Trevor Ariza may have starred in Los Angeles in both high school and college—playing at Westchester High before his lone year at UCLA—but he’s not necessarily going to push his son Tajh, a highly touted class of 2026 recruit, down the same path.
“The decision is really his,” says the elder Ariza, a former NBA champ who spent 18 years in the league. “It all depends on how they recruit him; they are not recruiting me. Whatever I did at that time was a completely different scenario and situation. The schools that are recruiting him, they have to do their job.”
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Tajh—who already has offers from his father’s alma mater, USC and Washington—was one of many recognizably named prospects who recently showcased their talents at the Flight Club Invitational, a tournament for several top high schools that took place in Santa Monica over the last weekend of October.
It’s not uncommon for basketball stars to congregate in Los Angeles. But while the Clippers and Lakers have been loading up on MVPs, future Hall of Famers and top-75 talents, the up-and-coming generation of stars showcased their own skills against one another at the FCI. “It was really fun, it gets the city going, the buzz was amazing,” says Ariza.
Tajh was accompanied by several other top prospects at the tournament—including Alijah Arenas (Class of ’26), Bryce James (Class of ’25) and Mercy Miller (Class of ’24), the sons of Gilbert, LeBron and Master P, respectively. “It was really good for the kids, because they get to see the type of environment they want to play in on a smaller scale,” Ariza says.
Arenas, who attends Chatsworth High, also has an offer from UCLA, as well as several other schools such as Kansas. James has an offer from Ohio State should he choose to return to his father’s home state. And Miller, a four-star guard, is committed to Houston. All attend high school in the greater LA area.
The tournament itself took place at Crossroads Academy. (Aidan Croshere, the son of Pacers fan favorite Austin, is among those on the school’s basketball team.) Flight Club, the sneaker store famous for its long lines down Fairfax Avenue, recently announced its partnership with Crossroads as the outfitter for the basketball team and coaching staff. (Those saving up for a pair of the Kobe 6 Protro All Stars can watch them on the feet of Crossroads high schoolers this upcoming season, courtesy of the sneaker store.)
“It was a great challenge and experience,” says Tajh, who attends St. Bernard. “Bryce, Alijah, we’re all in the same area, so I have to see them eventually. It makes me more motivated to dominate.”
For now, Trevor—who battled against the likes of James and Arenas during his playing days—is enjoying watching his son go up against his contemporaries’ children. He says giving pointers to what feels like a younger version of himself is almost like “playing a video game.”
“It’s really dope, man,” says Trevor. “It’s like watching your younger self go against their younger selves. I feel like they have elements of us, they’re our DNA, their bodies move the same. The thing that you can’t do is think for them. They have their own thought process. The way that they paint their canvas is completely different than what we paint ours.”
As for the Los Angeles basketball scene, Trevor does push back on the notion that the current generation of Southern California talent directly compares to the one he was a part of two decades ago.
“The L.A. basketball scene? All the kids are going to the schools that are not in L.A.,” says Trevor, referring to the academies in the Los Angeles suburbs. “We can’t talk about L.A. basketball unless we start talking about the L.A. city schools.”
