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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe crowd was drawn in large part by a Sierra Canyon roster dotted with names like Hardaway, Pippen and James, of course, but the savvy fans in the building knew all about Collier, too. The 6-4, 205-pound lead guard is a consensus top-five player in the 2023 class\u2014and depending on which ranking you check, you might just find him at No. 1. He didn\u2019t have his best game in L.A., but even on an off night\u2014he scored 17 in the loss\u2014he showed plenty of signs of the skill set that made him arguably the most coveted prospect in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trojans secured Collier\u2019s commitment last November, and also signed his Wheeler teammate, top-60 big man Arrinten Page. They\u2019re now a squad that could challenge for Pac-12 and national honors next spring. For Collier, the draw of L.A. was less about bright lights and famous fans than the chance to be near family and thrive in a system perfectly suited to his game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI got a lot of family out there\u2014my brother and uncle, a lot of my cousins, they\u2019re really all in L.A.,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd definitely Coach [Andy] Enfield, the program they have, I want to help get them to a Final Four and play that style they ran back at Florida Gulf Coast. I still watch those \u2018Dunk City\u2019 March Madness highlights on YouTube\u2014all the dunks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collier is indeed the sort of player a coach can build a championship contender around. Strong and savvy, he\u2019s an athletic guard and great passer who plays aggressive but under control. Asked to name role models for his game, he offers the unlikely combination of Chris Paul\u2014\u201chis high IQ, getting teammates involved, the way he uses the pick and roll\u201d\u2014and Ja Morant\u2014\u201ca little bit, not as athletic, but always attacking the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collier won\u2019t call his game \u201ccomplete\u201d just yet\u2014in particular, he knows his jump shot is still a work in progress\u2014but he\u2019s shown more than enough on some of the biggest stages at the prep level to justify the lofty ranking and high expectations. It was his run last summer that confirmed just how good he is and could still be. Coming off a knee injury, he snatched MVP honors at both Stephen Curry Camp and Under Armour Elite 24, then dominated on the EYBL circuit. He still has unfinished business at Wheeler\u2014a state championship was understandably at the top of his senior year to-do list\u2014but as far as individual high school r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, Collier\u2019s is stacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n That r\u00e9sum\u00e9 brings welcomed benefits\u2014like the coveted photo shoot, seen here, he wrapped up a couple of days before our call\u2014as well as attention that could derail a player lacking his focus and family support system. But in either case, Collier is good. \u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s a blessing, but I don\u2019t really pay attention to all that,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s great to be recognized, and it\u2019s also having a target on your back, getting everybody\u2019s best game. But it doesn\u2019t really impact me. I\u2019ve got bigger goals in mind.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Portraits by Matt Odom<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Isaiah Collier might soon get used to having rappers and Heisman Trophy winners sitting courtside at his games, in college at USC next season or in the NBA after that. But when he took the court in his soon-to-be home gym in L.A. back in January, the star-studded crowd was a bit of a novelty. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":774806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49435],"tags":[9191,167,62525,64918,14101,7392,12990,64927,5007],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-772986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-magazine","tag-2-chainz","tag-chris-paul","tag-feature-1","tag-isaiah-collier","tag-lil-dicky","tag-los-angeles","tag-nba","tag-slam-hs","tag-usc"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772986"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779237,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772986\/revisions\/779237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772986"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=772986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/MBO_1483.jpg\")
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