From highly touted to humbled, Walker ready to start anew

LeBrent Walker was supposed to be the next big thing. His recruiting process coming into high school was similar to what most players go through choosing a college with all the top teams in New York City – and the surrounding areas – vying for his services.

Walker’s label as the Big Apple’s next great guard was one he never gave himself and he’d be the first to say that. He’d also readily admit that things haven’t gone quite as planned.

“It’s very difficult to live up to that,” said Walker, who is now a rising senior. “If you’re at the top and you do bad for a few games, you can fall to the bottom. Everybody is chasing to be better than you.”

The chiseled, 6-foot guard was nomadic early on. He started his high-school career at Our Saviour New American in Centereach, L.I., but quickly left there for Bayside after two months. Walker was declared eligible by the PSAL in January and finished the season with the Commodores before making another move – to elite program Montrose Christian in Rockville, Md. – for his sophomore year.

After a season of sporadic playing time down in Maryland, Walker landed at his initial school, Our Saviour New American, with his stock seriously damaged. No longer is he on recruiting lists among the best players in the country for the Class of 2012 like he was as an eighth grader. But what he has found, he says, is happiness at OSNA and with his new AAU program, Positive Direction.

“I think he’s eating a slice of humble pie,” Positive Direction coach Daon Merritt said. “He was very, very talented early like a lot of guys are. I’m not saying he didn’t advance, but other guys caught up.”

Walker never grew like many expected. And maybe he didn’t live up to all the hype. But he can still potentially play college basketball at the Division I level, is explosive to the basket and as strong as an ox finishing around the rim. Positive Direction, Walker said, is the perfect environment to nurture his game and his psyche. He hasn’t had the easiest childhood growing up as the middle child of five kids in a single-parent home in Jamaica, Queens.

“It’s a family environment,” Walker said of PD. “They have fundraisers together. They have cookouts. Everybody is always around each other and it makes you feel comfortable.”

Having Merritt as a coach has only helped. They both grew up in inner-city Queens and Merritt, at age 26, is young enough to relate to Walker. He has also almost seen and done it all in basketball. Merritt, a sharpshooting guard, won a CHSAA city championship and a New York State Federation title at St. Raymond and played three times in the NCAA tournament with Richmond and then South Alabama. Walker said Merritt routinely “kills” him in one-on-one games.

“It’s not about what I’ve been teaching him on the court, not about how to score 30 points,” Merritt said. “We don’t focus on that. It’s about becoming more mature and a better person, being a good kid on and off the court. It’s about life lessons.”

In between the lines, Merritt has worked with Walker on becoming more of a floor general. His transition to being a true point guard could elevate his college interest – Walker doesn’t currently have an offer – exponentially.

“It’s not all about scoring, it’s about helping my teammates score,” Walker said. “When it’s my time to score, then I’ll score.”

The best part about Walker now, Merritt says, is not his game – it’s his attitude. That humble pie has been digested. He doesn’t carry himself like a superstar; instead, he has a chip firmly on his shoulder.

“I’m just showing them that I’m still here,” Walker said. “I never left. I’m just going to let people talk and let my game prove them wrong.”

mraimondi@nypost.com