By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

When you’re contemplating the best players in a college program you have to take into account whether or not you’re counting just their college career or if you’re including their professional one as well.

Michael Jordan is the perfect example of this; he’s arguably the greatest basketball player to ever live, but you can make a very legitimate argument that he wasn’t one of the five best collegiate players to attend North Carolina.

So, for today, I’m basing everything off a player’s tenure at Georgia and ignoring what transpired afterwards. It’s kind of like how I’ll give my wife a hard time about not helping me with dishes, while completely ignoring how she does everything else around the house.

The first one is pretty obvious, regardless of what the criteria is, and that’s Dominique Wilkins. The talent the two time All-American, SEC Player of the Year, and Basketball Hall of Famer possessed is oftentimes overlooked due to his highlight reel dunks, which is a shame, because he was an outstanding player.

Wilkins, the third overall was one of those rare athletes that left school after his junior year, which at the time was almost unheard of.

I’m going to cheat on the next two names and go with Vern Fleming and Jarvis Haves, due to the fact they were both two-time Associated Press All-Americans.

I was only a few years old when Fleming played at Georgia, but his All-American stays, combined with his contribution to Georgia’s only Final Four team as well as his 1984 Olympic gold medal is more than enough accolades to earn him a spot.

I did see Jarvis Hayes play and I always wondered how he ended up at schools like Western Carolina to begin his college career because he could play. Two years at Georgia, two First Team All-SEC awards along with the All-American hardware; not sure you can be more productive than that.

This whole article would be a joke and a sham if the all-time leader in points and assists was excluded from this list, so please give a warm welcome to Litterial Green. The former Bulldog point guard was three-time All-SEC selection and led the program to their first, and I believe only, SEC Championship in 1990. Plus, he may have the coolest name on this list, right next the one remaining player I’ve yet to mention.

With all due respect to Bob Lienhard (2 time Helms Association All American) and Yante Maten (2018 SEC Player of the Year and the one who undoubtedly would’ve had the coolest name on this list) I went with Kentavious-Caldwell Pope to round out the top five. I never saw Wilkins play, and I don’t remember Green, but KCP was the best Georgia player I’ve seen come through Athens.

Of course, the one omission from this list is the likely number one overall pick in this year’s draft, Anthony Edwards.

Look, Edwards was a really good player and may have the best NBA career of anyone from Georgia not named Wilkins, but I would still take any of the five I mentioned over him in terms of college performance.

I know Georgia doesn’t have the history of a lot of other major college basketball programs, but those five players are nothing to be ashamed of. Just don’t look at their professional careers too closely- there’s a reason I left those out.