"Jonathan has an unbelievable future ahead of him. He has good offensive weapons and is a good passer. Jonathan can post up inside and shoot from anywhere on the court. Not only is Jonathan a good basketball player, he is also a good person." -- Jonathans high school coach Dean Shaw
"People are going to be surprised at the level of his play. He can shoot with anybody. He can jump with anybody, and he can handle the ball. I think he has a chance to be a terrific NBA player."-- Pacers President Donnie Walsh
"He's a remarkable young man with a lot of promise and I look forward to seeing him realize it. It's just a matter of time before his body catches up with his talent. I think he'll be an NBA All-Star in three years. But as good as he is as a player, he's better as a person."-- Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury
"I'm just so proud of what he became, how he kept his integrity."-- Jonathan's mother, Willie Mae Bender
"Jonathan carries our father inside of him. It's part of what pushes him, what drives him. He won't talk much about it, even to me, but it's there. He knows he's been given a gift from God, and now he knows he has to work hard to do the most with it. I have no doubt that he will." -- Jonathan's half-brother, Donnell Spriggs
"I just think he has an opportunity to be a great basketball player. I think this kid is going to be unbelievable, and I don't want to let him slip through the cracks. He's got all the talent in the world. He's the most talented guy we have on the team." -- Larry Bird
"I've worked with over 1,000 professional athletes, but very few have had his kind of poise at that age. He has amazing dedication for someone so young. Give him a little maturity, with respect to his body, and the sky is the limit."-- Athletic trainer Mackie Shilstone
"He was one of the best high school players I had ever seen. I definitely though, skill-wise, it was there. He can dribble it and he can shoot it. He was making plays off the dribble. He has the total package." -- P.J. Brown
"It's scary. He's gonna amaze some people. He's gonna catch some people sleeping." -- Travis Best
"He's a good kid, and works hard. He's a winner. He's gonna be very important to this team in the future." -- Al Harrington
"He's gonna be a heck of a basketball player for a long time to come. But he needs time. So we have to be patient with him, understand that he's still a kid. He's a heck of a kid, and he works extremely hard. He's got a tremendous future ahead of him." -- Mark Jackson
"He's hard to classify. We haven't seen a guy like him come along in quite some time." -- Rick Carlisle
"He's of the mind-set to be great. Nothing less than being an All-Star in the next three or four years will satisfy his desire. It's just innate ability. Usually those things don't fail you. If you're born with a gift, it's there." -- ABCD Camp director Sonny Vaccaro
"Anytime you can make it to the NBA when you're 18 years old, you have to have game. It's just a matter of harnessing that game and keep working on it. As long as he does that, he's gonna be able to be a player in this league." -- Jalen Rose
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