Portal:Chicago/Selected biography/136

Anthony Davis, Jr. (born March 11, 1993) is an American college basketball player at the University of Kentucky. He has completed his freshman season for the 2011–12 Kentucky Wildcats and declared for the 2012 NBA Draft. He plays power forward and center. He was a 2012 NCAA Consensus First team All-American (unanimous) and was the 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season blocks leader. He established Southeastern Conference single-season blocked shots and NCAA Division I freshman blocked shots records. He has also earned the national Freshman, Defensive Player and Big Man awards. In addition, he has been named the 2012 National Player of the Year by various organizations, earning the Oscar Robertson Trophy, the Adolph Rupp Trophy, the Associated Press Player of the Year, Naismith Award, Sporting News Player of the Year and John R. Wooden Award. He was the Southeastern Conference's player, freshman and defensive player of the year. He helped lead Kentucky to an undefeated 2011–12 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season and was the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player when Kentucky won the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. As a high school basketball player for Chicago's Perspectives Charter School, he was unknown nationally and locally after three seasons of play in the lightly regarded Blue Division of the Chicago Public High School League. A "late bloomer", he emerged into prominence in April 2010 (the spring of his junior year) after a growth spurt and exposure on an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) traveling team made him a blue chip prospect. Within months, he was the top-rated player in the national class of 2011 by Scout.com and ESPN.com and the number two player by Rivals.com. He was a high school All-American by every major selector (ESPN, Jordan, McDonald's, Parade, USA Today) and earned Co-MVP honors at the 2011 Jordan Brand Classic.