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Why are elite boys basketball players leaving Texas to finish HS careers elsewhere?

As some of D-FW’s standouts transfer out of state, coaches wonder what can be done to stop the mass exodus.

In 2019, McDonald’s All-American Tyrese Maxey of South Garland told The Dallas Morning News he had been recruited by multiple prep schools, giving him a chance to join a potential super team outside of Texas.

The five-star recruit turned down the opportunity to play alongside other top national recruits in Virginia, Florida, Kansas, Nevada and Indiana and stayed at his hometown public school because he wanted to chase a state championship with the friends he grew up with. It certainly didn’t hurt Maxey’s career. He went on to play at eight-time NCAA champion Kentucky and is now an All-Star with the Philadelphia 76ers.

That same year, six other superstars from the Dallas area, including McDonald’s All-American Samuell Williamson of Rockwall and future NBA players RJ Hampton of Little Elm and Jahmi’us Ramsey of Duncanville, told The News they also spurned offers from prep schools.

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“We looked at it, of course, because a lot of good basketball players have played there. But I never really wanted to go,” Maxey said at the time. “I felt like I’ve got the competition I need here, and I like being home with my family.”

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Prep schools continue to recruit the top players in Texas, but now, the chance to pursue possible NIL riches and to play a national schedule are too enticing for recruits to pass up. This offseason, there has been a mass exodus of marquee recruits leaving Texas to transfer out of state, with the Dallas area hit particularly hard.

In the shadow of high school football season, which kicked off last week, basketball coaches are assembling rosters with unfamiliar names that are replacing their stars. It’s an epidemic that coaches don’t see ending any time soon unless the University Interscholastic League or state lawmakers make changes.

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Stars on the move

Four-star small forward Seven Spurlock, a top-100 national recruit in the Class of 2026 who played at Frisco Memorial the last two years, is now at Prolific Prep in California. Link Academy in Missouri added four-star small forward Trent Perry from Frisco Lone Star and four-star guard Keonte Greybear from Frisco Emerson this offseason after luring five-star Texas signee Tre Johnson from 2023 Class 6A state champion Lake Highlands a year earlier.

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“It’s just a better opportunity to play on a bigger platform,” Spurlock said. “It will also help my exposure and get me prepared for college early.”

Noah Hill, who spent time at Frisco Emerson and McKinney-based Pace Academy, is now at Sunrise Christian in Kansas. He said he transferred in part because “I wanted to be completely submerged into the basketball environment, because I’ve only been playing for a couple years and I felt like I could not do that where I was at in Texas.”

Four-star senior center Parker Jefferson, the 12th-ranked recruit in Texas, transferred from Waxahachie to Inglewood High School in California and said he was enticed by an “exciting” schedule and the chance to play alongside five-star point guard Jason Crowe Jr., the fifth-ranked player in the nation in the Class of 2026. Five-time state champion Duncanville lost four-star small forward BJ Davis-Ray, who transferred to JSerra Catholic in California.

“Waxahachie and Texas in general will always be my home,” Jefferson said. “Nothing will compare to the feeling I get seeing everyone come and support me from my town, but I also think this is the best opportunity for me to grow not just as a ball player, but as a young man as well.”

Arlington Bowie’s Cade Cunningham and Oak Cliff Faith Family’s Jordan Walsh — both in the NBA — are past D-FW stars who left for prep schools, with Cunningham playing for Montverde Academy in Florida and Walsh playing at Link Academy. The Mavericks’ P.J. Washington, the 15th-ranked recruit in the nation in the Class of 2017, was at Frisco Lone Star as a freshman before leaving for Findlay Prep in Nevada.

“It has been a trend over the last four or five years,” Lake Highlands coach Joe Duffield said. “I think NIL definitely plays a part. Kids have an opportunity to generate some money to help their family out. Maybe playing a national schedule or playing better competition is something that these kids or families are looking for. Sports agents are getting involved as kids are younger and younger. I think that has a lot to do with it too.”

NIL comes into play

Craig Smith, who covers Texas high school basketball, compiled a list of 13 elite boys basketball recruits in the Class of 2025 and 2026 who have left Texas this offseason to transfer to schools in Florida, Missouri, Kansas, California and Arizona. Ten ended up at prep schools, and all 13 went to states that allow some form of NIL at the high school level.

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Texas is among 12 states that don’t allow name, image and likeness deals for prep athletes. State legislation says they must wait until they enroll in higher education to receive NIL compensation.

“They want more exposure, and they think the situation they are putting themselves in gives them a better chance to get to the next level,” Duncanville coach David Peavy said. “I keep hearing that we are going to get NIL here, but until that happens, I think people are going to chase it. NIL is not for everybody. You have to be marketable enough for somebody to give you money and get a sponsorship. But us not being able to receive NIL, it hurts when other states can.”

What can the UIL do to stop this? Duncanville, North Crowley, Lake Highlands and Waxahachie already play some of the best competition in the country, but each has lost an elite player to an out-of-state school in recent years.

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“If Texas would allow NIL, I do think it would change. I think more kids would stay,” Duffield said. “I think the implementation of a shot clock is important. I think the UIL is maybe becoming more open-minded to allowing some of the top programs to try to go compete in these national type events.”

Basketball is the primary focus at prep schools, and they tout that they increase exposure to college recruiters by playing a national schedule that includes nationally televised games. Coaches say prep schools often reach out to high-level recruits on the summer AAU circuits and try to convince them to leave Texas, and North Crowley coach Tommy Brakel once joked that “we have to recruit our own kids to stay because everyone else is recruiting them.”

“Sometimes it gets to be the popular thing to do,” Brakel said. “When some of the top guys are doing it, it appears to the younger guys who are at the top of their class that it’s the thing to do. But there is great, great basketball right here in the Metroplex. We annually, right here in D-FW, stack up against the best in the country. Some of these kids are going off and they are losing opportunities for things like being their hometown hero or being able to have a senior prom and a homecoming, all of that stuff that is more community-based.”

Waxahachie coach Corey Johnson doesn’t think this will lead to drastic changes.

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“We’re losing some really good players, but I don’t think Texas is going to make their decisions off of kids leaving, because there are a million more kids here in Texas,” he said. “Games are still going to be packed, parents are still going to support their kids and we are still going to have talent here. Nobody is bigger than the game.”

On X/Twitter: @DMNGregRiddle

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