Ben Wilson (basketball)
A photo of Ben Wilson taken in 1984. Wilson had been ranked as the top high schooler in the nation in the preseason basketball rankings and he was often photographed afterwards holding up one finger to indicate this.
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 18, 1967 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | November 21, 1984 (aged 17) Chicago, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Listed height | 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) |
| Listed weight | 190 lb (86 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Simeon (Chicago, Illinois) |
| Position | Guard / Forward |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Benjamin "Ben" Wilson Jr., also referred to as "Benji", (March 18, 1967 – November 21, 1984) was an American high school basketball player from Neal F. Simeon Vocational High School in Chicago, Illinois, who was regarded as the top high school player in the entire United States entering his senior season. He was the first player from Chicago to receive this honor.
On November 20, 1984, Wilson was shot twice during a confrontation with a student from a nearby high school. He died the next morning due to the injuries he sustained in the shooting.
Ben Wilson was one of three children born to Ben Wilson Sr. and Mary (Gunter) Wilson and was raised in the Chatham neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Mary Wilson had two sons from a previous marriage.
Wilson began playing basketball at an early age, starting in elementary school. He started at St. Dorothy School and later transferred to Ruggles Elementary School, graduating in 1981. Wilson practiced at Cole Park in Chatham and participated in summer league games in Chicago. As his game developed, friends and family surrounding Wilson began to notice that his talent could make him one of the best, if not the best, players in the sport. They made it a point to protect Wilson from trouble as he got older; as he was entering high school, the nationwide crack epidemic was in full swing and some of the people closest to Wilson, including his older brother Curtis Glenn, became addicted. Chicago's violent crime rate was very high during this time as well, especially in the South Side.
In the fall of 1981, he began his freshman year at Simeon. During the 1982–83 season, Wilson was the only sophomore on the varsity basketball team. For the 1983–84 season, Simeon advanced to the Illinois AA State Championship, which was held at Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Behind Wilson, Simeon defeated West Aurora High School by nine points in the semifinals and followed it up with a victory over top-ranked Evanston Township High School to win their first ever state title.ESPN HS regarded Wilson as the best junior in the country for the 1983–84 season. He would play basketball with R. Kelly and Nick Anderson.
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