Where Are They Now: Aquille Carr

Today I wanted to talk about one of the best pound for pound players high school basketball has ever seen. Joe had this player as his fifth best high school mixtape he has ever watched, and I had it as an honorable mention for my top five. Let's talk about Akil Carr and where he is now. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, for another episode of the Strictly Be Ball podcast. I'm Nolan alongside my co-host Joe. Joe, how are we doing? I'm doing amazing. NBA season is pretty much underway now, so I'm feeling good about that. And it's a pretty big week, pretty big week for you. Yeah, for those of you who don't know, I just turned 21. 21st birthday, had my first margarita. It was really good. But yeah, got to spend a lot of time with friends and family. But I am thrilled to talk about the story that I have for you today. We're going to be doing a where are they now on Akil Carr. It should be undisputed at this point. He's a high school legend. Joe had this person, Joe had Akil Carr as his fifth, your fifth out of all the high school mixtapes. This was the fifth best one you said. This was an honorable mention for me. And you can make the argument that he's the best pound for pound high school player ever. And you can make the argument that he's one of the best pound for pound basketball players ever. That might be a reach. He's 5'6". OK. He is 5'6". And you look at all the all other people that are all the other players that are short. I mean, you know, six foot is kind of a huge height difference. But yeah, that might be a little bit of a stretch. Mugsy Bogues. Mugsy Bogues, Spud Webb. But I mean, you kind of there's only. No, that's a fair point. It is a fair point. OK, so, you know, breaking down his highlights, he's the man was just a walking highlight reel like he had it all. Well, not had it all, but he was a point guard who stood at just 5'6", like I mentioned. And he had some of the quickest handles you ever see you'll ever see. He was super flashy, crazy assist, crazy passing ability as well. And he showcased that in all of his highlights. And he actually had a 48 inch vertical. The kid had bounce. He could he could dunk pretty well. I don't know. I don't know if he was throwing down like crazy dunks. I didn't see anything too special in his mixtape. He had a 48 inches is the is the record at the NBA Draft Combine. Really? Yeah. Keyon Johnson just said that this year. Huh? Interesting. Yeah. He would have the record. But nonetheless, I mean, it's a 5'6 player that's able to dunk. He's able to throw it down. So he's super athletic as well. And I'm actually going to have you guess with all are where they now are the players that sort of haven't panned out. You don't see a lot of stats or high school stats. You just see the mixtape itself. So I want you to guess how many points do you think he averaged in high school? We'll say his senior stats. OK, because you see the highlights, but you don't necessarily know how like how many points or what they average. I feel like it's a lot just because you're asking me. I know like it's really hard to guess because it depends on like who his teammates are and stuff like that, because I know Patrick Beverly averaged 38 points in high school. Yeah. So you never know, even if the guy like Pat Bev, who is in the NBA, don't really see him as an offensive player. I'll say 30 points per game. I could see that. That was a really good guess. His senior season, he averaged 31 points per game. OK, six assists per game. But this is this. This might be the most impressive out of all of them. Five steals per game. He averaged five steals per game. That's that's incredible. And his nickname was the Crime Stopper. His nickname, the Crime Stopper. His coach said the crime in East Baltimore probably goes down during our games. That's how much hype was around him. He was is a very unique. It is a very interesting. It is a very unique nickname. And yeah, like I said, the reason why he got that nickname is because so many people in East Baltimore would come to the games and watch him given his popularity and how good he was that the crime probably went down. That's not a fact or anything. And ironically, I wanted to mention a few things before we get into where he actually is now. I wanted to mention that. Ironically, he was arrested for domestic assault charge and put in jail on a $50,000 bond. So that's kind of I just thought it was funny to mention. He's too bad. He's called the Crime Stopper. But then he was arrested for a crime. Anyways, we're moving on. So he actually played another fun fact about him in high school. He played in a tournament in Italy and this was during his junior year and it was a junior international U.S. team. He led them to a gold medal, averaging 40 points per game. He averaged 40 points per game in this tournament in Italy. And as a result, he was offered a $750,000 contract to play for an Italian team. And keep in mind, he's a junior in high school. He hasn't graduated high school. And if I'm not mistaken, this is the biggest contract, a European contract offered to a player that has not graduated high school. He's offered $750,000. This is before the days of Overtime Elite nowadays. That is insane because... Keep in mind, this was around... This was the early 10s. I believe it was 2011 or 2012. A Kiel Carr, a 5'6 high school player, was offered $750,000. Based off of his tournament performance. He should have dropped everything and taken that. Yeah, we're going to get into that a little bit more because, I mean, you don't know where he is now. You don't really know. Besides college, high school, right? I have no idea where he is now. Because, I mean, we've done a lot of them. And this is one of the guys who talked about where they now video on. But I have not researched it at all. So hearing that he, I mean, I guess, turned down a $750,000 contract. All right, let's get into it. Let's get straight into it. So that's a little bit of... Where's he at now? We're going to get into where he's now. I just wanted to give some quick little facts or little fun facts about him. So he ended up deciding to not... Well, obviously, he turned down that contract. He was a junior in high school. He turned it down to return to college. Or excuse me, to return to high school ball. And he ended up deciding not to play in college and just go straight playing professionally. He was committed, verbally committed, to Seton Hall. You know, he could have played D1 ball. But he decided to just start playing professionally. And he... I actually don't know if he did or not, but he wanted to play. He played in China or wanted to play in China. That's where the direction of his career was headed. But then he actually was drafted by the Delaware 87ers in the third round of the 2013 D-League draft. Really? Yeah, he was. So he actually was in the D-League. Well, now it's the G-League. But he was in the D-League for a little bit. And he ended up being released in 2014. And this was after he didn't get as much playing time as he wanted. It was kind of like... I feel like it was like a mutual agreement. But the reason why they parted ways is because he didn't get enough playing time. But in 14 minutes... In 14 minutes a game, he averaged 11 and 2. And I believe that was like nine games. But he was not getting a lot of playing time. But he was still playing... It's a pretty good per-36 scoring number. It is a very good per-36 scoring number. But then shortly after this, he actually announced that he was going to be in the 2014 NBA draft. Sadly, he went undrafted and then ended up playing professionally in Canada, the Canadian National Basketball League for the St. John Millrats. Pretty interesting team, right? Team name. But he averaged 13 and 3 for the Rats. And then he ended up being released by them. And this was... I feel it... I don't know exactly why he was released. But I do want to mention that he had two suspensions. And this was like on the court kind of like anger. He kind of had some like instances that were not handled in a professional manner on the court, which kind of raised the concern of the team. Yeah, it seems like a common theme. Yeah, kind of common theme. I mean, he was averaging 13 points a game. You don't usually get released. Yeah, that's pretty solid. And I mean, you know, he's still a young guy. Like if you're averaging 13 and 3, I don't know how much minutes he's playing per game, but that's still pretty solid. I have no idea what the competition is like in the Canadian basketball. I have no idea either. I know... The D-League's good though. I know Royce White is a former Canadian League MVP. That's the only thing I know about the Canadian League. I'm willing to bet the D-League or the G-League now is a much... Well, yeah, I think the Canadian League is probably below China. And EuroLeague, obviously the G-League. I think it's probably a small step down from those leagues. Yeah, I would assume so. And then after this, he went under the radar for around two years. So he parted ways with the Canadian National Basketball League, the St. John Millrats. And then he went under the radar for around two years. And then he signed with the Baltimore Hawks of the ABA. Joe and I just got enlightened about the ABA. Yep, it's a semi-professional league. I don't really know too much about the league, but it's not... Because I mean, everyone thinks about the ABA. They think about Julius Irving and those guys. So the league before was the NBA. Well, no, before they merged. It wasn't the NBA, yeah. Yeah, excuse me. But yeah, it's definitely the ABA now, or what it is now is nowhere near what it was. Yeah, it's a semi-professional league. So then after this, he parted... It's just going down. It just keeps going. Like he keeps just switching the leagues he's playing in, switching the teams. But after this, I have to read this off. He signed with the Guern University Sky of the Cypriot North League a year after. So it was just kind of random. I don't even know if it's a professional team or not, but he did play organized basketball for a team. I couldn't find too much information on that. I have no idea what this league is. The what? The Journey University Sky of the Cypriot North League. What is that? I have no idea. He did play organized ball right after. Organized ball could be like pickup basketball. It could be. But yeah, it's definitely... I thought it was worth mentioning that. But he played with them. I don't know how much points he averaged. There's not a lot of information about it. I mean, yeah. It was on Wikipedia, so... And then after this, he signed again with the Baltimore Hawks in 2019. This was a year after. Okay. I'm not ******* leaving! The show goes on! And then he played with them for a little bit. I mean, he actually played pretty well for them. I think he had a 60-point game or whatever, which was the most in ABA history or the most in the team, the franchise, the Baltimore Hawks. The new ABA team. The new ABA. Started in like 2000 or something. Yeah. So then after this, that's kind of like the last we've sort of seen of him playing organized ball. If you go on like Ball is Life's YouTube channel or probably their Instagram as well, you'll see like the occasional Akil Carr playing someone 1v1. I've seen Akil Carr. He still kind of has that popularity. He still has that popularity. They kind of like, you know, his name is so recognizable in the basketball community where they kind of utilize that. He's playing against pro ballers like, okay, like this is good footage for us. But he's still competing with them and still playing. And he's a guy that I feel like with his scoring ability, I mean, he dropped 60 in an ABA game. Yeah. He's probably not very good and he's probably not good enough to play in like obviously international anymore, overseas professional, but the dude can still drop buckets anywhere he goes. Yeah, for sure. And then on his Instagram, he always hints like he'll get back, like he's about to get back or his bounce back is coming back soon. He'll like hint at that or whatever. You know what I think he should have done from the time he left the D-League? He should have just gone to Harlem Globetrotters. That, that's a very interesting point. He's 5'6 and has a 48 inch vertical. It's pretty entertaining to watch. I think you should have gone to the Globetrotters. He could have made money there. He could have made a good amount of money. Akil Carr, if you're watching this, sign with the Harlem Globetrotters, joke with you on. Yeah, that's your new idea. Yeah, after I was going through his Instagram, you know, I was just trying to get more information. So is that it? That's the last like we've kind of heard of him. But like I looked on his Instagram and he's like, he's just like posting whatever. And he apparently is gifting his fans with a documentary called The Crime Stopper. And it's just basically on his like basketball career, his like life journey. But that was like his most recent post, actually. So this is pretty recent. There's going to be a documentary on him and his sort of basketball journey. Do you know when it comes out? I don't. I don't even think he put a set date on it, but I know it's in the works and it should be coming out soon. But yeah, that's basically it. That's where he is now. You know, he's not playing any really organized ball or doing anything in that sense. But hopefully he gets back to it. The documentary could be pretty cool, but he definitely still has a lot of talent in him as displayed in the YouTube videos that Ball's Life posted. Like he's still an elite hooper. And I feel like Globetrotters, that'd be sick. You know, he could play in some league. You know, he could probably go back to the ABA or maybe some other international league, play professionally. I feel like he has that skill within him. So very interesting basketball path for a player. You know, he was in the D-League and then he played, he was in the D-League and then he played, let me make sure I'm getting everything correct. He's in the D-League, then he played in Canada, then he played in the ABA, then he played for some random team and then back in the ABA. What are your thoughts on his crazy basketball path? I mean, the thing that jumps out to me is I just can't get over the fact that he was offered $750,000 as a high school kid. Yes. Like you said, that at the time. A junior in high school. At the time. So what year was that? I don't even really remember. But at the time. 2010s. Yeah. If I'm not mistaken. Like you said, that was the biggest contract at the time ever offered to a high school player. A high school player that hasn't graduated. Yeah. A current high school player. Yeah. That's crazy because I bet, like you said, D-League and then Canadian League, whatever league you said after that, ABA. I don't think he probably made $750,000 in his entire basketball career. Yeah. And that kind of leads me to my second question. Like, what do you think would happen? Like, how would the direction of his basketball career change if he accepted the $750,000 contract to play for an Italian team? I mean, because I could have played. He could have just been done after that contract. I mean, I don't think he would have found any more success than he did because he got chances to play in good leagues like the D-League and the Canadian League, which are just like, he just kept taking steps down. Never proved that he belonged. But he would have a lot more money. I don't know how much it was, but I think it was a one-year contract. A one-year contract. Dude, that's like- Don't quote me on that. But if he accepts that, keep in mind, you could say like he's done like in the one year and he's made as much money as he has in his entirety of his basketball career. But you accept that he was like 17, 18. I don't even know how old he was at the time. But even if he underperforms, like they still had him under contract. If he's making contribution to the team, they're gonna bring him back because he's so young. And they've seen what he did. He averaged 40 points per game in a tournament as a junior in high school. A very competitive tournament brought the junior international US team to a gold medal. And that's ultimately why they offered him this massive contract. And I also wanted to mention the domestic assault charge, which like he was put in jail for that bond. Obviously, I feel like professional teams or colleges look at that like, okay, he has this on his record. That happened after he was in Italy. I feel like after that, you kind of see he was hotheaded on the court. He had specific suspensions or whatnot. Maybe that would prevent him from having that aggression on the court. And then ultimately that crime that happened or the assault. Yeah, I mean, I guess you never know. I mean, that team clearly thought a lot of him giving him $750,000. So maybe that would have been his chance to just be the guy and he would have gotten a lot of support. But I mean, also putting another $750,000 in his hands, who knows what that could have caused like a high school kid with $750,000. It's true. You never know. But I mean, I think it's just kind of tragic. Like he lost out on a lot of money. I mean, we talk about guys like Dennis Schroeder losing out on money and stuff like that. But he probably like he lost out on everything like he could have made. Like he doesn't have millions already in the bank. He turned, I want to know why he turned that down. That is really intriguing to me. Because it's not like, at first when you said that, I was like, oh, it's probably because he had this NBA dream and he didn't want to go overseas. But you can still go overseas and then still pursue an NBA dream. Yeah. I have no idea. That's interesting. He didn't want to leave East Baltimore, I guess. He did not want to leave. He was the crime stopper. He's the crime stopper. He had to make sure that he, you know, he was the enforcer of Baltimore. Like he had more of an impact than the police officers there. No, obviously not. But obviously Baltimore, I feel like had a special place in his heart. And he had that popularity though. He had the popularity in Baltimore. He played for the Baltimore Hawks of the ABA. So he like returned home to play in Baltimore. So I feel like his hometown definitely has a special place in his heart. Yep. And that also could play a huge thing because we all know who he is because he was so popular with his mixtapes. Yeah. He was putting on a show. He had ball's life in every single one of his games. He would have left that and nobody would have been on his games. There would have been 50 people in the gym in some professional league in Italy. Maybe, I don't know what exactly team he would have been on, but he was, I guess, giving up a lot and he chose the popularity and being on ball's life and maybe an NBA dream over 750,000. That's really, that's too bad. Yeah. It'd be interesting to see how different. I want to know how much he made though. Just kind of like obvious popularity. I feel like nowadays, if that, if he, I know it wasn't long ago, but like if that exact type of mixtape was coming out right now and he had that hype, he probably would have made more money. Like doing social media stuff and like the Mikey Williams of the world making a ton of money. Now it's like Mikey signed like a $1 million NIL deal and stuff like that. So I guess, I don't know. I wonder how much he made, but yeah, that is too bad. For sure. And then kind of, I mentioned it earlier on, like it was like one of the first things I mentioned, the argument that he, you could say he's the best pound for pound high school basketball player. You could say that. You could try to make, you can make that argument. So who do you think is the best pound for pound player in NBA history? You mentioned Muggsy Bogues. Muggsy Bogues. You think Muggsy Bogues? Easy. Wait, no. I mean, that's the most extreme example, but the true answer is Allen Iverson. That's what I was going to say too. Allen Iverson. Yeah. No, yeah. There's some, there's some definite names that come to mind for me. And we mentioned some two very big ones. Like Muggsy Bogues is an extreme case. Isaiah Thomas. Yes. Spud Webb. Yup. Nate Robinson. Yeah. And then that's kind of, that's kind of, those are the only ones that really come to mind. And then obviously, you know, Allen Iverson and Muggsy Bogues. Yeah. I would say I said Muggsy Bogues just because it's hard to compare Allen Iverson and Muggsy Bogues. But the fact that Muggsy was 5'3". Remember we saw him at All-Star Weekend. Remember that? We saw him like sitting, he was at like some booth. Did you see that? I don't think I did. I wish I did. He is just like, you can picture someone being 5'3". But the fact that he, I mean, I saw him standing up and it's ridiculous. He's so short. I mean, I looked at him and I was like, that dude played in the NBA. And I think, I mean, some people say like, and I would probably say this too, like I cannot imagine him playing in the NBA right now. Oh, he couldn't. But I don't know if that's true because the competition right now is not entirely that much crazier than it was then. He played against some legit dudes back then. So, I mean him and then AI. Like, who was it? There was some quote that was like, Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time because Allen Iverson wasn't 6'6". Yeah, I've heard that quote before. So, and by the way, I think LeBron James is the greatest player of all time. But I do too. But yeah, Allen Iverson is a very good one. That's a good question though. For sure. High school wise though, it's hard to say, I mean. It is really hard to say. Trey Jefferson, I'm a big Trey Jefferson guy. It's not a kill car. What do you mean it's not a kill car? Who else? I mean, it's probably difficult. He had the mixtape, but like he wasn't. He averaged, he averaged, I guess he did. 31, 6, and 5. And he had a 48 inch vertical. He's 5'6". Well, yeah. Muggsy Bogues was a high school player once. Didn't he? Wasn't he on a really solid team? Yeah, he was on one of the best teams of all time. I mean, we briefly mentioned that in the first episode. Yeah, we did. It was his Dunbar High School, was the name of his high school. And they were undefeated. And they had a couple other NBA guys. I wonder what he averaged, probably a lot. Muggsy? Yeah. Maybe. I don't know how, I don't know how he. I mean, we never watched. You can watch Muggsy Bogues highlights, but I want to know how he did it. Like 5'3", that's incredible. It's insane. That's going to do it for today's episode. Make sure you guys are following us on all socials, at ShicklyBball on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. And make sure you subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. And leave a comment or review. See you guys next time.