by By Rich Winter
While the sports world was captivated by the Kansas City Royals and their dramatic, 9-8, come-from-behind win over the Oakland A’s that sent the Royals into the ALDS vs. the California Angels, the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma was more than captivated, as they were trying to get a peek at their hometown hero.
Lane Adams, an athletic hero back in Oklahoma for his baseball and basketball skills was recently called up to the big-leagues and now he’ll have a front-row seat as the Royals are in the playoffs for the first time in more than two decades.
Adams is an outfielder that did not see action in last night’s game.
He’s had several pretty solid season with the Royals AAA farm club and that allowed him to get called up to the bigs when the roster expanded to 40 players.
2014 AAA stats: 415 at bats, 68 runs, 114 hits, 27 doubles, 5 triples and 11 home runs. He also had 38 stolen bases to go with his .275 batting average.
After getting called up to the Royals, Adams played in six games with three at-bats while recording just one hit.
While baseball turned out to be his best sport, he was the fifth leading scorer in the history of Oklahoma for high school basketball.
Take a look at the scouting report on this kid coming out of high school:
Red Oak (6-4, senior, guard)
You can never use the word “explosive” enough when referring to Lane Adams. Whether it’s his ability score, throw down a dunk, jump for a rebound or lift himself off the ground for a jump shot, Adams was truly explosive in every way.
At 6-foot-4 and blessed with tremendous leaping ability and athleticism, Adams put it all to use throughout his career. It culminated in March when Red Oak defeated Garber for the Class B championship. Adams earned MVP honors and finished his career with 3,251 points, good for fifth all-time in Oklahoma history.
He could score those points in a variety of ways. First of all, he was a tremendous 3-point shooter as evident by his 46-percent success rate from beyond the arc. But his explosiveness also allowed him to get the basket as well as anyone in the state.
Whether he got to the rim to finish with one of his highlight-reel dunks or pulled up for the mid-range jumper, Adams was a sure bet to score. Even if he didn’t, you could bet on him getting to the foul line, where he made 91-percent of those attempts and was one of the top scorers anywhere in the state with just under 32 points an outing.
Perhaps his best showing came late in the regular season when No. 1 Red Oak traveled to No. 2 Stringtown. All of his abilities were on display as he and opposing star Tyrus McGee put on a show. Adams scored 44 points to lead his team to the tough road win.
Despite being from one of the state’s smallest schools, Adams was good enough to garner interest from a number of Division I schools. Scouts Inc. ranked him the No. 73 shooting guard in the country and had this to say: “Adams has the ability to change the scoreboard in a hurry. He is a terrific three-point shooter with excellent size. He spots up in transition or in the half court. He can shoot off the catch or dribble and pulls up off screens as well. He will be great at stretching the defense at the college level because he commands attention from the defense. Adams is also and good ball handler and decent passer when he draws a second defender.”
Adams may have garnered even more Division I basketball offers had he not also been a tremendous baseball player, one who led the Eagles to multiple state titles on the diamond.
Ultimately, Adams signed with Missouri State for basketball. However, his basketball career is at least temporarily on hold as he was also chosen by the Kansas City Royals in the 13th round of the Major League Baseball Draft and signed a professional contract.
Stat line: 31.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.0 steals, 91-percent FT
Now that’s impressive!
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