Like most 17-year-olds, Michael Gilchrist eats a big breakfast (pancakes and eggs are a favorite) and hopes that Mom might let him use his newly acquired driver’s license on the way to school. But the hop to the train station is only the first leg of an 83-mile commute from his Somerdale home in Camden County to St. Patrick’s High School in Elizabeth. Gilchrist is not only the star of the school’s powerhouse basketball team; he is arguably the best high school player in the country.
“Gilchrist possesses the dangerous combination of world-class athletic ability and a thoroughbred’s competitive drive,” gushes ESPN.com, which, like Rivals.com and MaxPreps.com, ranks the 6-foot-7, 215-pound forward as the number 1 recruit in this year’s high school class. He was also the star of the U.S. team that won a gold medal last summer at the junior World Basketball championships in Germany.
For his part, Gilchrist views his notoriety as a mixed blessing. “Can’t you call someone and ask them to put me at number 15 instead?” he asked his mother, Cynthia Richardson, when he heard he had secured the top spot in the summer of 2009.
Gilchrist coped with tragedy at a young age when his father was killed. He honors his dad in a variety of ways, from watching The Lion King—one of their favorite movies—once a week to wearing his dad’s number 31. Gilchrist even scheduled the announcement of his commitment to University of Kentucky last April 14, which would have been his father’s 44th birthday. “I’m playing the game for him,” Gilchrist confesses in his typically polite, slightly shy manner.
One of the things that separates Gilchrist from many other high school stars is his work ethic. In addition to being an all-but-unstoppable scorer, he’s a rugged defender and a tenacious rebounder. Only a few years ago, there would have been much buzz about Gilchrist jumping straight from high school to the NBA. But the league’s recent age limits have led Gilchrist and other top stars to spend a year or more playing college hoops. Even as he looks toward a basketball future beyond New Jersey, Gilchrist is maintaining a sense of balance in a life that might find him rubbing elbows with LeBron James one day and working on his math homework the next.
“My short-term goal is to win a state championship,” he says. “My long-term goal is a 3.5 GPA in college.” And then, just maybe, a spot in the NBA.