Charles O’Bannon Jr. comes from a long lineage of basketball players. His father, Charles O’Bannon, won a national championship at UCLA and went on to play for the Detroit Pistons in the NBA. He wasn’t the only one with the basketball genes. Ed O’Bannon, Charles’ uncle, was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in the first round of the 1995 NBA Draft. Charles O’Bannon Jr., a Junior in high school, is ready to follow in their footsteps: “It’s not even pressure for me because all these years as a kid you grow up wanting to be on top and once you’re there you just have to work to stay at the top.”

 

O’Bannon’s road to the top began in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 1st, 1999. By the age of five, he already had a basketball in his hands. “My main influence was my dad because when I was younger, I saw him play all the time and I loved everything about it.The publicity that he was getting was nice to see.” explained O’Bannon. Although he started young, O’Bannon’s game wasn’t great until he was a teenager, saying, “I didn’t start taking it seriously until I was about 12 or 13.” O’Bannon’s development was partly due to his work with his high school team, Bishop Gorman High School (Las Vegas, NV) and his AAU team, The Las Vegas Prospects. Both teams have put O’Bannon in a position to be one of the best players in the country. “[The Las Vegas Prospects] have helped me develop because I’m playing with top guys on our team. Troy Brown Jr., being the number one point guard in the country and Markus Howard right behind him,” he said. “It’s huge to be around great players and it helps you at the end of the day.” His strong play on the AAU Circuit caught the attention of scouts all over the country, resulting in offers from schools such as Kansas, Arizona, and, of course, UCLA. While many would think that UCLA would be a frontrunner, O’Bannon wants to distinguish himself from his father, saying, “ My dad and I are two different players. We play different ways. My dad had more of a leaping ability and he used that with everything that he did, but with me, I’m more of a scorer. My dad may have been better in other areas and he matured a lot faster than me, body wise, so it was a lot easier for him.”

 

It is clear that O’Bannon has received a lot of attention recently, due to his tremendous basketball talent, but it hasn’t always been that way. “I feel like I was very underrated the last few years. Because of the people I was playing with, I wasn’t able to show everybody what I can do,” O’Bannon said. “Finally when it was my time, I got to step up and I turned up the tempo a lot more.” His ability to thrive under pressure is a great trademark of his game, but O’Bannon still sees room for improvement in his game: “[I want to] become more explosive and that comes with getting in better shape. [To do that] I need to stay in the gym and get in the weight room a lot more.”

With a couple years left in high school and the recruiting process in full swing, it will be interesting to see where O’Bannon ends up. With his family by his side and a work ethic like no other, Charles O’Bannon Jr. is undoubtedly a player to look out for in the Class of 2017. There is no doubt that he is climbing to the top.