A city that once boasted a population of nearly 250,000 now is dangerously close to falling below the 100,000 mark as the auto industry's manufacturing jobs have dried up and crime has become rampant. Still, one constant in Flint, Michigan, has been basketball. For a city its size, Flint has produced basketball talent at a very consistent rate.
Flint Northwestern has produced the most successful individual players in the city — Glen Rice (NBA All-Star), Morris Peterson (NBA vet), Kelvin Torbert (Mr. Basketball and McDonald's All-American), Des Farmer (D-League All-Star) — while Flint Northern has the longest history of team success in the city, particularly the Mateen Cleaves-led state title teams in the 1990s.
Best player produced: No Flint player has had more college and professional success than Rice, a Flint Northwestern product who won a national title and Most Outstanding Player award at the University of Michigan before becoming a NBA All-Star, All-Star Game MVP and NBA champion over a stellar career where he was one of the league's most prolific three-point shooters.
Other notables: Terry Furlow, Eric Turner, Mark Harris, Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson, Antonio Smith, Charlie Bell, Desmon Farmer, Kelvin Torbert, Roy Marble.
Best player you never heard of: NBA player Chucky Atkins, who has no connection to Flint other than when he used to accompany then-Pistons teammate Mateen Cleaves to Flint summer pro-am games nearly 10 years ago, was interviewed earlier this year, and one Flint player was still on his mind: Cory Hightower.
In high school at Flint Northwestern (before transferring to Mt. Zion Academy), Hightower was the one sure can't-miss star the city would produce. Attitude problems, as well as an urban legend that his refusal to carry Kobe Bryant's bags as a rookie (though Hightower denies this is true), derailed that promising career, but there's no doubt most of Flint's basketball greats remember Hightower.
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Proviso, Illinois
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