Moreno Valley Strong. That fertile Inland Empire area gave birth to Charisma Osborne, this irrepressible talent, student of the game, throw back mentality, 5-9 guard for the ages.

How dedicated is she? She’ll watch herself and her team on video, over and over for hours, dissecting what it takes for them to conjure up that well oiled machine, devising what it takes to win chips.

Because she loves her teammates, running with them, loves it with all her 16-year old heart.

She respects the game enough to attain that Mamba Mentality, nothing but that “Kobe death stare” will do. Charisma says, “Kobe has this smoldering fire to compete like no other.”

Charisma Osborne to me is the “C-O“, Chosen One. Hear it from her how she feels about the game, “Whichever team I’m on, we need to be totally together for each other. We share friendship off the court, and that leads to team success.

“My Windward and West Coast Premier teams need to have pride enough to figure it out together, how and what it takes to win as one or we’ll lose as individuals.”

Yup, I see C-Osborne’s future: it ends with a march at the NCAA dance, and in a way like Arike Ogunbowale is tapping in her icy veins. (a clutch Ogunbowale famously led Notre Dame to the national title.)

I see this all in the fiery pupils of Charisma’s eyes, game winning shots in her skill set and heart. That kind of intensity on court is a little scary to see.

Who is Charisma Osborne as a person off the court? Chill girl, funny, and a lil bit shy when you first meet her.

But on court, a “stone cold killa.” She takes over a game as needed. Try to get with her on the break and she disappears like smoke in your hands.

You’re gassing E-Woods? No, I could dump a whole Chevron station of petroleum as I predict her career, and this girl would live up to every drop. 100

Charisma pushes the tempo as a scoring guard and PG by any means necessary. She utilizes her strong, sleek, supersonic athletic frame and when it’s in motion it’s like seeing a Lambo roll through. Grabbing steals, lock up in your face ferocious D is her calling card.

It’s been that way for this dope girl since she was ballin for the MV Tarheels in 5th grade where the boys were so jealous of her abilities. Her step dad Damon told me, “The other boys wouldn’t pass her the ball and tried to freeze her out.”

Fast forward to now. Windward certainly appreciates her. They win state chips on the regular. Brian Crichlow’s West Coast Premier AAU team appreciates her like fam. Brian is that great guy who supports the girls who play for him, enables their dreams to play in college, and helps develop them into a pro possibly. They’re there for each other.

I watched WCP hanging out and hooping together recently in Rancho Cucamonga. They're more than a girls’ team - they enjoy a sisterhood, sacrificing to be as one. These sweet kids did very well in the Boo Williams tourney recently.

C- Osborne’s potential? She has all it takes to be the next pro out of the Inland Empire, located a little east of LA.

Many believe this girl is destined to be like Monique Billings who was just drafted by the Atlanta Dream. My guy Kwame Alexander of the Drew League and I were talking about their awesome abilities last week.

Charisma is already starting to train with WNBA players like Imani McGee-Stafford who also attended Windward, and Reshanda Gray. Imani plays for the Atlanta Dream and Reshanda plays for the New York Liberty. Charisma is a sponge around them.

Olin Simplis is her trainer, that good guy who has been orchestrating epic training sessions for all these women lately.

Olin? He doesn’t just train his players, including the Ruffus-Milner twins from Harvard Westlake and many others. They’ll go feed the homeless, attend church, spend quality time off the court together. That’s what’s up!

Olin believes in Charisma, “I see Charisma as that rare special talent. Her ceiling is so high. Refining her middle game is a goal; she could be the one.”

Me, E-Woods, almost never sees big O to be that generous with a projection. Remember Olin is that uber trainer that Frankensteins NBA/WNBA talent in the lab from scratch, like the Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie and too many others to recount in his 20-year career.

Charisma’s Windward High coach, former WNBA player Vanessa Nygaard, says this of Charisma, “I appreciate she has that extra level, a bright player and person. Charisma sees things well and has a desire to be great. It’s awesome to know she’ll show up when we need her most.”

Who does Charisma model herself after? Don’t get it twisted, she appreciates the great Jordin Canada who was just drafted #5 in the WNBA draft but doesn’t necessarily need to be thought of being J-Canada part 2 just because they both attended Windward.

So who is it she wants to be like?

Charisma admires Kobe, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi. If LeBron is the King, this sweet and extremely hardworking girl is on that quest to be the Queen of her own destiny, as she aspires to be in the WNBA after maybe studying sports medicine in college.

You might be asking, does she have the chops?

I once asked these words about a youngster in ‘05, a humble, ultra athletic kid that reminds me just of Charisma. A kid with mellow great personality, driven, a kid who could like dunk from the free throw line in junior high. A talent of a generation, as I knew he was destined to be a super star NBA player.

DeMar DeRozan was that youngster I was so blessed to see, he balled for me a lil bit on our SLAM AAU team. I wrote about him in 05: “The leather ball looks up at its owner and says, DeMar, you aren’t supposed to be able to do this kind of stuff with me."

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Charisma Osborne is a young DeMar DeRozan to be sure. I recently gave Charisma some blue SLAM shorts from our old SLAM team and simply told her, “You are every bit as good as DeMar was. Please take this gear in appreciation for amazing me.

"I’m sorry that society doesn’t respect you or women like they should, but I see you. We all bear witness to your heart for the game, your ability you share on the court. It touches me as a true fan, down to the soul of my core.”

If DeMar was straight outta Compton, Charisma is straight out of the belly of her amazing mom Chaka Ferrell, whose job it is to help the local Moreno Valley community. Her velvety voice and convo is like hearing O-o-h Child by The 5 Stairs.

Spend 5 minutes with Chaka and you realize she’s the dopest mom around.

She has had Charisma’s baby girl living with Charisma’s caring dad in Inglewood the last 2 years so Charisma can attend Windward. That’s the ultimate sacrifice from a mama that must miss her baby every single day.

How many of us would send our kid off to reap the benefits of a powerhouse academic and athletic place, trade our daily interactions with our kid so they could have the best start in life?

Special. Hear Chaka speak truth to power, “I love my baby, she makes us proud, is great at what she puts her mind to. She’s a blessing from God.”

La La is Charisma’s 22-year old bigger sister and is her biggest fan, super cool girl with purple braided hair that loves the Lakers.

How dope are these two sisters together? Charisma, that responsible girl that supports her big sis that has autism, they’re down to love and take care of each other for life. The patience Charisma shows in nurturing La La really touched me like few other sisters I’ve known.

Charisma’s dad Derek, who is a dope guy, speaks so lovingly and enthusiastic about her, “We are so proud of Charisma. All those late night sessions at the gym putting up shots in the gym at 2 am, she just makes us proud every way a kid could. That’s all you can ask for as a parent. It’s all love.”

Who else deserves credit? Damon Ferrell, Charisma’s step dad. He’s so proud of her and needs to be honored for helping raise her as well. Her whole fam is “Team Charisma.”

I remember thinking how Frank and Diane DeRozan really supported DeMar as he was growing up. His mom had this autoimmune disease Lupus but they helped each other and kept D on track. Their fam realized you could have all the talent in the world but if your village is at odds with each other, great players never seem get that elite level. Your fam is fam together. 100.

Who is Charisma really? A straight A student, a girl who absolutely loves to bake goodies in the kitchen her whole life. She also loves to eat Italian food.

What’s the sacrifice and little drawback to striving for greatness? You can’t master everything at once. Chaka bought Charisma a trumpet to play and to try and master because Charisma loves music and dances a lot. Charisma certainly has sweet music inside her but never had the time get her “flute game going.” It sits in her closet.

Why? Girl is on that Mamba Mission, never enough time for voice classes or perfecting an instrument. But her song and her voice comes out when her basketball showcases melodies on the hardwood.

She sacrifices everything, for what? Simply to be the best at her love of basketball. To achieve that is everything to Charisma.

But in some ways Charisma is just like any normal 16-year old junior, hanging with her friends, seeing movies, hearing music, being a happy-go lucky girl with a sense of humor.

In other ways no one I’ve ever seen, I mean ever, does what C-Osborne does on the court these last couple years.

Example? I saw her take her team from an 18-point deficit in the 3rd quarter of a state quarterfinal on a busted tooth about ready fall out, and through force of will she scored, set up her teammates, pushed her team to an obliterating victory over rival Sierra Canyon in that game last year.

Mind blowing.

Then I traveled to the LB State Pyramid and stood witness to Charisma’s take over of the state semi game vs. my alma mater Ventura High no less. How bad did she beat the Cougars?

Legendary Ventura coach Ann Larson called Charisma a “beast,” the ultimate compliment. That game, if it were a movie it would need to be rated PG-13 Windward tore it up so hard.

Was I mad she beat my old school I attended? Nope, I was just in awe of witnessing greatness in front of my eyes. It’s just like Tupac said, “I ain’t mad at cha.” You just can’t hate on greatness, right?

I’ve done my research on the best players in the class of ‘19 and I’ve noticed that 6-1 Nyla Green has handles, can dribble like my guy Brandon Jennings did in high school back in the day.

Samantha Brunelle, is considered by many recruiting outlets to be the top rated girl in ‘19. She is tall and can score. S-Brunelle basically plays inside-out like 6-4 Kelly Greathouse from Buena High. I used to ball with Kelly on the daily in ‘99.

But I feel that future potential will be manifest itself most in Charisma Osborne, no disrespect meant to other girls though.

The big question is, why does Charisma have the juice to leapfrog to being considered the best in her class, that level of greatness? How many girls on the list have been invited to practice with men’s Drew League teams?

Game recognizes game. I know dope Drew ballers from LA and they track and see Charisma’s energy and want her at their training sessions. She charges up everyone around her like no other person can, male or female.

How many other girls in the class of 2019 are doing that?

I’ve talked to a dozen other top insiders that also think Charisma will be that transcendent player because of her work ethic. She just knows there’s 1,000 aspects of her game she wants to improve: defensive counters, go to moves, so many that she wants to perfect.

She knows she needs to get stronger to the rim using her left for example, but most importantly she just knows that she doesn’t know it all. The genius about future great players is that they are perfectionist on that eternal grind. Many kids nowadays think they know it all, that’s sad.

Charisma is too humble to say that she thinks she’ll be that great. She’s focused on the now. Too busy playing with her adorable Shih Tzu dog Benzo.

This girl is not about people talking about her accomplishments, she’s just too humble. Chaka told me, “When she’s in the house, Charisma won’t even go over breaking down game footage on TV if visiting fam is dropping by. She doesn’t want to draw attention to herself.”

Charisma is too grounded to believe in hype. That’s what will make her a great future player. That’s what I and other girls prep hoop fanatics love about her - that pure humility to credit her success to coaches, fam, faith and all who believe in her.

Others see it too. Shareef O’Neal and I were chopping it up recently about Charisma. He said, "She’s a very special player, great person. I could see her ballin out vs. Drew League level men. Ever since I met her when she was a freshman at Windward, you could see that she has it in her.”

You already knew about Charisma but I had to speak on it and now you know. Classy, driven, unlimited. What more can you ask for in a girl who is “the take over”? That answer I don’t know, we should all just sit back and enjoy the show.