From Eliot Middle School to the NBA: The Altadena Roots of Anthony Randolph

Before the Draft Night Lights, There Was a Kid in Pasadena With a Basketball and a Dream

There is something special about watching a kid grow up around the same communities where generations of basketball players have learned to fall in love with the game.

Long before Anthony Randolph heard his name called in the NBA Draft, before the cameras, the contracts, the arenas and the international career, he was simply a kid growing up in the Pasadena area—developing his game and finding out just how far basketball might take him.

For Randolph, that journey began in Southern California.

And one of the early chapters was Eliot Middle School in Altadena.

That detail matters.

Because when we talk about professional athletes, the temptation is to start the story at the glamorous part—the draft, the college scholarship, the NBA debut.

But basketball dreams don't begin on NBA Draft night.

They begin in school gyms.

They begin on outdoor courts.

They begin when a kid discovers that he can do something with a basketball that everybody else can't.

And for Randolph, that journey eventually took him from the Pasadena area to Arkansas, Texas, LSU and, ultimately, the NBA.

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A Pasadena Kid With Unusual Potential

Anthony Erwin Randolph Jr. was born July 15, 1989, in Würzburg, Germany, where his parents were serving in the U.S. military. His family moved to Pasadena when he was very young, and Pasadena became the place he spent much of his childhood.

That makes his basketball story particularly interesting.

Randolph wasn't born into the NBA.

He wasn't some nationally famous middle-school phenomenon whose name appeared in every recruiting publication before he could legally drive.

He was developing.

Growing.

Moving.

Learning.

And eventually, the 6-foot-10-plus frame that would become one of his greatest basketball advantages began turning heads.

His path through school was unconventional. After his Pasadena years, Randolph attended school in North Little Rock, Arkansas, before transferring to Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas, where his basketball career exploded onto the national scene.

That transition would become one of the most important chapters in his development.

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The Kid Who Could Play All Five Positions

By the time Randolph reached Woodrow Wilson, the raw potential was becoming something much more serious.

He could play all five positions.

Think about that for a moment.

A player with Randolph's size possessing enough versatility to move around the court rather than simply standing underneath the basket is exactly the kind of skill set that makes basketball scouts start imagining possibilities.

His senior season was spectacular.

Randolph averaged 25.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, earning first-team All-Area honors from The Dallas Morning News and recognition as a Parade All-American.

He also played in the Reebok Round Ball Classic and Adidas Derby Festival Classic, giving him opportunities to compete against some of the best young basketball talent in the country.

The kid from Southern California had officially entered the national basketball conversation.

And the basketball world was beginning to notice.

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Then Came LSU

Randolph committed to Louisiana State University.

And he didn't exactly spend his freshman season quietly.

In his lone season at LSU, Randolph started all 31 games and averaged:

15.6 points

8.5 rebounds

1.2 assists

1.1 steals

2.3 blocks

per game.

He recorded nine double-doubles.

He grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds against Vanderbilt.

He scored a career-high 29 points against Alabama.

And in his opening college game against Southeastern Louisiana, he blocked six shots.

That is not the résumé of somebody merely trying to survive college basketball.

That's the résumé of somebody announcing:

I'm ready for the next level.

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Fourteen Picks From the NBA

After only one season at LSU, Randolph entered the 2008 NBA Draft.

And then came the moment every young basketball player dreams about.

The Golden State Warriors selected Anthony Randolph with the 14th overall pick.

Think about the distance traveled.

A kid who had grown up in the Pasadena area.

A student who had passed through schools in Southern California and Arkansas.

A teenager who eventually relocated to Dallas.

A freshman at LSU.

And now?

NBA player.

The dream had become a job.

The gym had become an arena.

The basketball that once represented possibility had become a professional career.

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Welcome to the NBA

Randolph made his NBA debut on November 3, 2008.

His rookie season with Golden State showed exactly why scouts had been fascinated by him.

He appeared in 63 games, started 22 and averaged 7.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 17.9 minutes per game.

The following season, his role increased.

In 33 games for the Warriors, Randolph averaged 11.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 22.7 minutes per game.

And then came one of those performances that reminds everyone why potential can be such a dangerous word in basketball.

On April 13, 2009, Randolph put together a career-best performance at the time, scoring 24 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.

The talent was real.

The athleticism was real.

The production was real.

But the NBA is a strange place.

Sometimes having extraordinary talent doesn't automatically mean having the perfect circumstances to develop it.

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The NBA Journey Didn't Go in a Straight Line

Randolph's professional journey became a lesson in adaptation.

He played for Golden State from 2008 to 2010, then moved to the New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets.

In Minnesota, he provided perhaps one of the most memorable glimpses of what his ceiling could look like.

On March 24, 2011, filling in for an injured Kevin Love, Randolph erupted for a career-high 31 points and 11 rebounds.

He followed that performance with 24 points and 15 rebounds.

For a moment, the possibility everyone had seen years earlier was flashing again.

But professional sports rarely follows a Hollywood script.

Randolph ultimately spent six seasons in the NBA, appearing in 252 regular-season games and averaging 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds for his NBA career.

On paper, those numbers might not look like the statistics of an NBA legend.

But that misses the point.

Making the NBA is itself an extraordinary accomplishment.

Thousands of players dream about it.

Hundreds of thousands of young players pick up basketballs hoping to reach it.

Only a tiny percentage ever do.

Anthony Randolph did.

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And Then He Went Global

Here's where Randolph's story becomes even more interesting.

His NBA chapter ended.

His basketball story did not.

After leaving the NBA, Randolph continued his professional career overseas, playing for Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia before joining Real Madrid, one of the most accomplished basketball clubs in Europe.

And something important happened there.

Randolph found another version of himself as a player.

He later reflected that playing as a stretch four in Europe allowed him to carve out a role and develop into the player he became.

That's an important lesson for young athletes.

Sometimes the first version of your dream doesn't work exactly the way you imagined.

That doesn't necessarily mean the dream is over.

Sometimes you have to change the environment.

Change the role.

Change the approach.

Change the way you understand your own game.

Randolph did exactly that.

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From Pasadena to the World

The distance between a middle-school basketball court in Altadena and an NBA arena can feel enormous.

Because it is.

But that's precisely what makes stories like Anthony Randolph's worth remembering.

The journey wasn't simply:

Eliot Middle School → NBA.

It was a winding road.

Pasadena.

Altadena.

Arkansas.

Dallas.

LSU.

Golden State.

New York.

Minnesota.

Denver.

Russia.

Spain.

And eventually, a professional basketball career spanning 15 seasons across the NBA and overseas competition.

That's not a straight line.

That's a basketball life.

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More Than an NBA Draft Pick

Randolph's story also challenges the way we measure athletic success.

The NBA tends to become the final scoreboard in conversations about basketball players.

Did he become a star?

Did he make an All-Star team?

Did he win a championship?

Did he average 20 points?

But there is another question worth asking:

How far did the journey take him?

For Randolph, the answer is remarkable.

A young player from the Pasadena area eventually became a first-round NBA draft selection.

He played against some of the greatest basketball players on the planet.

He experienced the pressure of professional basketball.

He adapted to multiple NBA organizations.

He played internationally.

He represented the United States at the 2015 Pan American Games, helping the team earn a bronze medal.

And he built a professional career that continued long after his NBA chapter ended.

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The Lesson for the Next Kid

Somewhere today, there is another kid standing on a basketball court in Pasadena, Altadena, Los Angeles or somewhere else in Southern California.

Maybe he's six feet tall.

Maybe he's six-foot-seven.

Maybe he's still too small to touch the rim.

Maybe he isn't even the best player on his team.

Maybe nobody knows his name.

That's how these stories usually begin.

Not with ESPN.

Not with NBA scouts.

Not with a draft announcement.

With a kid.

A ball.

A court.

And the decision to keep getting better.

Anthony Randolph's journey from his Pasadena-area childhood and school days—including his time at Eliot Middle School in Altadena—to becoming the 14th pick in the NBA Draft is a reminder that professional basketball careers are rarely born fully formed.

They are built.

One practice.

One game.

One move.

One setback.

One opportunity at a time.

And sometimes, the road from a schoolyard in Southern California leads all the way to the NBA.

That's the story of Anthony Randolph.

From Altadena roots to NBA arenas—and eventually, basketball courts around the world.