As he prepares for NBA draft, former Little Elm star RJ Hampton talks New Zealand basketball, Mavericks and more

Five-star combo guard RJ Hampton, who was rated the No. 1 player in Texas and the fifth-best player in the nation by 247Sports, chose to forgo his senior season at Little Elm and reclassified to the Class of 2019. But instead of going to college, the 19-year-old played internationally this season for the New Zealand Breakers in the National Basketball League, which consists of nine pro teams in Australia and New Zealand.

Hampton played 15 games for the Breakers, averaging 8.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists, but he left before the season was over and returned to the United States to recover from a hip injury. He rehabbed and trained at Baylor Scott & White at The Star in Frisco until the sports world was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, he has been working out at home in McKinney.

Hampton is preparing for the 2020 NBA draft, which is scheduled for June 25. ESPN ranks Hampton as the 11th-best prospect in this draft class, and mock drafts from Bleacher Report (No. 5), CBS Sports (No. 12), Sporting News (No. 12) and NBC Sports (No. 13) have him being picked in the top 15.

Hampton took time Friday to do a phone interview with The Dallas Morning News.

Q: Do you have any sense of where you will be selected in the draft, and is there one team that you would love to get drafted by?

A: I’ve never really thought about a dream team to play for. Just going to the NBA is a dream in itself. I think no one really knows [where they will get drafted]. It’s not like a set-in-stone draft.

Q: What would it be like to play for your hometown team, the Mavericks?

A: It would be pretty cool, I can’t lie. The Mavericks are a good basketball club. Growing up watching the Mavericks, I saw them win the championship.

Q: Is there a certain NBA player you would like to play with or against?

A: Any teammates I get I would be happy with. I would love to play against LeBron [James]. He’s the best player in the league. I don’t think you can even describe that makes LeBron good. He’s just good at everything.

Q: LaMelo Ball, who is expected to be one of the top picks in the NBA draft, played for the Illawarra Hawks in the National Basketball League and was named the league’s rookie of the year. What was it like facing him?

A: I played against him twice. I think he’s a special talent. He’s a great player, and he’s one of my good friends.

Q: What made you leave New Zealand early, and how did your recovery go?

A: I thought my training and rehab would go a lot better in the States. I recovered two weeks after I got back.

Q: What was it like playing professionally in New Zealand, and if you had to do it over again, would you still choose to do that or go to college?

A: I’m glad that I made that decision and I went over there. I think it was the best decision for me. New Zealand isn’t a very big basketball country, but it was a great experience to go over there and play against professional players every single day in practice and play in a high-level league. I think it definitely prepared me to go to the NBA. You’re playing against grown men, guys that have played in the NBA before. A lot of those guys overseas have played professional basketball since they were 16 or 17 years old. I think that’s better than any college you can go to.

Q: What was the skill level like over there? How does it compare to the NBA or the college game here in the United States?

A: I don’t think it’s a comparison to the NBA at all. The NBA is the best league in the world. But just as far as concepts and strength and mental toughness, it’s definitely more challenging than college.

Q: What was it like playing with much older players, and what was the toughest part about playing internationally?

A: I think the hardest thing to adjust to was probably the travel. We had to fly from New Zealand to Australia for every single away game. It just takes a toll on your body. I think my youngest teammate was 25, and the oldest on my team was 33. They always treated me the same as anybody else. They teach you little things that they’ve picked up, and they’re not afraid to learn from you.

Q: Is there anything unique that you tried while you were in New Zealand?

A: There were different types of foods. They had the New Zealand pies. It was kind of like an American meat pie. Their food is a lot healthier over in New Zealand.

Q: What have you been doing training-wise with everything shut down because of the coronavirus?

A: I was working out pretty much every day, every other day, before we got put on lockdown. Now I’m at the house lifting, doing normal things, ball handling, just getting my body right.

Q: What have you been doing while everyone is quarantined when you’re not training?

A: I’ve been catching up on shows on Netflix and playing a lot of video games. I’ve been catching up on “Riverdale” and “All American.”

Q: Do you think they will be able to complete the NBA season?

A: I don’t know if they’re going to be able to finish the whole NBA season. I think they may play like 10 games or so, the last 10 games of the regular season and then go from there.

Q: If you had gone to college, which college would you have picked?

A: I don’t even know. My best friend [Jalen Wilson from Denton Guyer] goes to Kansas, so that would have been cool to go there. I have coach Penny [Hardaway], coach Mike Miller, my guys at Memphis.

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