SoCalHoops Recruiting News

More Leon Smith News: Will He Or Won't He--(Nov. 13, 1998)

The Fresno Bee reported yesterday that coach Jerry Tarkanian made a home visit to Leon Smith (6'-10" Sr. C) of Chicago's MLK, whom the paper described as "one of the top centers in the nation."  This past summer, Smith played for the AAU team Illinois Fire which was coached by Mac Irvin, the father of Nick Irvin (6'-2" So SG) a player at Fresno State. Tark took the home visit in September, according to one of Smith's counselors at MLK.  Last week, Smith was reported to have left a group home in Chicago where he resides, and informed his coaches at MLK that he was going to California and would be transferring to Compton High.   After a flurry of activity both here in SoCal and back in Chicago, the latest published reports in the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune have Smith telling his MLK coaches that he's "staying."  However, our sources in Compton say that Leon has in fact retained an attorney to petition for emancipation (as is evidently required because he's a ward of the state, even though he is already 18), and that as soon as he is declared to be emancipated, he will move to Compton.

Stay tuned. 

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