While Kupp's breakout season in the Madden NFL 23 and LaVine's advancement to the NBA seems to be the one thing that they have in common but they actually grew up close to Madden 23 Coins each other in Seattle. Reddit users found an old thread on SB Nation Seattle that detailed the 2012 high school basketball match which pitted LaVine vs. Kupp in the state playoffs.
LaVine was a top basketball recruit in junior high school, and Kupp was a football star and a solid basketball player who was still in search of a scholarship when he was an older. Kupp's Davis Pirates knocked off LaVine's Bothell Cougars, with the future All-Pro receiver in the middle of locking down the future NBA All-Star. In SB Nation Seattle on March 1. 2012:
Led by a trio of seniors, the Pirates made an outstanding 65.4 percentage in the shooting. Senior Devonte Luckett led all scorers with 23 points in an impressive shooting performance of 11-for-15. Seniors Cooper Kupp and David Trimble both scored 19 and 13 points , respectively for the Pirates. Davis used a massive 41-23 rebounding edge in order to stay at the top and maintain their lead.
Zach Lavine, considered to be the most sought-after recruit of the entire state. He was limited to four points in the first quarter. Bothell was unable to find any sort of offensive rhythm going throughout Thursday's 4A quarterfinal game. Lavine ended the game with 20 points, the majority of them came during the time the game was within reach for Bothell. The Cougars could only manage 32.1 percent shooting in the game.
We dug up an YouTube audio clip that shows Kupp discussing the game and the matchup against LaVine. What a gorgeous time capsule.
Kupp would go to play football at Eastern Washington and eventually emerge as the school's top draft selection in the third round in the 2017 draft. LaVine went to UCLA after his high school graduation Buy Mut 23 Coins, where he would spend an entire season before becoming the no. 13 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.
