Putting a high schooler on the cover of Sports Illustrated

Jabari Parker is on the cover of this week's SI.

I'm pretty sure he's only the fourth high school basketball player to ever be on the cover. I'm pretty sure the others are Sebastian Telfair, LeBron James and Tom McMillen. I don't think Garnett being on the cover right before the draft counts...

Any thoughts on this? To me, it seems kind of crazy to do. I don't have a problem with them doing a story, but putting a high school junior on the cover seems a bit insane.

 

It's four basketball players. I don't know about other sports.

 

Who is the best LDS basketball player, Jimmer or Jabari?

 

Bruce Hardy, who went onto a pretty good career at Arizona State an OK career as a tight end with the Miami Dolphins, was on the SI cover as a Utah high school quarterback in 1974.



Can't think of any other high school football players on the SI cover off the top of my head.

 

Rick Mount. Who probably still thinks he's the greatest shooter of all time.

 

My question would be ... where do you draw the line? You have to be 18 or over to be featured on a national sports mag's cover?

 

I don't know the answer to that. Wasn't Mary Lou Retton only 16 when she won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics?

I can understand doing it for LeBron. He was one of the biggest stories in the country when he was in high school. I tend to doubt that was the case for Telfair and Parker.

 

That hot high school pole vaulter (!) should have been on some magazine covers back in the day.

Yes, God help me, if you Google "hot high school pole vaulter" you get the name of Allison Stokke.

Now out of college, I think. Doesn't matter, I'm going to hell.

 

The Mental Floss website had this "Where Are They Now?" article on this subject when Harper made the cover in 2009:

http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/26197.html

 

I think the feat, and not the hype should dictate cover status.

But then again ....

http://si.com/vault/cover/featured/9216/index.htm

 

I think what's unusual is putting a high school athlete on the cover who is still competing in high school sports. Parker still has a year to go.

A gymnast, golfer or tennis player would be on the cover not because their team went 15-1 and won the sectional, but because they won the U.S. Amateur or made a splash in the Olympics or something.