Winslow shooting guard 'mesmerized'

Throughout the summer, we will showcase our list - with the first 90 in no particular order. In August, columnist Greg Hansen will choose his top 10, with a column on each.

Isaac Bonds

Achievements

One of the greatest high school basketball players in state history, Bonds - a shooting guard - put Winslow High School on the map during the mid-1960s. Bonds averaged 35.7 points per game during his storied career, and 40.1 per game as a senior in 1964. Bonds said he would have averaged "five to six points more, at the least," if there had been a three-point line. Nobody in the state was better at following their missed shots, a skill Bonds perfected while practicing alone.

"He was effortless on the court," said Don Petranovich, Winslow's athletic director and the winningest girls basketball coach in state history. "You were mesmerized by him."

Bonds enrolled at NAU after high school and stayed a year before enlisting in the Air Force. He returned to Winslow two years after he was discharged, and became a railroad engineer before retiring in 2000. Winslow High School named its court after Bonds in 2004; he speaks to the Bulldogs' players every season.

"I think this year, if my old bones aren't aching so bad, I'll try to go out and have a little more input with them," Bonds said. "The reception I get from them, it does me as much good as it does them. It helps my energy level."

Hometown; age

Alamogordo, N.M.; 65

He said it

"How did I do that? To be honest with you, I couldn't tell you. It was a blessing from God. He gave me the talent. Basketball kind of saved me from myself. It inspired me to do other things. I wasn't very interested in school until I got interested in basketball in junior high. That was a big, big help; it helped me realize how much more important other things were."

Ryan Finley