Caleb Wilson’s Making His Own Mark as a Top Ten Player in the Class of 2025

This story appears in SLAM 251. Get your copy now.

Like any young hooper, Caleb Wilson tended to look to the most obvious sources for inspiration. “When I was younger, I used to only look at the stars—LeBron, Kobe, the big names,” he explains. “But my dad brought it to my attention that there were a lot of people I didn’t know about.”

A willingness to accept his father’s guidance helps explain how, when asked to name some of the players whose games he admires, the 18-year-old rattles off a list of guys who would impress any hoop-savvy dad—and probably a lot of grandfathers, too. “I watch Tracy McGrady, Penny Hardaway, John Stockton, Steve Nash, David Thompson, Alex English. I watch Clyde Drexler, Rick Barry, Chris Mullin and Run TMC, Nique, young Shaq in Orlando, and then the Lakers—I could go on and on about Magic and Kareem…”

He smiles. “I can keep going. I know a lot about basketball.”

Of course, his appearance in this magazine means Wilson is more than just a well-informed fan. The 6-9, 205-pound forward at Atlanta’s Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School is also a consensus top-10 prospect in the 2025 class, with a game informed both by that multigenerational collective of NBA greats and current stars like Nikola Jokic. With the game’s positionless revolution firmly entrenched, it only makes sense that a dude like Wilson would look far and wide for inspiration. “I feel like every player has aspects you can learn from,” he says, “especially the great ones.”

Wilson has a long way to go before he hears his name mentioned in the same breath as the aforementioned All-Stars and Hall of Famers, but then he’s already come a long way. He was a relatively late bloomer compared to most of his peers near the top of the rankings, and the memories of how far he felt from the game’s elite provides ample motivation now that he’s among the best high schoolers in the country. “I feel like a lot of younger kids look up to me because of that, so I want to talk about my humble beginnings, my struggles as a young player,” he says. “I remember not being the best player—it sticks with me. Just because you’re not good at something now doesn’t mean you can’t be good at it later.”

Wilson’s rise is proof of that, as evidenced by his production at Holy Innocents (he averaged 21 points, 15 rebounds and over 4 blocks last season) and on the Nike EYBL circuit, as well as his invite to this summer’s USA Basketball U18 junior national team camp. Of course, big-time programs have noticed. As we went to press, Auburn, UNC, Stanford and Duke were among the favorites to bring him to campus in 2025.

Low-key off the court—“I like to play video games, I watch a lot of TV, especially anime, and sometimes I do Legos,” he says—Wilson is committed to the game and usually in the gym. Still somewhat raw offensively, he’s athletic and savvy enough to still get his points or get teammates involved, and as those blocked-shot numbers attest, he’s got the potential to be a game-changer on D. Talent and motivation go a long way, of course, but ultimately, Wilson says the foundation of his game comes down to nothing more complicated than holding himself accountable and putting in work.

“I feel like it’s just discipline and commitment,” he says. “Once you tell yourself, I’m gonna do something, and you follow through with it, you build trust with yourself. I became true to myself about that: Caleb, you’re going to dribble every single day for 30 minutes, you’re going to do push-ups, you’re going to do sit-ups every single day. It allows for belief that you can do better. You’re competing with yourself.”

Portraits via Omar Rawlings.