Former Overbrook basketball star commits to St. John’s

Nurideen Lindsey is not returning to Philly, but he'll be close.

Lindsey, a scoring-machine guard for three seasons (through 2008) at Overbrook High, and now at Redlands Community College in El Rino, Okla., has made an oral commitment to St. John's basketball program.

Lindsey at first committed to La Salle in September of his junior year. That promise dissolved after he transferred to a prep school in Connecticut for his senior year and wound up dropping out. That April, Lindsey's brother, Halim, then a player at Public League member Paul Robeson and a straight-A student with no criminal history, was shot to death outside a friend's home. Another brother had been killed 5 years earlier.

Ultimately, Lindsey's fresh start took him to Oklahoma. This is his second year at Redlands; he was inactive last year while improving his academic picture.

Lindsey scored 1,315 points at 'Brook and perhaps would have challenged Wilt Chamberlain's school record of 2,206.

Redlands coach Yaphett King told the New York Daily News: "The thing that made St. John's right for [Lindsey] was the relationship and comfort he has with the coaching staff. They made it clear with their action how much he mattered to them. Every opportunity they could see him, they were there."