A Grip on Sports: Over the years, Spokane has turned out some all-time great boys high school basketball players

A GRIP ON SPORTS • One of the fun parts of social media – as opposed to the ugly aspects deplored by everyone – is its ability to tap into the collective memory among sports fans. For example, yesterday a question surfaced asking for a basketball all-time starting five among your hometown’s high schools. It’s an interesting question for Spokane.

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• First off, what’s Spokane? If you are just limiting the starting five to Spokane high schools (Lewis and Clark, North Central, Rogers, Shadle Park and Ferris) and the one Catholic school in the city limits (Gonzaga Prep), the list is different than if you expand the list to the Greater Spokane League.

What if you really mean Spokane County high schools? That’s a different list all together as well. So first we have to agree on the parameters.

Let’s keep it simple – and encompass all of the Inland Northwest. No, no. That’s impossible.

So we’ll stick to players who attended the six schools contained in Spokane’s city boundaries. That eliminates, of course, players like Cheney’s Brian Quinnett, who had a long NBA career after attending Washington State. Or Adam Morrison, who is still the all-time leading scorer in Greater Spokane League games. And David Sanders, another WSU player. And many others.

It is also impossible to cover all the years. I’m just not all that fluent in players from bygone eras. To make it easier, we’ll start this list with the formation of the Greater Spokane League in 1976, which means players from before that 1976-77 season weren’t considered. And, yes, I know there were some great players, including Gonzaga Prep’s Terry Kelly, which pops into my head mainly because we were neighbors for a while. But like geographic boundaries, time has a way of limiting us.

But it keeps it simple.

The point guard is easy. Ryne Sand … oops, wrong ‘70s-era superstar. Of course it is John Stockton.

The best to ever play here, at Gonzaga Prep and then at GU, he is the NBA record-holder in assists and steals. He has to anchor our group. Which means a player like Danny Pariseau, who left Shadle Park in third on the Greater Spokane League’s all-time scoring list, has to come off this bench.

The power forward is three-time GSL MVP Anton Watson, who led Gonzaga Prep to back-to-back State 4A titles. He’s now at Gonzaga University after finishing fifth on the all-time league scoring list.

The center? We’ll go with Ferris’ Sean Mallon, who scored more points than any other player for the six high schools located in the City of Spokane and was an All-GSL first-team selection three times.

After that it’s a bit tougher. Especially if you place the players by position, as we have tried to do.

There has to be a small forward and a shooting guard. To fill those spots, we have mined the All-GSL ranks from over the years and picked two players who won the MVP award in their junior and senior years.

The shooting guard is Clay Damon, the league MVP in 1981 and 1982.

Damon, who went on the play at Washington, was the best guard in the city since Stockton. The MVP awards lift him past Craig Haugen, who was a premier scorer for North Central in the late 1980s, but had the misfortune to play at the same time as Jeff Brown, the Mead center who dominated the league.

At small forward, we had way too many choices.

We could have selected Scotty Livengood, the Rogers star who was the third GSL player to score more than 1,000 points in his career. Or we could have chosen Brett Weisner, the Shadle Park standout who fell just 10 points short of that mark.

And there were others.

Matt Sachse was the GSL MVP for Ferris after the 1993-94 season, then went on to play pro baseball. The next two years Paul Mencke won the league’s MVP award, but the 6-foot-5 Lewis and Clark star was an even better football player and headed to Washington State.

Our choice for the fifth starting spot, Jared Karstetter, had a career that mirrored Mencke’s in a lot of ways.

At Ferris, Karstetter was part of the 29-0 basketball teams that won back-to-back State 4A titles in 2007 and 2008. He was the league MVP both those years, edging out teammates DeAngelo Casto and Shawn Stockton for the honors. At 6-5, Karstetter’s ability to run the floor keyed Ferris’ lethal fastbreak

After an outstanding basketball career in high school, Karstetter played football at Washington State, where he started at wide receiver and led the Cougars in touchdown receptions.

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Gonzaga: Despite three players – Corey Kispert, Joel Ayayi and Filip Petrusev – putting their names into the NBA Draft process, CBS still has GU ranked No. 1 heading into next season. Why? Because Gary Parrish feels they all will return.

WSU: Theo Lawson (and Craig Haley) joined Larry Weir for the latest Press Box pod. They talked about the NFL’s draft. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, it won’t be easy for Oregon to replace Justin Herbert. … Utah is trying to stay flexible with its football season-ticket holders. … A former UCLA player was granted a sixth season by the NCAA. … The Bruins and USC have some players who should be drafted next year. … In basketball, Arizona still has an opening or two on its roster. … Oregon State’s Ethan Thompson is exploring his professional options. … UCLA will play Kentucky next season. … How bad has the conference been hit by defections?

Preps: A couple of regional basketball players signed letters of intent. That piece of news leads Dave Nichols’ latest prep notebook.

Golf: May 5. That’s when Washington’s golf courses can open up again. There are limitations. Same with the relaxation of fishing and hunting restrictions. Jim Camden has more in this story.

Seahawks: After the draft, the Hawks still seem incomplete without Jadeveon Clowney. They have some cap space. Who will they use it on? … The offensive line is less crowded today, but is it better?

Sonics: Bob Condotta delves into Scottie Pippen’s stint with the Sonics in a story that is longer than Pippen’s Seattle tenure.

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• My Spokane high school basketball list is probably different than yours. Fine. But remember, I limited mine to those schools within the Spokane city limits. So don’t start yelling about Adam Morrison or David Sanders. Great players. But they didn’t meet the criteria. Until later …