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Sweet Killa? Asia Avinger is Purple Reign

The human heart beats 2.5 billion times in a lifetime. Asia Avinger in 2018? “Baby Girl,” as her fam calls her, was traveling 4 mph through the veins of basketball, not fully appreciated by college basketball, under the skin of recruitment, her blood unexposed to oxygen, the color blue.

No D1 offers can give you the blues.

But Asia Avinger in 2019 is that blood droplet traveling the speed of light through the circular system of hoop. Mercury propels this ultra athletic 5-7 PG, she’s bursting through her own veins, breaking through the skin of Basketball, so get the hell out of her way.

Baby Girl is FULLY oxygenated, bright red hemoglobin, spilling the blood of any and all that get in her way lately on the AAU scene fosho.

Look closely at the impact area of her high velocity splatter that dented the hardwood at The Mamba Academy recently. Each droplet signifies a new D1 offer - Georgetown offers, SDSU wants her, Santa Clara please come, Columbia move over here, Hawaii, so, so many.

Quit playing, E-Woods? Go see this woman-child for yourself, bear witness to her play with Team Taurasi. Asia is proud to have with her since about 3rd freaking grade an AAU backcourt teammate, Vanessa De Jesus, who recently committed to Duke.


Asia Avinger
Asia Avinger
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See with your own eyes how these girls are giving a 187, some rigor mortis on court to teams that step up to the challenge. Come try to give her crew the biz, she’ll show you what’s up.

#Ride or die backcourt

Why the red and blue references, E-Woods? Mix those 2 colors and you get the color purple. Why is the color purple in the subject title of this story?

Well, the first time I met Asia and saw her photogenic face, I realized she looked so similar to 80’s singer and actress Denise Matthews. Asia’s folks Skinner and Nicole passed down some dope genes.

Matthews is famously known as Vanity from the movie Purple Rain. Vanity rolled with legendary singer Prince back in the day and had the hit song Nasty Girl.


But the future belongs to Asia and her nasty crossover with the rock. She helped engineer quite a filthy win record this past year leading Rosary Academy to win a 19’ State Div. 1 State Championship.

Read my lips, Baby Girl don’t play around with her fearless lightening drives to the lane. And as a PG, distributes that leather rock to teammates in just the right spiral, enough to fill a Wilson themed stone quarry.

How’s her D? In that epic Rosary Academy run, Asia greedily grabbed enough “cookies” to start her own Mrs. Fields cookie shop in the local Anaheim mall.

I’ll let this sweet killa, aka Asia Avinger, speak on how that title felt, “Ohhh, wow, that’s the best feeling ever to win like that. Everybody came together for win after win. We felt the CIF playoff pressure but I live for suspense, pressure ever tightening.

“That pressure got me going, it kicked in my adrenaline, pumped me up. By the end, you couldn’t get enough, all the training my dad Skinner put into me. My mom Nicole, I love her so, she was an actress and model and taught me, ‘Be humble as well as professional.‘

“I treat each game like it’s an acting scene, and I wasn’t forgetting my lines. I won that chip for my brother Noah, who is not just my twin brother - our two little hearts in our mom’s belly, never to be separated, always supporting each other. When Rosary won that title, it was a culmination of all the pride and skill my family had put into me.

“In that same way our family is proud that Noah just received offers to play football for Oregon, Boston College, and BYU. I’m also proud of my 21 year old brother Lucky, who balls and makes good grades at Fullerton CC and has a lot of D1 colleges looking at him. Any accomplishment I get is our Avinger accomplishment, we just honor those who came before us.”

The Color purple? Rosary might’ve wept tears of joy on March 8, 2019, the date they won the chip, but the Bishop O’Dowd Dragons were likely shedding purple tears in a different way. Asia that day? Her adoring grandma Annette, parents and family were cheering from the stands.

Asia trains constantly with top flight boys prep football prospects, how many girls can say that? Where else does the color purple show up in her life maybe? If those boys get in Asia’s way, they need to be ready for some black and purple eyes. Baby Girl don’t play, she don’t half step on the training field, best get out of her way!

Asia is humble and realizes so much improvement is needed to get her game to be complete. She’s real with herself, “I’m still working on keeping my shot consistent and that’s the main piece of my game to improve. I’m just in the gym everyday and I’ll continue to work no matter what.”

#grind, embrace the grind

A certain D1 college coach asked me recently to describe Asia. I replied “Asia is crazy talented with the ball, pushing her team’s tempo. She is extremely graceful on and off the court, tip top stamina, and a B student. Body wise? She’s fit beyond fit with nearly a WNBA ready body.

“Her moves are like USC’s Kevin Porter, both are shifty with a monster attack mentality on offense. Personality wise, if you had to choose between spending the day hanging out with famed singer and overall stylish person Lauren Hill, or Asia, hmmm, I’d choose Asia because she’s so smooth, wise beyond her years, effortless. She’s just as dope as it comes.”

What’s the genesis of Asia’s game? It all started in 93’, Pius X High School in Downey. That was where her awesome dad Skinner Avinger was the truth as a football player. But 1993 was coincidentally the same year college football eligibility requirements moved the academic goalpost and Skinner barely missed qualifying to play football at USC by a couple points.

Man, Skinner has to be one of the most caring dads I ever met. He’s that happy soldier, great guy who has a big heart to train so many in kids in the OC. How many dads will actually take off a whole year from work and travel to all their Baby Girl’s games. He loves all his kids, trains all his kids. That’s supporting your BG like I’ve rarely seen.

Now do you see how special this family is?

In front are Asia and Vanessa De Jesus
In front are Asia and Vanessa De Jesus

I asked Skinner when did Asia start to love sports. He said, “She was constantly bouncing the ball around and dribbling since age 2. My mom Annette always wanted the best for Asia and signed her up at the YMCA at age 4.

“About the same year she put up a poster of Steve Nash on her bedroom wall. Her growing up in the land of Lakers fans I asked her, ‘Why Nash instead of Kobe?’

“She said, ‘Nash never gives up, or relies just on his talent. If a quarterback is the most pivotal player on the field, then on the court it’s a point guard. I want to be pivotal. I just want to set the example, demand my teammates give their all. Nash is all those things, yet he’s comfortable with himself being that way.’ She’d say all that in her own way, back at age 7 or 8.

“Our Avinger family always has some injury sidelining one of us. We were careful to protect Asia’s body, train on grass to keep her from getting hurt by erratic players that might cause her an injury. Our mantra is Dig deep to give a helping hand up. That’s the Avinger way.”


Left to right: mom Nicole, Asia , dad Skinner
Left to right: mom Nicole, Asia , dad Skinner

Me, E-Woods, I looked up at the black Kobe snakes on the walls of The Mamba Sports Academy recently. Asia was playing there, Baby Girl sweet off-court, dismantling team after team on-court.

The snakes came off the walls to hiss and whisper in my ear telling me, “Asssia is the one E-Woodsss. The world is her oysster and she’s destined to impact the college game like Earl “The Pearl” Monroe did for Syracussse.”

I can’t argue with the snakes, Asia is like that Philly legend “Black Jesus” Monroe who did his thing at Syracuse in the 80s. Any program that lands Asia will be lucky indeed.

When I first met Asia and saw her play I was so impressed. She has this tidal wave of energy and I thought she should play at my guy Pooh Jeter’s Laced Clinic like my girl Lexi Tucker did last summer.

I’m determined to make sure she goes there and plays vs. top 10 prep boys at that venue because she’s that rare girl who got it like that, like few have. I also invited her to the Women’s Drew League games in Compton when she’s old enough to play there. Girl will undoubtedly be good enough to compete vs. pros at that hallowed league.

Who gave Asia personal training and was her coach in 7th grade? WNBA Sparks all-star, Chelsea Gray, who plays often in the Women’s Drew League.

So imagine Asia, the former pupil who played for Chelsea Gray, now trying to make her bones and earning her rep vs. her old coach. How dope will that be? The cycle comes full circle. 100.

Get to know Asia, she’ll stay in your heart forever. Her smile lights up a room and she has so much heart for people, for the game. I’ll let her relate, “Every single time I take the court and play with a person who may be younger, or older than me, if they look in need of advice to improve I’ll take them off to the side, give them feedback on what to fix, what they’re doing well, how they should go harder.

“I try to let them realize what the game could be if they strive to constantly improve. Others may tell me,‘Why take so much time to counsel others?’ I tell people, it’s the Avinger way. I do it to repay my grandmother Annette’s kindness.

“She is someone very special to me and she’s my rock. I love her to death and she’s the one who keeps me going everyday because I want her to know that all these years, all the hours, the blood, sweat, tears, and hard times are all going to be worth it in the end. My goal is just to make her proud. I give to others because I was given to at an early age.”


Asia gives you goosebumps when she tells about her fav rapper and lyrics that rep her, I’ll let Asia share, “I constantly appreciate hearing Love Yourz by J. Cole. He says, ‘It's beauty in the struggle ni**a, ugliness in the success’.

“And the thing I take from that is there’s always going to be times where you want to give up and stop but I always have to think about why I do it and that I’m only getting better and every moment makes me stronger not only physically but mentally as well.

“And when I’m gaining success, there are always people that are trying to bring you down but you can’t worry about that. You have to keep a good support system around you that keeps you on the right path, that only wants what’s best for you.”

Go see Asia play and I promise the reader one thing for sure. You’ll be missing a thump thump from the 2.5 billion times your heart beats in a lifetime, because Baby Girl has that effect to make your heart skip a beat, and you won’t even mind.

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