Norvel Pelle Brings His Hollywood Talent to St. John’s

From the City of Angels hails another shining star who is making his way to the bright lights of New York City.

Norvel Pelle of Price High School (CA) joins Amir Garrett and Dwayne Polee II as the third recruit from the Golden State to come to Queens in Steve Lavin’s one full year with St. John’s.

Pelle began his high school career at Dominguez (CA), famous for alumni like Dallas Mavericks’ center Tyson Chandler and Milwaukee Bucks’ Brandon Jennings, before transferring to Price. The 6’10” Pelle is bringing his long, lanky frame to the Red Storm, a team for which he believes the sky is the limit.

“I picked [St. John’s] because I felt it would be a perfect situation,” said Pelle. “Having a whole new team and a new coaching staff, we would have a chance to rebuild St. John’s.”

Coach Steve Lavin brought nine inherited seniors to the NCAA Tournament this past season, but his most daunting task will come in the fall, when he brings in nine new commits, seven of whom have no college experience.

With all of this youth, where will St. John’s find a leader? Pelle says he is a guy Lavin feels can lead by example next year, and throughout his time at St. John’s.

“We just talked about how we have to take stepping stones to reach success. It doesn’t come knocking on your door all the time,” said Pelle.

Though he is being ranked as a top prospect in the country, Pelle said he sometimes felt out of place with all of the media exposure during his time in high school.

“At times, it’s overwhelming. But, to be successful, you have to be able to be outside your comfort zone,” he said. “The media puts you out of your comfort zone, but I got used to it and enjoyed seeing the different opinions from others.”

And those critiques were not always positive.

Many analysts and experts have scrutinized his game, saying he is lackadaisical and lacks fundamental development. Pelle said he doesn’t take the criticism as something bad and, instead, uses it as motivation.

“People can only talk and a lot of them haven’t had a conversation with me. There is going to be something made up to make me look bad and there are going to be positive things said to make me look good,” said the Los Angeles native. “I’m just using all the negative as a motivation to prove the haters wrong.”

Pelle, who brings a 7-foot wing span to go along with his 6’10” frame, is very similar in size to that of Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant. Durant is one of two players Pelle says he models his game after, along with Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett.

“Kevin Garnett has the mentality of a beast that no one has and Kevin Durant is 6’10” playing the wing. You bring those two players together, you have an unreal player,” said Pelle.

With Pelle’s size and length, he brings athleticism down on the block on both ends of the floor. He also has a soft touch around the basket and a keen sense of timing on defense. Because of that, he fits well into Coach Lavin’s athletic, swarming defensive sets and high-pace, fast break offense.

When Pelle isn’t in the gym working on his game or doing interviews, he’s just being a regular kid. He is getting ready to graduate from high school and head to college in a few months time, listening to music, hanging with friends, and dreaming of taking famous Hollywood stars on dates.

“There is so much,” said Pelle on deciding who he would go on a date with, before ultimately deciding to take either Kim Kardashian or New York’s own Nicki Minaj.

When he has downtime, Norvel also likes listening to his iPod, which features a heavy rotation of Lil’ Wayne, Tyga, Big Sean and Trey Songz.

He has also expressed an interest in drawing, which is ironic because it was one of the classes he said he wasn’t looking forward to coming to college.

“Be prepared to go all the way, because we have a mission and a goal to reach.”-Norvel Pelle

The kid from the warm West in California is looking to make a home in the frigid East of New York City. Though the temperature outside may drop to below zero at some points during the season, Pelle should feel a sense of warmth from the St. John’s fans, for whom he has a message.

“Be prepared to go all the way, because we have a mission and a goal to reach,” he said confidently. That same sentiment has been echoed by his future teammates D’Angelo Harrison and Amir Garrett, who both guaranteed runs deep into the NCAA Tournament in 2011-2012.

Pelle has promised to bring excitement and entertainment to Queens next year and, being that he is from Hollywood, it would be crazy to expect anything less.