Kobe Bryant is undisputedly Lower Merion High School’s biggest basketball star, but there was another player before him who could have taken the world of hoops by storm, had he not thrown his career away the senior season, writes Mike Sielski for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Sultan Shabazz was ahead of Bryant by two years. He was Aces’ flashiest player and expected to be the team’s star in the early 1990s, the last pre-Bryant era.

“Before Kobe, for my generation of guys, it was Sultan Shabazz,” said Doug Young, a former teammate and classmate of Shabazz’s.

Shabazz became friends with Bryant, taking him sometimes to the outdoor courts of West Philadelphia to play. Often, Bryant was unable to beat him.

But Shabazz’s game was suffering.

He was spending his nights selling drugs in Philadelphia for up to $7,000 a night. Several years later, he was arrested, which turned out to be his wake-up call.

“I looked at Kobe’s situation and always said, ‘Dang, I was on that path, but I chose another lifestyle,’” he said

He earned his high school diploma at Philadelphia Academy and went on to graduate from Cheyney University. Today, he works at General Philip Kearny Public School in Philadelphia.

Former Lower Merion basketball player, Sultan Shabazz, was just two years ahead of Kobe Bryant.

Shabazz was the high school’s rising star before Bryant. Now working as the climate manager at Kearny, Shabazz reflects on their friendship.

Read more about Sultan Shabazz in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Video courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquirer.