Dion Waiters' basketball career has been steeped in mystery, a portrait of potential, intrigue, tragedy and second chances.

He accepted a basketball scholarship to Syracuse University before he played in his first high school game.

He was denied admittance to two of the Philadelphia Catholic League's premier schools.

He deals with having three cousins and his best friend killed in violent crimes.

And now, after spending time at four schools in three years, the soon-to-be senior at Life Center Academy in Burlington could become a McDonald's all-American.

Lamont Peterson, a former assistant coach at Memphis and part of Tyreke Evans' inner circle, thinks the 6-foot-4, 215-pound guard is the high-school version of NBA all-star Dwyane Wade.

"He is a true urban legend," the coach said. "That's how deep he is. Everyone in Philly has heard about Dion. . . . You heard he's this and that.But you would never see him."

Waiters, 17, began showing signs of great potential as a youngster growing up in South Philadelphia.

He wanted to follow in the footsteps of close friend and Syracuse guard Scoop Jardine. His goal was to play basketball at Neumann-Goretti, where Jardine went to high school, but he was denied entry as a freshman.

Waiters will be the first to admit that he wasn't exactly a choir boy. He, however, denies that he stayed in trouble, missed school, and hung out late at night.

"I don't know why people got my image messed up," said Waiters, who lived with Jardine while in eighth grade. "I used to go to school every day.

"I don't know why people are scared of me. All I used to do was just play ball. I've never been arrested. I never been in anything."

Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale and assistant coach John Moscoe declined comment on why he wasn't accepted.

"Neumann told me to go to Bartram for the first semester and make sure my grades were right and I could transfer to Neumann," Waiters said.

But it never came to that.

Waiters, who was scheduled to play basketball at Bartram, didn't get along with a group of guys at the school. And before he had a chance to play in a game, his mother, Monique Brown, had him transfer to Southern.

"I was getting into a couple of little fights," Waiters said of his four-month stay at Bartram. "The fights weren't really on my behalf. It was my friends that I was with. And being as though I was with them, I didn't want to see them get hurt."

Waiters liked Southern. Perhaps a little too much.

He admits to being on cruise control in the classroom. That's why Brown decided early on that her son would leave Southern once the school year was complete.

"I just wasn't going to get the right education," said Waiters, who didn't play at Southern. "All of my friends were there. I was distracted."