Shabazz Muhammad

Muhammad was born in Long Beach, California to Ron Holmes and Faye Muhammad.[1] Ron Holmes was a 6-foot-5-inch (1.96 m) standout, four-year starting point guard for the USC Trojans men's basketball program in the 1980s. He played under the names of Ronald Muhammad, Ron Shabazz and Rashad Muhammad but settled on Ron Holmes after never finishing his religious conversion to Islam. Muhammad's mother, Faye, was a point guard and track star at Long Beach State.[1][2]

Shabazz Muhammad is the second of three children. His older sister Asia is a professional tennis player, and his younger brother Rashad played basketball in high school.[1][3][4] When Muhammad was six years old, he was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome.[5]

Muhammad attended high school in Las Vegas Valley in Nevada at Bishop Gorman High School, a Catholic high school with a $12,000 annual tuition that possessed a competitive athletics program. He became one of the few freshman to make their varsity basketball team.[1] In his junior year, Muhammad led Bishop Gorman averaging 25.1 points and 7.7 rebounds for the season.[6] Muhammad was also named the 2011 Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Nevada.

Muhammad was the 2011–12 high school diary keeper for SLAM Magazine.[7]

Muhammad played in the 2012 McDonald's All-American game, where he led the West team to a 106-102 victory over the East team, and was named the MVP of the game with 21 points and 6 rebounds. Muhammad also participated in and won the 2012 Powerade Jam Fest Dunk Contest.[8] He was rated as the No. 2 player in the class of 2012 in the ESPNU 100,[9] the No. 2 player by Scout.com,[10] and the No. 1 player by Rivals.com.[11] CBS college basketball analyst Greg Anthony called Muhammad a "once-in-a-generation talent."[12]

Muhammad with UCLA in 2012.

Boasting scholarship offers from scores of basketball programs, Muhammad's final list of schools was Duke, Kentucky, and UCLA. On April 11, 2012, Muhammad announced he would attend UCLA.[13][14] Muhammad was declared ineligible to play hours prior to UCLA's 2012–13 season opener against Indiana State due to alleged violations involving the NCAA's amateurism rules surrounding unofficial university visits.[15] The NCAA ruled he had received benefits for travel expenses and lodging from family friend Benjamin Lincoln, who had befriended Muhammad's father when Muhammad was in seventh grade, during unofficial visits to Duke and North Carolina.[16] After missing three games and an appeal by UCLA, he was reinstated, and his family was required to repay approximately $1,600.[17] Days before his reinstatement, several media outlets reported the boyfriend of the NCAA's lead investigator boasted publicly that the NCAA would find him ineligible eight days after the investigation commenced.[18] The NCAA subsequently fired the investigator that was involved in the case.[19]

Muhammad scored 15 points off the bench in his debut in a 78–70 loss to Georgetown in the semifinals of the Legends Classic.[20] He became a starter in the next game against Georgia, and he scored a game-high 21 points in a 60–56 win in the Classic's consolation game.[21] Muhammad would then get a college-high 27 points, including a game-winning three pointer, in a 97-95 overtime victory against No. 7 Missouri.[22] He scored a game-high 23 points in an 84–73 road win over No. 6 Arizona.[23]

Muhammad received national recognition, earning second-team All-American honors from Sporting News and a Freshman All-American selection by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).[24] He was also named to the All-Pac-12 first team, and was voted the Pac-12 co-Freshman of the Year along with Jahii Carson of Arizona State.[25] Muhammad finished the season averaging 17.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.1 blocks per game. He shot 44.3% from the floor and made 71.1% of his free throws.[26] While his scoring ability was unquestionable, he was not the flashy offensive player that was expected upon his signing. Muhammad struggled in the postseason, shooting 39.7 percent (23-for-58) and averaging 15.3 points in four games. He was 0-for-10 on three-point field goals.[27] During the season, he focused on shooting and rarely passed the ball.[27][28] He was also a weak defensive player, though he did show improvement.[27]

Muhammad's uncle, Stephone Paige, played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with 377 career receptions. His aunt, Robin Holmes, was a four-year starter for Cal State Fullerton.[2]

On March 22, 2013, it was revealed in a report from the Los Angeles Times that Muhammad was actually born exactly one year earlier than his thought-to-be birthday of November 13, 1993.[58] A copy of his birth certificate on file with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health shows that he was born at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center exactly one year earlier, which made him 20 years old at the time. Los Angeles Times assumes that this was to make Muhammed look better "competing against younger, smaller athletes, particularly in the fast-growing years of early adolescence", and compared the case to that of baseball's Danny Almonte.[59] Although Muhammad's father said the younger age in UCLA's media guide was "a mistake", numerous sources online show that Muhammad had been passing himself off as younger for years.[59][60]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shabazz Muhammad.

• Career statistics and player information from NBA.com or Basketball-Reference.com
• UCLA Bruins bio