Here’s Norman Powell at the Elite 24 event that we helped put on while with ESPN in 2010. For the 2011 season for Lincoln of San Diego, he was first team all-state. Photo: Scott Kurtz.
This weekend’s appearance by future Hall of Famer Kawhi Leonard in the NBA All-Star Game will mark the seventh time he’s been chosen to be in the event. California also will be repped by a first time All-Star with Norman Powell from Lincoln of San Diego. We thought it was good time to recall Norman’s high school years with another nod to Kawhi.
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California high school alums have been in every NBA All-Star Game except three and that is continuing for 2026 with Kawhi Leonard from M.L. King of Riverside and Norman Powell from Lincoln of San Diego.
Kawhi, who has been NBA Finals MVPs for two different teams (Spurs & Raptors), is in the All-Star Game for the seventh time and the second time in three years. Injuries have likely prevented additional appearances. The 2009 Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year led M.L. King to a big win that season vs Mater Dei of Santa Ana, but Westchester of Los Angeles was the D1 state champion. Powell’s team at Lincoln was in D2 the next season and did win a CIF state title.
The two Californians also went to two different California colleges — Kawhi to San Diego State and Norman to UCLA — but they were teammates in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors and had the experience of winning the NBA championship together (which was the finals when the Golden State Warriors lost both Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant to serious injuries).
Leonard and Powell also were teammates with the L.A. Clippers for the 2022 through 2025 seasons and the Clippers also will be the host team for this year’s All-Star Game played at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood (the arena that houses a jersey from every high school basketball team in California, including the ones from up north). Powell was traded in the last off-season to the Miami Heat.
This season with the Heat, Powell has continued to be one of the NBA’s top three-point shooters and has averaged 23.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. He was named to his first NBA All-Star Game as a reserve for one of the two U.S. teams in the USA vs The World format, but after Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks dropped from the World team due to injury the NBA moved Powell to the World team and replaced him on the USA Stripes team with De’Aaron Fox of the San Antonio Spurs. Norman has family ties with the island nation of Jamaica.
Leonard has seen others from the Clippers’ roster depart in addition to Powell, most notably Lakewood Artesia’s James Harden, who has 11 NBA All-Star appearances (tied for the most among California players). Harden recently went to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a trade. Leonard is averaging a career high 27.9 ppg (top 10 in the league) and is leading the NBA in steals at 2.1 per game.
Powell’s CIF state championship season at Lincoln came in his junior season. The Hornets under third-year head coach Jason Bryant faced a St. Francis of Mountain View team that was led by Tyler Johnson, a guard who later played in the NBA most famously between 2015 and 2019 with the Miami Heat. Powell was described with “two thunderous dunks” in the third quarter that sparked Lincoln to a 74-59 victory. He scored 24 points, but senior teammate Victor Dean also scored 24 points. Lincoln finished with a 32-2 record and arguably could have been higher than No. 11 in the final overall State TOP 20 rankings, but was placed behind No. 10 Centennial of Compton due to a head-to-head loss. Centennial had lost in the CIF D3 regional playoffs to D3 state champion Serra of Gardena.
Kawhi Leonard led M.L. King to CIF Southern Section title in 2009. Photo: Scott Kurtz.
Dean was later named as the 2009-10 State Grid-Hoop Player of the Year and also generally received higher individual postseason basketball honors than Powell. Norman was on the 2009-10 all-state juniors team.
As a senior for the 2010-11 season, Lincoln lost in the CIF D2 regional playoffs to Summit of Fontana, but Norman had a standout season and finished with a scoring average of 20.4 ppg. He wasn’t the CIF San Diego Section Player of the Year in favor of Hoover High’s Angelo Chol, who set state records for blocking shots and was a prolific scorer and rebounder.
Regardless of the local honors, Powell still landed a spot on the top 10 overall group among the annual Cal-Hi Sports All-State teams. As longtime boys hoops editor Ronnie Flores wrote at the time: “When Powell was on, he could change the complexion of a game like no other player in the state.” Until the loss to Summit, he also was considered a finalist to be the Mr. Basketball honoree.
Among all-time great players from the San Diego Section, Powell’s all-star selection and the seasons he’s had puts him up there among the best ever. The only other San Diego Section player who’s been in the NBA All-Star Game, in fact, has been the late, great Bill Walton from Helix of La Mesa.
We’re pretty certain that Norman would think being on any list of San Diego Section greats alongside Walton is very special.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle.
