Profile · Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Devin Lamar Harris
Born Milwaukee; Wauwatosa East class of 2001 (jersey No. 20 retired); Wisconsin Badgers and 15-year NBA guard; 2009 All-Star
$74 million
Devin Lamar Harris is the Wauwatosa East point guard whose No. 20 came down in the school gym in 2007 with Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson in the building and students yelling from the bleachers. Born in Milwaukee on February 27, 1983, to Terry and Julie Harris, he grew up as the klutz his mother remembered, collecting black eyes and busted lips, then as the kid who put 47 points on the board, went undefeated in the regular season as a senior, and beat Fond du Lac's Travis Diener for Wisconsin Mr. Basketball in 2001. He played one season of volleyball, made all-conference, and dropped it to live in the gym. Bo Ryan recruited him to Wisconsin after Dick Bennett retired. School records still cited by Tosa East include those 47 points in a game, 162 free throws in a season, three conference titles, and All-Conference honors three years running. Injuries after his sophomore year kept him off the summer-camp circuit that makes recruiting reputations, so the senior explosion had to do the work. The Washington Wizards took him fifth overall in 2004 and flipped him to Dallas. Fifteen NBA seasons followed, including an All-Star trip with the New Jersey Nets in 2009. On February 12, 2007, Tosa East retired his jersey the same night Tony Smith's No. 34 came down: two NBA guards on one suburban wall. Harris told the crowd he was happy to represent the school and would keep making them proud. Milwaukee is on the birth certificate; the gym that kept the jersey is the hometown argument.