Special Feature Story: Tim Harrison

"Angel Wings"

By Erik Woods

How would you respond to the prognosis, "Your kid will never be able to compete in sports, low muscle tone, you'll need this stack of doctors' notes to excuse him from P.E. forever."

This was said about Tim Harrison and his mom Myrna says an old church spiritual immediately popped into her head at that moment: "Whose Report Will You Believe? We Will Believe the Report of The Lord!"

"Our whole family felt this way", said Myrna. "My husband Joseph and little Joseph II felt that doctors can't always know the Lord's final report. So we showered Tim with all the physical therapy, love, and help that he needed. We prayed as if everything depended on prayer, and we worked as if everything depended on work."

Pray, believe, rinse, repeat, that's what the Harrison family seemed to use as the formula for success.

Nowadays, you see Tim Harrison being this hyper accelerated athlete whose stock is rising fast, but he seems to stay humble and extremely hard working even though he has offers from programs like Cal, Washington, and other suitors that have caught on to this six-foot eight, 205 lb dynamo. This mellow but tough warrior on the court goes to the academically vaunted Francis Parker high school in San Diego and he might be barely scratching his potential.

Hours of evaluating and conversing with Harrison's family and coaches had me impressed by his spirit and future potential that is as intriguing as it is "scary good."

Harrison has a super 34" vertical leap and a rapidly improving skill set. He could use an in the lane jump hook, but his half court game features a developing baseline turnaround jumper and a serviceable pull up J with nice separation from defenders. Then there are those thunderous put back dunks in transition and his newfound physical strength is a very nice propeller for his defensive blocking skills.

I honestly see Harrison progressing like James Ennis of the Miami Heat.

I've played hundreds of pick up games with James in the last few years, as he's a buddy living near me. I did Ennis' story (click here) because he reminded me at Ventura College of Cedric Ceballos who is a former NBA player, as an example of how fast a prospect can skyrocket. Man, James used to traumatize all of us all at 24 Hr. Fitness with his gravity defying dunks that rained down on us. (But to my credit I did get a couple of blocks in on him though!)

T-Harrison has that same mellow nature like Ennis does. They both seem to have a fantastic and humble mindset, albeit with great athleticism manifested through their looooong tree limbs for arms, "rocket boosters", and this "love your neighbor and destroy the competition" aspect to them that I find quite rare in prospects.

They've both been given tools that make them seem like a Lamborghini, that race car that will only go 190 mph unless you get the "unlock key" from the manufacturer to release that extra horsepower to speed up to 250 mph. J-Ennis used his key to unlock his potential in JC. Harrison seems to have recently received his key, as it had him going from low to probable high major in the last 4.5 months!

I love that Harrison is an expressive guy who articulates the inspiration that powers his development.

For example, his twitter page leads off with 1st Corinthians 9:24-27 "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No! I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

Harrison says this verse inspires him because, "I acknowledge that God has blessed me with gifts on and off the court and I'm obligated to use those gifts to glorify God and to work hard and reach my potential, which translates to areas far greater than just basketball. My awesome parents taught me that faith isn't just a 'Sunday thing', it powers me to want to achieve a lot at a sharp academic college. Faith powers me to be a good brother, son, student, and teammate. I draw on it to visualize my goals in basketball, to be a better shooter and ball handler as a small forward. It's a thread that runs through my whole life that makes everything I want to be possible."

He's also inspired by this J Cole song, "Apparently", which has the refrain, "I got my wings to carry me, I don't know freedom, I want my dreams to rescue me, I keep my faith strong, I ask the Lord to follow me."

Even though these examples illustrate his core values, Harrison doesn't want to be known as this "overly religious guy." All this mentioned above lets people know he gives the glory to God. "To work hard and reach my potential will translate to areas far greater than just basketball."

His personal trainer "AJ" of Alex Johnson Sport and Fitness works with many high profile football players in Harrison's area. AJ states, "He's a sponge, that tireless worker who is goal orientated, just a fun but respectful guy that people are drawn to. We have a goal to improve his leaping by 6 inches higher through the vertimax program by next year. We do all kinds of rigorous skill training that has beefed up his muscle this past year, he will be able to bump and finish better next year. We call him 'angel wings' because when he leaves the ground for dunks, it looks like he's really getting up there. Expect big things from this one."

Charlie Mercado is Harrison's coach for the Adidas sponsored Gamepoint AAU team and he gave us his thoughts, "Tim has come into his body and is learning to use it to maximum efficiency. He's that super humble and cool kid in the gym, never puts himself above others, just cheering others on, being a very vocal leader and that 'example guy' everyone looks up to. His ceiling is like really high up there because he has yet to fully mature physically or show all the inside and outside scoring moves he will use once his body settles down and the muscle memory takes over from his tremendous growth spurts."

Mercado adds, "He works so much on his small forward skill sets and he has nice handles. He's been building toward being a really great player and when it all comes together he'll just be even more dominant than people might think. It's that he listens so well, we tell him in practice to stop falling for head fakes, and he's getting it, his errors are small and very fixable, his ability to go out and learn new stuff to add to his game has been very impressive to witness."

In a world of kids that don't always think long term, you see in Tim Harrison that gem of a player and young person who gives his future college choice a big deep analysis. He says he'd like to have a great time on the AAU circuit, see which programs show the most serious interest and then take meaningful visits to set up a future where his dream of playing professional basketball and being an entrepreneur will hopefully materialize.

We look forward to doing a part 2 follow up once Harrison's next season begins and and his college choice has been made.

Extremely well respected Rivals.com analyst Eric Bossi mentioned Harrison in a recent article, "His recruitment will get interesting if he lets out his inner pit bull." Harrison says he's striving to meet that challenge and it says a lot about this unique young man and his grand hope to contribute to our world will speak for itself in the future.