SPIFFY APPROVED

Monday, January 26, 2009

Chicago Legend: Ronnie "Air" Fields

Chicago Legend: Ben "Benji" Wilson

Ben Wilson was a popular kid and a focused student, but the shooting would have been another scarcely reported violent crime in Chicago if Wilson hadn’t been something else, too: an athlete of almost mythic ability.
Wilson had led Simeon to the Illinois state basketball title as a junior, and then dominated the elite Nike all-star camp the following summer. By the afternoon of Nov. 20, the day before the first game of his senior season, Wilson was considered the nation’s top prep basketball prospect in the class of 1985.
By the morning of Nov. 21, when he was removed from life support at St. Bernard Hospital, Wilson was Chicago’s 669th murder victim of 1984.
They Just Lined Up
Today, 20 years after his death, there are many places to feel the immense absence of Ben Wilson. One of them-perhaps the least significant-is the NBA.
He might have been a top draft choice in an era that produced a conspicuous lack of superstars. Wilson could have gone to the Clippers in 1988 instead of #1 pick Danny Manning, or to Sacramento in 1989 instead of Pervis Ellison. There might have been shoe deals, championship banners, 9-figure contracts. Instead, there’s conjecture.
“If Ben was playing now he’d probably go straight to the pros,” said University of Illinois-Chicago head coach Jimmy Collins during a phone interview. “He was a tough kid. He’d rebound, take you inside, shoot outside, great passer. At 6-8, maybe 6-9, he was a Magic Johnson-type.”
In 1984, Collins was an assistant under Lou Henson at the University of Illinois, one of three schools, the others being DePaul and Indiana, that were thought to be finalists in the Ben Wilson recruiting frenzy.

The Chicago Bulls' star point guard, Derrick Rose, graduated from Simeon in 2007. Throughout his high school career he wore number 25 in honor of Wilson.