
Since the first Mr. Basketball award was given in 1975, 19 of the 45 winners (42 percent) have been African American.
The Miss Basketball award, given since 1978 β including a period from 1985-1989 when two players were honored every year, one from Class A and Class AA respectively β nine of 51 winners (18 percent) selected have been African American.
Greg Downing (Duluth Central, 1979, co-winner), Redd Overton (Minneapolis North, 1981); Brett McNeal (Minneapolis North, 1985); Derek Reuben (Minneapolis North, 1988); Robert Mestas (Minneapolis Roosevelt, 1995); Khalid El-Amin (Minneapolis North (1997); Darius Lane (Totino Grace, 1998); Adam Boone (Minnetonka, 2000); Kris Humphries (Hopkins, 2003); Jordan Taylor (Benilde St. Margaretβs, 2008); Royce White (Hopkins, 2009); Joe Coleman (Hopkins, 2011); Syani Chambers (Hopkins, 2012); Quinton Hooker (Park Center, 2013); Tyus Jones (Apple Valley, 2014); JT Gibson (Champlain Park, 2015); Amir Coffey (Hopkins, 2016); McKinley Wright (Champlain Park, 2017); Tre Jones (Apple Valley, 2018).
Hopkins has had five players (Humphries, White, Coleman, Chambers, Coffey) win the Award, followed by Minneapolis North (Overton, McNeal, Rueben, El-Amin) with four, while Champlain Park (Gipson, Wright) and Apple Valley (Tyus Jones, Tre Jones) each have two apiece.
Of the 19 winners, 11 (Downing β79, Overton β80, El-Aminβ95-β97, Humphries β02, Taylor β03, White β09, Coleman β11, Chambers β11, Tyus Jones β14, Amir Coffey β16, Tre Jones, β18) led there teams to state championships. All went on to play Division I basketball.
Mya Whitmore (Hill Murray, Class AA, 1987), Tamara Moore (Minneapolis North, 1998);
Mauri Horton (Minneapolis North, 1999); Shannon Bolden (Marshall, 2002); Jenna Smith
(Bloomington Kennedy, 2006); Angel Robinson (St. Paul Central, 2007); Tayler Hill
(Minneapolis South, 2009); Rachel Banham (Lakeville North, 2011); Nia Hollie (Hopkins, 2016).
Minneapolis North had back-to-back winners (Moore, Horton) while 8 of the 9 (Moore β98, Horton β99, Bolden β01, Smith β05, Robinson β07, Hill β09, Banham β10, and Hollie β16) have won State Championships. All 9 went on to play Division I basketball.

Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald is a contributing columnist at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.