Alijah Arenas, a top USC basketball recruit and son of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, was injured Thursday in a single-vehicle crash in Winnetka.
Firefighters and paramedics were dispatched around 4:55 a.m. to the 7900 block of Corbin Avenue regarding a vehicle that had crashed into a tree and a fire hydrant, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The occupant was already out of the vehicle when fire crews arrived. The person was taken to a hospital in serious condition, the LAFD’s Margaret Stewart told City News Service.
Stewart did not identify the injured person, but multiple media outlets — citing unnamed sources — said it was Alijah Arenas, a Chatsworth High School star considered one of the nation’s top prospects. ESPN, which broke the news, reported that Arenas had been placed in a medically induced coma.
USC posted a message online Thursday afternoon saying, “Our thoughts and prayers are with Alijah and his family following this morning’s accident. Please keep him, his teammates and friends and the entire Arenas family in your prayers.”
Video from the crash scene showed Arenas’ vehicle, a Tesla Cybertruck, heavily damaged.
His father, Gilbert Arenas, played basketball at Ulysses S. Grant High School in Valley Glen, where his number 25 was retired by the school.