The Orlando Magic are getting a special athlete in Anthony Black, the No. 6 pick of the 2023 NBA Draft. It’s not just scouts who believe that. You should hear some college football coaches talk about the 6-foot-7, 198-pound 19-year-old.
Black, a standout receiver at Texas’ Coppell High School in the Class of 2022, had more than a dozen offers in football despite most coaches knowing he probably would play basketball. Texas, Baylor and Arkansas were among the football programs sold on him.
“Dude would have been a (matchup) nightmare,” UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, who had been the Longhorns receivers coach, told The Athletic on Thursday night. “He could actually run routes at that size, had the mentality and could stretch the field.”
Marion, a former NFL receiver, had coached Pitt’s Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison and said he thinks he was either Black’s first or second football offer when he coached the Panthers. But Marion was skeptical that Black would ever play college football.
“I just thought, ‘Man, there’s no way this kid is not gonna be playing basketball.’ He was this 6-5 point guard who could do everything and was dunking on people. But he’d say he wanted to play football. I was like, ‘Yeah, you might want to play football, but you’re gonna end up in basketball,’” Marion said. “I knew that kid was really special. He was just so different. You don’t see guys that tall like that running routes like he could, and he was actually physical. He wasn’t soft. He could’ve been a complete receiver. He was just so smooth and he was violent. I knew he’d be elite in whatever he chose.”
Man you still want to play football or nah lol @AnthonyBlack24_ https://t.co/nMUSDMen1V
— Coach Marion (@BrennanMarion4) June 23, 2023
Despite not playing his senior year, Black made 78 catches for 1,327 yards and 16 touchdowns in his football career and was a dominant presence in seven-on-seven. Black didn’t just have great length and athleticism that wowed football coaches, he also had uncanny footwork.
“At 6-5, 6-6, he could drop his weight and get out of his breaks like a 6-0 kid,” said Justin Owens, who coached Black in high school and is now North Texas’ director of recruiting.
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The 2022 football recruiting class featured two five-star receivers from Texas, Evan Stewart, ranked as the No. 11 overall prospect, and Chris Marshall, ranked No. 25. Both signed with Texas A&M. Jordan Hudson, another wideout from Texas who signed with TCU, also ranked among the top 100 in the class. Owens believes Black would’ve ranked as a four-star if he decided to stay with football and play his senior season. Black’s father, Terry, was a terrific basketball player and made it into the Baylor Sports Hall of Fame for his work on the hardwood. Black’s mom, Jennifer, played soccer at Texas and Baylor. Asked which wide receiver Black reminded him of, Owens said former Bengals seven-time Pro Bowler A.J. Green.
“He had a unique skill set,” said Emmett Jones, Oklahoma’s passing game coordinator and receivers coach who offered Black when he coached at Kansas. “His balance and body control was unbelievable. He had great hands. He could track and high-point the football very well and winning the 50-50 ball was something he really took pride in. I thought he could be a matchup nightmare anywhere on the field. Playing basketball helped him tremendously with his footwork, sinking his hips and understanding how to play with a great base and platform. He was very slippery off the line of scrimmage and played with a sense of toughness.”
Indiana was one of several programs that evaluated Black during the COVID shutdown period.
“First off, we loved his length,” said IU director of recruiting Lee Wilbanks. “He also showed the ability to play ‘above the rim.’ It seemed like every other play he was attacking the ball in the air. I remember him having good balance and body control, was very twitchy and didn’t have the stiffness you normally see out of taller wide receivers. I don’t really remember anyone I would compare him to when we evaluated him.”
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Texas Tech’s passing game coordinator Justin Johnson, then an assistant at Baylor, also raved about Black’s football talent. “Tough kid. Competitive as all get out. Great ball skills and an extreme catch radius. I loved that kid.”
Black, who probably could’ve helped out Razorbacks QB K.J. Jefferson if he had tried to do some double duty as a red zone target, made the SEC All-Freshman team as a basketball player, setting an Arkansas freshman record with 74 steals, and became the only player in school history to post 450-plus points, 180-plus rebounds and 140-plus assists in a season.
“On film, he could out-athlete everybody because of his God-given instincts,” said Ryan Dorchester, the football GM of the Houston Cougars who had offered Black. “You thought this kid is really, really good, but we knew he was gonna be more sought-after in basketball and that in all likelihood, he was probably not gonna end up playing your sport. And I guess it worked out for him because he ended up as a lottery pick.”
(Top photo: Wendell Cruz / USA Today)
