John Wall is Pretty Good at Basketball, and Lance Stephenson has a TV Show

I'm not always the biggest fan of highlight mixtapes.

Yes, they are, most of the time, an absolute joy to watch.

But they are far from the best way to gauge the ability of a high school kid. Watching two minutes worth of clips of the absolute best plays this kid has made over the course of a season does not tell you enough about the player. Hell, you could have put together a two minute highlight tape of me in high school that would have made it look like I was a scholarship player (I'll tell you a secret - I wasn't).

You don't see the player's decision-making ability, his on-the-ball or weak side defensive ability, or his all-around offensive game (let's just say it is rare to see a player sliding over to take a charge or pulling up for a 12 foot jumper in the lane on one of these highlight packages).

That said, I just watched the John Wall youtube mixtape that has been spreading through the interwebs.

He's going to be a star (video after the jump):



Wall, who is Rivals #1 overall recruit for the class of '09, has yet to decide on a school (and may even be eligible for the Draft because he is a fifth year senior in high school).

Wall isn't the only top prospect still undecided on where he will attend school.

Lance Stephenson, who is a consensus top 10 recruit and, like Wall, has yet to sign with a college for next season. But he has signed on for a TV deal.

I don't know how we missed this (oh yeah, it was right in the middle of the NCAA Tournament), but the former web series "Born Ready" (titled after Stephenson's nickname) has been picked up by MTV 2.

I haven't seen the show, but here is the trailer for it:



And in case you were wondering, here is a good read on how both Wall and Stephenson rose to prominence.

UPDATE: Figured I'd give you guys this as well - the story behind the notorious battle that OJ Mayo had with Stephenson during the '05 ABCD Camp.