Why This Small Town in North Carolina is Basketball Heaven

A new longread in ESPN brings us inside Kinston, North Carolina, the small town known to locals as “Basketball Heaven.” Despite its mere 21,000 residents, Kinston has produced seven NBA players, most notably Lakers forward Brandon Ingram, who led Kinston High School to four straight state championships. Former former Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell and longtime scoring-threat Jerry Stackhouse also made their names in Kinston. Basketball has always been a source of hope for a town ravaged through the years by economic devastations and floods brought on by hurricanes. To put Kinston’s basketball dominance into perspective, the chances of a high school player in the US making the NBA are roughly 3 in 10,000. The chances for a Kinston player are 1 in 52.7.