Try to Guess These Big-Time Ballers Before They Were NBA Stars

Griffin played basketball at Oklahoma Christian School during high school winning multiple state titles. He then played at University of Oklahoma before moving on to the NBA.

Love was a top player while in high school at Lake Oswego High School in Oregon. He then played for UCLA before heading into the NBA.

Chris Bosh played at Lincoln High School in Dallas, TX and led his team to the Class 4A State title. He was named the High School Player of the Year by Basketball America.

James Harden played for Artesia High School in Lakewood, CA. He led his high school team to the California State title his junior and senior years, and as a senior, was named a Parade and McDonald's All-American player.

Kendrick Perkins played at Clifton J. Ozen High School in Beaumont, TX and led his team to four consecutive district championships and one State championship. As a senior, he averaged 27.5 points, 16.4 rebounds and 7.8 blocked shots per game. He originally committed to play college ball at the University of Memphis, but opted instead to head directly to the NBA from high school.

Lin played basketball growing up and got the state title his senior year at Palo Alto High School. He played for Harvard.

Mario Chalmers played at Bartlett High School in Anchorage, Alaska. He was named 4A State Player of the Year three times in a row.

Russell Westbrook played for Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, CA. He did not start on Varsity until his junior year and had a breakout senior year when he had a growth spurt. That year he averaged 25.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 2.3 assists per game and led his team to a 25-4 record.

Paul Pierce has played his entire career with the Boston Celtics, and was named the MVP of the 2008 NBA Finals when the Celts won the title. In 2000, Pierce was stabbed multiple times during an incident at a club, and didn't miss a single game that season. Check out this video, Paul Pierce's Journey, to learn more about this legendary player.

Here is yet another "then" photo that looks like it was taken yesterday. This pic of LeBron James is from 2001, and he really does look the same—even the smile—except for the facial hair. James is one of the biggest stars of the NBA.

Once again, "then" wasn't that long ago—for Derrick Rose, our "then" photo is from 2007, his senior year of high school. Rose plays for the Chicago Bulls, the team that for many of us will always be known as "the team Michael Jordan played for."

That's Chris Paul, who is an L.A. Clipper. The reason "then" looks so much like "now" is because "then" was only 2001. It's almost as if someone took Paul's old pic and Photoshopped a beard. But the newly minted Californian is all grown up now with a child of his own. Here's a cute video of Chris Paul and his son at a press conference.

School Years: Nash's status as an NBA "nice guy" can perhaps be traced back to this photo. He wasn't perfect, though; his parents sent him to St. Michaels University School on Vancouver Island because they were concerned about his grades. Snakkle Snippet: Nash's high school basketball coach Ian Hyde-Lay knew he had a "diamond in the rough," but since St. Michaels isn't exactly an NCAA Division I feeder school, Hyde-Lay had a hard time getting anyone to take a look. They approached 30 or 40 schools, says Hyde-Lay: "Indiana, Virginia, Florida State, Maryland, Arizona, Washington. Almost all of them just blew it off. He's got a shoebox full of letters saying thanks but no thanks." Check out this really cool link to his high school coach talking about Nash here: He ended up at Santa Clara. Now: At 37, Nash "leads the league in assists (again) on a mediocre team that won't make the playoffs," says Bleacher Report's Vin Getz. It's hard to imagine anything really bothering him, though. In 2006, when Nelly Furtado included his name in her song "Promiscuous" ("Is your game MVP like Steve Nash"), he simply responded that he was "flattered" to be mentioned in the song, adding that he was "completely in love with my wife and two little baby girls," according to Page Six. It probably helped his home life that Furtado quickly acknowledged that she was only giving Nash a shout-out because they were both Canadians. Nash is also a budding film director. With Ezra Holland, he codirected the short film Into the Wind for ESPN's 30 for 30.

• See "Nash kicks in a basket"
• See "Steve Nash with the amazing no-look pass to Grant Hill!"

School Years: Although the South Carolina native didn't play organized basketball until high school, Garnett transferred to Chicago's Farragut Career Academy as a 6'11" senior and was named USA Today's national high school player of the year and Illinois' Mr. Basketball. Snakkle Snippet: After watching Garnett in a Farragut game in 1995, then-sportscaster and former Indiana Pacers coach Dick Versace told the Chicago Tribune, "The last time I've seen a center like that was Bill Walton. I do think he should play a year or two in college first, but he is a definite NBA prospect." Big Break: Garnett ignored Versace's advice and skipped college to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves, becoming the first player drafted out of high school in 20 years. Now: Since the Celtics nabbed him in 2007 in a seven-for-one deal—Minnesota got five players plus two of Boston's first-round draft picks, the most players swapped for a single player in league history—Garnett has helped Boston win a national championship (2008) and a conference championship (2010) after a more-than-20-year drought.

• See Kevin Garnett finally get his ring
• See Kevin Garnett in high school

School Years: Judging by this photo, Kevin Durant liked money when he was a senior at Montrose Christian Academy in Maryland. (To be fair, who doesn't?) The big man with an over-7-foot wingspan quickly acquired quite a bit of cash—after just one year of college hoops at Texas, he was drafted second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics in 2007, which led to a $60 million endorsement deal with Nike. Oh, and the Sonics probably paid him a little something as well. Snakkle Snippet: The Memphis Grizzlies' Greivis Vasquez, when he was a star at Maryland, told Sporting News what it was like to play on the same team as Durant at Montrose Christian: "Man, that was amazing. That was something I will never forget. He just is such a nice kid, he doesn't even realize how good he is, and that's what makes him so good." Now: The Seattle Sonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder after his rookie year. Apparently Durant wasn't bothered by the change of location—in July 2010, he signed a five-year contract extension worth a reported $86 million.  

• See Kevin Durant's game winner against the Knicks
• See Kevin Durant play in high school

School Years: Like his idol Michael Jordan, Wade didn't get much attention as a sophomore, but that changed after he shot up four inches before his junior year at Chicago's Harold L. Richards High School. Big Break: After leading Marquette to the Final Four in 2003, he decided to skip his senior year and enter the NBA draft. He's been with Miami ever since. Snakkle Snippet: Vin Getz, a columnist at Bleacher Report, tells Snakkle that Wade is "the true leader of the Miami Heat."  

• See the Top 10 Dwyane Wade plays of the 2011 season
• See Dwyane Wade during the 1999 high school state playoffs

School Years: "Melo" did not have a mellow childhood growing up—his dad died of cancer when he was two, and he saw in real life what we see on The Wire after his family moved from New York City to Baltimore when he was eight. After shooting up five inches in the summer before his junior year at Towson Catholic High School, he was named metro player of the year by The Baltimore Sun in 2001. Big Break: He set an NCAA record for most points (33) by a freshman in the 2003 Final Four game against the University of Texas before leading Syracuse to its first-ever tournament title, then went straight to pro. Now: Melo now plays for the New York Knicks.

• See Carmelo Anthony's sick spin move on LeBron
• See Carmelo play in high school

Snakkle Exclusive: Kobe Bryant: "I knew him when I was in middle school" Amy—then an opinionated middle schooler—met Kobe Bryant and his agent on an Amtrak train in 1996, the day after the senior at Lower Merion High School (outside Philadelphia) had signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. "There were these two tall guys sitting in front of me and they had a newspaper," Amy tells Snakkle. "I went up to them and asked if I could borrow the sports page." Amused, they asked why; Amy promptly informed them that she was a basketball player and a big Knicks fan who had fallen asleep before the end of the previous night's game. (This is pre-Internet, people.) "They asked me if I knew who Kobe Bryant was," Amy continues. "I said that I didn't. Then they asked if I thought high school athletes should go to college before going to the NBA. I quite confidently told him that I thought it was really important that everybody go to college, and that I was going to go to college, and that he should too." Kobe apparently got a kick out of the cute kid, revealing his true identity by showing her a photo of himself and Brandy in the paper (Bryant was on his way to Philly to take the pop star to his prom). "At that point I was finally impressed," Amy tells us, "because I definitely knew who Brandy was." Bryant signed the article "Dear Amy, best of luck with your basketball career."   Do you have a story or photo about you and a celebrity before they were famous? Send us a SNAKKLE!