Prince Was a Talented and Opinionated Basketball Player
Before Prince was … well, Prince, and apparently he was a pretty decent basketball player back in his middle school and high school days in Minneapolis -- and an outspoken one at that (but would we expect anything less of him?).
Libor Jany, a writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, recently dug into the newspaper’s archives and shared a photo and article depicting Prince at the height of his basketball career. The photo -- which you can see below -- captures Prince on his middle school team at Bryant Junior High:
The article meanwhile reveals that Prince was quite the athlete, playing basketball, as well as football and baseball:
At Central High, the singer even made the junior varsity team, where he was coached by Richard Robinson. In an interview, Prince’s former coach discussed the musician’s basketball prowess, something that Prince, by the sounds of it, readily recognized and was vocal when he felt those talents went unappreciated:
Prince was an excellent player; he was like the sixth or seventh man. He was an excellent ball handler, a good shooter and very short (5 foot 2). Probably with a different group of people he would have been a starter. But, as they turned out, they were probably the best ball team that ever came along at Central. I knew he wanted to be starting and felt he should be starting. He was unhappy and he expressed that many, many times.
Prince: the artist formerly known as Minneapolis high school basketball star.