Family lineage aside, it’s almost perfect that junior Reid Albright is a Chatham Central Bear.
It’s just like Albright that the cellular service gets spotty and street lights are virtually non-existent driving towards Chatham Central on NC-902.
It’s just like Albright that Chatham Central enrolls less than 350 students.
It’s also just like Albright that Chatham Central seems to be its loudest on weeknights in its basketball gym.
On Jan. 12, the second-place Bears hosted conference front-runner Northwood in the teams’ first meeting of the season. Albright needed just five points to reach a career total of 1,000, and at 997 with just over a minute left in the first quarter, junior Luke Gaines made the grand assist.
After the three-pointer hit the bottom of the net, Chatham Central fans stood to their feet and cheered on as head coach Robert Burke called timeout to recognize Albright for his accomplishment. It was also just like Albright that the Bears were leading the Drake Powell-led Chargers, 14-6, at the time.
“You don’t have too many people in a high school career that makes 1,000 points,” Burke said. “To get it in the middle of his junior season is a tremendous accomplishment for him.”
As loud as the gym was for Albright’s 1,000th point, it was just one of the eye-opening heights he has reached this season. The 6-foot-1 guard, who some may see as short of height and short of words, hasn’t been short of points in a low-key all-time season, and career, at Chatham Central.
Validation
With a quick glance at the box scores, it’s no secret that Albright has been on an offensive tear this year, leading the Bears in scoring. But, just look deeper and find that his numbers stand at or near the top of not just the conference, but also the state.
As of Monday, Albright is averaging 23.8 points per game which is second in points per game in the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference, third in points per game in all of 1A East and 21st in the same stat for the entire NCHSAA.
“I think I’m pretty good at getting to my spots, knocking down open shots and finding the cutting lanes,” Albright said. “Being the (No. 3) scorer in 1A East, that’s pretty good. That means a lot.”
Looking at the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A standings, one might say that Albright isn’t playing against the best of the best, but one thing that he found out about himself during this season’s first Northwood game is that it takes the No. 4 player in the country at the time to slow him down.
Considering Northwood’s abundance of talent and size and how they’d dominated the conference up to that point, Chatham Central wasn’t supposed to have a 16-10 lead after the first quarter. The Bears gave themselves a chance by slowing the game down and hitting open threes, but after Northwood made the adjustment to have 6-foot-6 Powell faceguard Albright, the game slowly began to turn.
Albright, who usually leaves the gym as Chatham Central’s leading scorer, finished the night with only seven points, and the Bears lost, 42-66.
“No doubt about it, (Albright) is definitely up there with the top players in the county and even in the state in 1A,” Burke said. “I told Reid when it happened (that) it took the best player in the conference to come in here and shut you down…They could go to any five on that court, but they picked Drake.”
The Difference
Albright models his game after Luka Dončić, a star guard for the Dallas Mavericks.
“He’s like really slow, but he somehow gets past people, and he’s a good playmaker too,” Albright said. “He’s a good all-around player.”
For the most part, that describes Albright’s approach to basketball. He’s not a burner with speed, he’s not the most athletic and he’s not just a scorer — he averages a near double-double with a high tendency to crash the boards, and he won’t hesitate to hit an open teammate.
But, that’s what makes Luka, Luka. What makes Reid Albright, 2023-24 Reid Albright specifically, is what people don’t praise Dončić for, which is his first step.
“Last year, his first step was not quick,” Albright’s mother Aedrin said. “This year, his first step is much quicker than it was last year, and a lot of that comes from maturity, but also a lot of it comes from training.”
Albright credits that small tweak, as well as an improved leaping ability and mid-range game, for the major jump he’s taken from his sophomore to junior year.
Last season, he averaged 19.8 points per game with only one 30-point performance in 25 games. Only 15 games into this season, Albright has scored at least 30 points four times already.
That improved “foot speed”, as Burke describes it, has helped Albright expand his scoring abilities in a way that he can now blow by defenders and get into the paint quickly, giving him an opportunity to pop a jumper, continue for a layup or draw in defenders to set up teammates.
“If he keeps that up, he’s going to be a force to reckon with next year, also,” Burke said.
Legacy in the Making
Chatham County and the Chatham Central community has seen an Albright, or Murray, rather, do great things in the No. 30 Bears jersey before.
Chatham Central girls head coach Aedrin Albright was a stellar athlete for the Bears in the 90s, lettering in five sports and earning conference player of the year for both basketball and cross country. She earned the Pat Best Memorial Reward as the NCHSAA Female Athlete of the Year as a senior in 1995, and she finished her basketball career as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,766 points.
Looking at her accolades, it seems as if her son has a long way to go.
“I don’t like to brag about myself, but I told him he don’t have two banners in the gym like I do,” Albright joked.
Said Albright, “I love the fact that he’s at Chatham Central playing where I played.”
Even with him walking her path, she doesn’t want Albright to feel pressure based on what she did for the school.
Mom is right about the banners, but with the season, and the career he’s having, her son has already made a name for himself in Chatham Central history with still so much left to write.
Burke projects that if he continues to score at the rate he’s at now, Albright will be at least a top three scorer in school history.
Right now, Albright is also leading the Bears in one of their best seasons in school history as they sit at 14-2 overall and 8-1 in the conference as of Monday. With how they’ve fared in both non-conference and conference play so far, Chatham Central looks to be a tough out when the 1A playoffs come around, considering the Bears have competed with everybody on their schedule so far.
For Albright, this year won’t be the end-all, be-all since he will have another go as a Bear after this season. He might not say much, but he’s not shy about wanting to be “the best Bear to come out of (Chatham Central).”
The best way to know if that’s the case is to go to Chatham Central’s basketball gym and watch his game do the talking.