Class Of 2020 Wing Jabri Abdur-Rahim Focusing On A Few Schools

Class Of 2020 Wing Jabri Abdur-Rahim Focusing On A Few Schools

Jabri Abdur-Rahim, son of Shareef Abdur-Rahim, breaks down his top college choices, a list which includes Villanova, Georgetown, Harvard, and others.

Apr 11, 2019 by Adam Zagoria
Class Of 2020 Wing Jabri Abdur-Rahim Focusing On A Few Schools

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Jabri Abdur-Rahim is a veteran of USA Basketball Junior National Team mini-camps, and the 6-foot-7, 200-pound wing from Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, enjoyed his latest experience last week at the Final Four.

"It's always been the camp I look forward to the most every year," said Abdur-Rahim, the New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year. "There's a lot of high-level competition. Obviously, that's what you're going to get with USA Basketball, the best guys this time in the world, so it was really good competing against them and everything.

Jabri, the son of former NBA standout Shareef Abdur-Rahim and the current president of the NBA G League, is one of the most highly recruited prospects in the Class of 2020. Among the schools coming hard for him are Villanova, Michigan, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Harvard, Georgia, and Kansas.

"I'm wide open right now," he said. "I'm just waiting to get to the end of AAU season [with the NJ Playaz], and then we'll start making some cuts."

He broke down several of his top options:

Villanova: "They're obviously a program that wins, that's what sticks out to me the most. They win, they have a lot of good wings [in the NBA], Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, so that's what the coaches' message has been to me. I could come in and play that role and develop and definitely learn a lot under Jay Wright."

Abdur-Rahim said 2019 Villanova commit Eric Dixon "has been talking to me about it a lot, and there's actually a lot of people from my school going to Villanova

Michigan: "Michigan has been recruiting me the hardest out of anyone. They've been the most consistent. I'm going to take a visit this spring. Before the end of the summer, I'm going to take a visit there for sure. They're recruiting me hard. Coach [John] Beilein came to see me earlier this year, he's just been telling me how I would fit and I would probably play. He tells me to watch Jordan Poole because that's the position I would probably play."

Harvard: "Their message has been a little different. Obviously, it's something I gotta look at because their academic history is just so incredible. The amount of not just basketball players but the amount of great people they produce is incredible, so that's definitely something to look at. They've been telling me it's different, but it's something worth doing. Their basketball program is actually really better than people give them credit for, so it's actually the best of both worlds."

Notre Dame: "Notre Dame just started recruiting me. They've just been saying I could come in and help turn the program around. They had a down year this year, but I really like what they're talking about. Coach [Ryan] Ayers is really close with [Playaz director] Jimmy [Salmon], so they've both been in my ear so I like what they're talking about."

Georgetown: "Patrick Ewing reached out a couple times so he's just telling me they need guys to come off ball screens, guys who can make shots, guys who can make plays in transition and he sees me doing that at Georgetown."

Abdur-Rahim plans to trim his list "at the end of AAU season," take his official visits, and then go from there.


Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who runs ZAGSBLOG.com and contributes to The New York Times. Follow Adam on Twitter.