Daishen Nix, the UCLA-bound point guard who got his start in Anchorage, will headline this week’s Alaska Airlines Classic

Daishen Nix’s basketball game was born in Anchorage, but it came alive in Las Vegas.

Four years ago his mom, Mina, moved the family to Nevada, where Nix hooked up with coach Greg Lockridge at Trinity International School.

Even though Nix was a little fish in the big city, Lockridge knew he had a keeper.

“I was sent a video when he was 14 years old and I watched it for maybe two minutes when I said, ‘Call him right away,’ ” Lockridge said.

“Your heart starts beating fast. You see things that you just can’t teach. You see things you haven’t seen in a long, long time. We were hooked.”

Fast forward four years and Nix is a five-star point guard headed to UCLA next season.

The 6-foot-5 senior is widely regarded as the best high school passer in the country with next-level court vision. He can score, too.

Earlier this season he poured in 45 points in a 99-94 win against Phoenix Prep and 36 points in a 61-57 win over nationally ranked Findlay Prep, a team loaded with surefire DI players.

Nix gets to the rim as well as any guard and owns a Pac-12-ready assortment of layups — reverse, dipsy-do, high off glass, hang-and-bang. You name it, he can do it.

His game will be showcased this week in the Alaska Airlines Classic basketball tournament at West High. It will be his first game in his hometown since he was an eighth grader at Mears Middle School.

“I can’t wait to come back,” Nix said recently. “The most exciting thing will be playing in front of my friends because I haven’t seen them for, like, four years. Most definitely I’m going to try and put on a show, but at the same time I want to have fun.”

When Nix was in Alaska, he admired older Anchorage players like Desmond Johnson, Marquis White and Brayton Keith. He also developed respect for players his age, like Isaiah Moses, a senior at Dimond and the top point guard in Alaska.

“I watched things he used to do that I took away,” Nix said. “When I was younger, I couldn’t do some of the things he did but I tried to do it.”

There isn’t much Nix can’t do today, but it wasn’t always so easy. He took his lumps early during his time in Las Vegas and adjusted on the fly in a sink-or-swim environment. In his first game under Lockridge, he was benched in the first quarter.

“When he sat next to me, I told him, ‘They are bigger and stronger than you, but they’re not better than you. Your time will come.’ And if you ask him, ‘Did your time come?’ It did.”

Lockridge got Nix on a strength program and now the brawny baller weighs 210 pounds.

“That Samoan strength started to come out and he started to play bully-ball,” Lockridge said. “You’ll see when he gets there, his 3-ball shot is so wet right now. It’s just a process, taking him slowing, taking him to where you think he can go and then holding steadfast until it was ready to take the next step.”

Nix is grateful for Lockridge’s guidance. The coach has shaped his career with precision.

“I’m most definitely happy about coming to Trinity,” he said. “The way he teaches the game is the type of coach I wanted.”

Nix also appreciates his mom for putting his potential, poise and playmaking skills in a prime location for exposure and opportunities.

“It was her idea to move to Vegas. She knew what she was doing from the start, so I just trusted what she was doing,” Nix said.

“I was leaving all my friends in Alaska and everybody I love to come to Vegas. She knew what she was doing. That’s my mother and I trust her with all my heart.”

No doubt Nix has gone national, but he never forgets his Alaska roots.

“I respect him a lot because he does not disown where he is from,” said former West High coach Antonio Wyche. “A lot of these kids don’t give credit to where they are from and I find that offensive. Be proud to be from Alaska. Give Alaska the credit it is due. I give him credit — ‘Yes, I’m the Alaska kid who went to Vegas for four years.’

“I hope the community comes out to support him because he’s one of only a few who really represent Alaska.”

Van Williams is a former ADN sports reporter and the media director for the Alaska Airlines Classic

Alaska Airlines Classic

Thursday’s games at West High

Noon — West vs. Juneau

4 p.m. — East vs. Dillard (Fla.)

5:30 p.m. — Colony vs. Trinity (Nev.)

7 p.m. — Dimond vs. Barrow

Past Classic Champions

1989 — St. Raymond (N.Y.)

1990 — Dunbar (D.C.)

1991 — Oak Hill Academy (Va.)

1992 — East Anchorage

1993 — St. Raymond (N.Y.)

1994 — Simon Gratz (Penn.)

1995 — Science Hill (Tenn.)

1996-2004 — No tournament

2005 — Laurinburg Institute (D.C.)

2006 — Heritage Christian (Anchorage)

2007 — Notre Dame Academy (Va.)

2008 — Hedgesville (W.V.)

2009 — Christian Life Academy (Texas)

2010 — West Anchorage

2011 — Christian Life (Texas)

2012 — East Hall (Ga.)

2013 — Hoover (Alabama)

2014 — Dillard (Fla.)

2015 — Windermere Prep (Fla.)

2016 — Planet Athlete (Ariz.)

2017 — Riverview (Fla.)

2018 — Columbia (Ga.)

2019 — Colony (Palmer)