One of the great things about the FIBA Youth Tournaments is the opportunity is to see the future stars, today and that is once again the case in Tel Aviv as Israel hosts one of the Under-18 groups which includes France, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Portugal and of course the host nation.

Each team is littered with potential players who may feature in their own domestic league, the Euroleague or perhaps even the NBA. A number of players have already caught the eyes of scouts prior to the competition whether it’s Israel’s Yuval Levin from Maccabi Tel Aviv, France’s Daryl Doualla who is part of ASVEL’s youth department, Athanasios Bazinas from Greece, Lithuania’s Emilis Butkus and top ranked Henri Veesaar from Estonia.

However, two players who have caught the eye both for different reasons at the Drive In Arena this week have been Israel’s Ron Zipper and France’s Jazz Gardner.

Zipper has come out of absolutely nowheres and had never been a part of the National Team program. In fact, the 18-year old Zipper has been playing for a 3rd division club in Ashkelon as well as a second division youth league and barely raised an eyebrows.

So far over the first three games of this tournament he has been absolutely ripping up the floor averaging 26 points a game while going 19/36 (52.8%) from 3. But it hasn’t just been his shot that has been falling, it’s been his overall game going 5/5 from the line late against France while scoring 10 points to give Israel a hard earned win.

Gardner, whose mother was born in France, is growing up in the United States and attends one of the top basketball schools in the country, Los Altos where he is about to enter his Junior year. Colleges are already knocking on his door and at 7 feet, 225 lbs with all around game, there’s no reason why any University program wouldn’t want to snatch up the son of a Jelani Gardner who played in Europe over the course of his international career which also included a short stay in Israel back in 1999.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Los Altos coach Jeff Lucas described Gardner as, “A tall, lanky guy makes you think of Kevin Durant, but not quite there yet. He’s like some of the better point-center, point-forward type guys like a Nikola Jokic. … He can do a little bit of everything, he’s pretty smart with the ball and sees the floor really well.”

Those are some pretty nice players to be compared to for sure, but after seeing Jazz live and in person, there’s no reason to think that the big man won’t one day be playing alongside some of the greats. It’s clear the skill set and intelligence is there as well as being a well mannered young man, Jazz has a bright future ahead of him especially when he says that his role model is in fact his father.

Jazz spoke about what he offers on the court which shows why schools like Kansas, Memphis, UCLA, USC and other top schools are interested in the prodigy, “I can shoot, I can dribble, I can bring a lot of different things like rim protection. I’m still working on trying to defend guards, that’s work in progress. i have a 3-level scoring and I can do pretty much everything.”

Over the next year, Jazz who is moving up the rankings for his class, wants to continue to hone his skills as he looks to reach the highest of heights, “I’ll be working on creating my shot off of the dribble so that I can be more dominant in my game and work on my strength and flexibility.”

As for representing France at the U18 tournament, Gardner is honored to have the privilege to be a part of Les Bleus, “It’s a dream come true to be honest with you. This is a blessing from God. I always dreamt as a kid to play for my home country France. I’m happy to be here and happy for the opportunity.”

Now, how can you not love a player with the name Jazz!

Zipper who burst onto the scene in this competition, has become the darling of the Israeli team as his teammate Adam Scherbakov said, “He has surprised everyone, it’s a Cinderella story. I don’t know if you realize this but he came from a 2nd division youth team and I had a chance to play against him in school. He absolutely destroyed us. he has a bright future ahead.”

Zipper himself talked about his tournament to date and credits the mental coach Lior Lipshitz for much of his success, “It’s great to come out each game and give another great performance. Lior Lipshitz has helped us tremendously, including preparation each and every day. It’s incredible.”

The fans have also been a crucial aspect of Zipper’s play, “It’s what I have dreamed at night. I’ve worked hard for this and to be here now is just incredible. To any child who wants to succeed, you’ll get there bye working hard.”

It’s never easy to get noticed when you are from the periphery of the country and Zipper acknowledged that this in itself is a massive success story, “Coming from Ashkelon is really tough. At my first practices it was tough for me to show my abilities but slowly but surely with the help of the professional staff everything came together.”

As for who Zipper models his game after, the guard compared himself to one of the best shooters the game of basketball has ever seen. “James Harden, with all of the step-backs and we are both lefties. That’s my role model, despite him never passing the ball,” Zipper said with a laugh.

Two players, totally different upbringings but have a number of things in common; the love for the game of basketball and the desire to continue to improve and reach the top level of their sport.