Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers

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Voice of Los Angeles. Hello.

I think L.A. basketball, right now, is bigger than we've seen it

- in years past. -

There's an excitement, of course, with the Lakers.

The city feels good on all levels of sports,

not just on a professional level.

- -

I haven't seen high school basketball

this exciting in years in Los Angeles.

High school basketball has always been important in Southern California,

but it's really changed.

It's only in recent years that Southern California rising up

because of the growth of the Internet and social media.

And then, you have this recent year of just great talent.

And people moving to Southern California from out of state.

Everybody's talking about the Trailblazers.

This is no ordinary high school basketball team.

You got the Lakers, you got the Clippers

and you got Sierra Canyon High School.

So, if I were you, and I were coming into a new situation,

where the team has won back-to-back state titles,

seems to me that you guys would be trying to do

everything that we ask you to do,

if it's very important for you to win.

Our legacy is to win championship after championship after championship.

We don't settle for anything else.

I don't like losing at all. Not one game.

And you guys have the ability to go undefeated

in every game we play and crush everybody's spirit from the beginning.

It is going to be my goal to get you to that level.

You might hate me this year, but when you leave here,

one day you're going to thank me,

because I promise you, you ain't leaving this... without getting better.

It is my promise to you.

So, you will get better or you will quit.

Sierra Canyon hasn't lost a playoff game since 2018.

Last year they played well together,

they loved each other.

We had Scottie Pippen Jr.,

Kenyon Martin Jr., Cassius Stanley.

We actually had that group for some years, so, we were able to kinda mold them.

I think we went 24 and 3.

the way he allowed those guys to grow.

Won back-to-back state champions the last two years.

The difference between last year's team and this year's team

is this team is rock stars.

It's a circus-like atmosphere every place they go play.

They are a national treasure this year.

Staples Center is the place to be.

Maybe even Sierra Canyon can go there and play a game.

More than 5,000 tickets

were purchased in just nine hours.

I'm thinkin' that this team probably three-peats

for the state championship, what do you guys think?

There were so many rumors about

who was coming to Sierra Canyon and how would they perform together.

Who's inside, who's on center court.

And you think about it, we're talking about a high school game here.

Amari's a beast. No matter what, he's coming at you.

I'm Chicago to the death of me, it's written all over me.

There isn't any wall that you can put in front of me

that I'm not gonna be willing to break through.

When I heard the news that BJ, Z-Will and Z-Wade

were all comin' to Sierra...

BJ DM'd me.

BJ's a special talent.

He is definitely NBA material.

My bag is deep. A lot of people, they got a bag, but my bag is deep.

Now I might just do a Santa bag, 'cause, you know, my bag is so big.

Not even a week later,

Z-Will posted the same day that they were both comin'.

Ziaire Williams, he aspires to be in the NBA.

He might have a great career as a politician, as well,

because he definitely has a way of communicating with people

and making them feel good.

I wanna learn from any and everything, you know, I'm more than an athlete.

Z-Wade DM'd me, he was like, "Should I come?" I said, "For sure."

He's known as Dwyane Wade's son.

And he wants to be known as Zaire Wade.

When people would call me Dwyane Wade's son,

I would tell 'em, I have a name, respectfully, Zaire.

Shy gave up a lot, moving from Boston to L.A.

Just as a hooper, man, Shy is very talented.

A lot of people probably got a little glimpse

of what kind of player Shy could be.

But, in the future, man, he's 'bout to be a problem.

I wanna set my family up for success,

lead the way and give everybody the opportunity

to be what they wanna be and do what they wanna do.

I was already waitin' on Bronny to come.

For real, for real, I wanted to play with him, so...

Bronny is on, like, a whole 'nother universe.

Basketball-wise, he's just got gifts that just are God given.

I'm just Bronny. I don't really get called LeBron anymore.

You come here... to win,

like, you don't come to Sierra Canyon for any other reason.

I've been coaching for about 20 years now.

I don't think there's no pressure greater than the pressure that I put on myself.

As a coach, sometimes you have to endure the hatred of your players,

or allow them to use you as their rallying cry...

Yay!

...in order to help them to be great.

It doesn't faze me, at all.

My way of mentoring, having conversations,

I think that's somethin' that you have to get used to.

I come from the projects, so, people can, you know, say what they want.

For me, you know, as a player, I definitely felt the pressure.

You know, I was fighting the battle of dealing with, you know, a disability

and proving to the world that I was good enough to play.

So, I think that pressure was a little bit greater than,

you know, what I'm doing now.

We, every day, try to reach perfection, knowing that we can't get there,

but you know, hopefully,

we'll hit excellence and continue to move forward

and accomplish great things as a group.

He has his own demeanor in the way he coaches,

and obviously he wins games, wins championships, so, it works.

I'm a truth teller and I'm gonna tell you the blatant truth.

I'm not gonna be abrasive about it,

but I am gonna tell you the truth so that you can make an adjustment,

get better.

You can take my information and use it

or you can throw it away.

But I am gonna give you the truth from my perspective.

I don't believe that. Okay.

Oh.

-Here? -Yeah. Here we go.

Coming out to L.A., it's just, honestly,

like, I feel like once I came into the school, like...

I don't know.

Going to Sierra Canyon's like I'm watching a school in a movie,

but, like, I'm actually in the school.

It was just different, comin' out here, it's like a movie.

I still say it's crazy to this day.

The teachers, the students, everything, like...

'cause I--like, where I come from, it's not like that.

It was a public school of 4,000 kids.