Luis Felipe López is a Dominican retired professional basketball player from Santiago, Dominican Republic. He starred in United Stateshigh school and college basketball. López then played for four seasons in the National Basketball Association, but with far less success. He has since played for teams in a half dozen countries, as well as in the Continental Basketball Association in the U.S. Most recently, he has been a broadcaster with Spanish-language networks. In High School, López was a consensus All-American, and regarded as one of the elite High School players in the USA. After López elected to attend St. John’s, he featured in a ‘Sports Illustrated’ article on the abundance of High School talent about to enter the ‘Big East’ conference. ‘Big East Is Back’ declared ‘Sports Illustrated’, with a feature article on López, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, and Chris Herren. In High School, after a spectacular Freshman year, López was selected for a US youth team which toured Australia. López was the leading scorer for the US Youth team, which went 11-1 on the tour. The only loss for the US team came against an Australian Youth All-Star team. López scored 31 pts in that game, and averaged 34.6 ppg for the tour. Australia’s top Junior talent, led by Brad Buccella and Jimmy Beer, won a close contest 86-84. López got off a desperation three pointer as time expired, which just missed. Despite the single loss, López was lauded as a future superstar, and went on to complete a glittering High School career at Rice High School. López stayed in New York, attending St John’s. Sonny Vacarro, the same guru who made Michael Jordan synonymous with Nike, signed López to an Adidas shoe contract. Vacarro also signed another young phenom, Kobe Bryant. Vaccaro had left Nike on bad terms, and was trying to increase the popularity of Adidas in the Nike dominated USA basketball shoe market. López and Bryant were chosen by Adidas as young future stars. Bryant was seen as a bigger risk, as he was going straight to the NBA from High School. However, López never became the NBA star he was predicted to be. Bryant helped increase the popularity of Adidas in the US, before paying $10 million to break his contract with Adidas to switch to Nike. López was regarded by ‘Slam’ magazine as one of the best NCAA Division One College players of the 1990’s, after a strong Freshman year at St. John’s. López struggled somewhat in his Sophomore and Junior seasons, before averaging 17.8 points per game in his Senior Year of College. López was a first round draft pick for the San Antonio Spurs, being the 24th player selected in the 1998 draft.
Early life and high school career
Felipe's father, who played amateur baseball in the Dominican Republic, and his family immigrated to the U.S. when he was 14. López played high school basketball at Rice High School in New York City, where he followed New York high school player Dean Meminger in becoming one of the most highly touted recruits in U.S. high school history. The guard made many All-American lists in 1994, earning Player of the Year honors from Gatorade, USA Today, Parade, and many others.
Collegiate career
López appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated before he had played his first college game. He also appeared with Jim Brown and Jackie Joyner-Kersee at a conference along with then-President Bill Clinton. López finished his freshman season for the St. John's Red Storm with an 17.8 points per game scoring average. He earned a spot on the All-Big East Rookie Team and All-Big East Third Team. His numbers dipped slightly the next two years, bottoming out at 15.9 ppg as a junior. As a senior he averaged 17.6 ppg and garnered All-Big East First Team honors. He finished his career with 1,927 points, placing him fourth all-time in St. John's history behind former players Chris Mullin, Malik Sealy, and D'Angelo Harrison and sixth in Big East history with 1,222 conference points, while also ranking seventh all time in steals, 14th in assists, and 20th in rebounds. He also holds the St. John's record for most three-pointers made in a single season and in a career.
