Within the recent conventions of the NBA, many believe that the role of combo guards and/or combo shooters is dead. 

Yet from those ashes arises 17-year-old Anthony Walcott, an aspiring Division 1 combo guard in the making on the Pembroke Pines Charter High School basketball team. 

To Walcott, an orange ball with stripes can mean a multitude of things. If he shoots it from the right angle, it could mean a momentary victory in the team’s favor, leading to an eventual win, but it could also mean his entire future and everything that he has trained for. 

“My dad’s been training me since I was five,” notes Walcott. 

Being in the 99th percentile in terms of height, there have always been tall expectations in place. Walcott currently stands at six foot five.

“There was always sort of a hope going into basketball. [Our dad] made [my brother and I] work out one day, and [it occurred to us] that’s what we wanted to do, so we asked him to go back to the court,” he recalls. 

His youth was filled with basketball courts. Every day, the pair would return with their father and start shooting hoops once more. Within those plays, watching as the ball landed so gracefully into the hoop and feeling the triumph that would emanate from those small victories, Walcott slowly started to realize his adoration for the sport. 

“It stopped feeling like just a game and started feeling like a responsibility.”

With that much training, basketball seemed to be second nature—that was until eighth grade.

“All the kids had gotten bigger, stronger, and faster. I felt like I was falling off, like I was at the bottom of the food chain,” notes Walcott.

His father, one of his coaches during that time, came to Walcott directly and told him he was going to get cut from the team he was trying out for. 

There were two tryouts left, and for the next one, the junior decided it was time to give the coaches everything he had.

“I just started working ten times harder,” explains Walcott, who landed on the team, playing for Columbus High School that exact same year. 

Since then, he has transferred from Columbus to Miami Norland and now officially resides at Charter.

“I feel like I’m good here,” says Walcott.

He has been offered scholarships to big Florida colleges such as the University of Central Florida (UCF) and Florida State University (FSU); “They extend an offer, do a call, or do a text, maybe.”

As of now, Walcott has had his eye on the ball and is not letting it out of his sight, both literally and figuratively. 

“My goals this year are to win a state championship… get more Division One offers.” He continues, “That’s been a lifelong dream.”

As a long-term goal, Walcott dreams of going into the National Basketball Association (NBA)—but right now, Division 1, to him, means the best of the best, and in order to be well-regarded, Walcott has to put in the work.

“[People] don’t see the hours that you put in behind closed doors,” he notes. 

According to Walcott, he practices up to seven hours a day, with some of those hours spent on campus. 

“You just have to have that pain mentality,” says Walcott, unafraid to shoot from even the trickiest angles.

As basketball can be an unpredictable game, it is crucial for positions like combo guard to have quick thinking. Walcott cannot just loom around the ball all game, making sure the opposing team does not lay a finger on it; he has to be able to make the point—or pass it to a team member who will. 

He relies on “changing the momentum of the game,” surprising the opponent. 

His favorite shot is a step-back into three, a move commonly demonstrated by elite basketball players like Stephen Curry. 

Walcott notes, “It’s a tough shot.” He dribbles once in front, twice behind, and has to hit the hoop.

It is a move Walcott hopes to demonstrate someday on the courts of the Kaseya Center where the Miami Heat play, or, for this year, at least at state championships in Orlando. 

Balancing schoolwork and intense practice is no easy feat. Like every individual, Walcott has his hardships, but with hardship, he also has immense perseverance. 

“If it’s getting tough, just keep going,” Walcott mentions.

And with that outlook on life, he hopes to keep going; where he will go is up to his offers and future with the NBA. 

As the season continues, Walcott remains what he has always been, a player built on hours, belief, and the refusal to tell off. A combo guard who is still in the making, moving like he already belongs on the next level.