotton broke a bone in his left hand and missed most of the season. Though he played in only 11 games, he was named a first-team ''Parade'' All-American. He missed his senior year after undergoing surgery to repair damaged ligaments in his left shoulder. He had suffered the injury over the summer in an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) game against Lamar Odom. 〔〔 Despite being sidelined, one recruiting service tabbed him as the No. 2 high school prospect in the nation.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Schea Cotton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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