If you don’t know who Demetrius Walker is, you are later than Letterman, Leno and Conan combined. You are as up-to-speed as dial-up Internet. You have your finger in your nose – anywhere but on the pulse of … junior high basketball.

Uh huh. I said junior high basketball.

Walker, a homeschooled eighth-grader, is the whiz kid baller that graced last week’s Sports Illustrated cover. “HE’S 14 YEARS OLD. YOU’RE GOING TO HEAR FROM HIM,” touted the magazine.

Going to? I want to know why we didn’t hear from him sooner.

At 6-foot-3, 175 pounds, Walker has all the trappings of a future NBA stud a la LeBron James.

“I’ve never seen a combination of speed, size and coordination like this kid has,” said his AAU coach Joe Keller.

How about any semblance of a childhood? Have you seen that, Coach?

Silly writer, childhoods are for kids. Demetrius is a guaranteed lottery pick.

Oh, good point.

Plus, the Internet basketball scouting service Hoopscoop calls Walker the best in the country for his grade. Walker is actually an elder statesman on the Web site – the service provides national rankings for sixth and seventh graders too. The editors must know where to find all the best recess pickup games.

The Sports Illustrated article about Walker is titled “The Fast Track.” I say he’s not moving fast enough. Would someone please get this kid a shoe deal? Or a Hummer? So what if he’s not old enough to drive it even with his mom riding shotgun.

The author of the SI article, Karl Taro Greenfeld, expresses some doubt about whether it’s appropriate to feature a 14-year-old in the magazine.

“I shouldn’t be writing this,” Greenfeld said. “You shouldn’t be reading it. The photographs on these pages shouldn’t have been taken. Isn’t it too early to start poking and prodding at a kid, to shine the kliegs of sports celebrity upon a mere child, to start stroking the superstar-making machinery for a boy who is barely into puberty?”

Paleeeese! There is no such thing as too early.

Actually, isn’t it too late? I mean Walker is in his 14th year on Earth – he might have already seen his chance at fame and NBA riches fade into oblivion.

He only recently entered stage left onto the national scene, and he’s already less than a year from making that huge leap from eighth grade to high school.

If we really want these players to amount to anything more than high school has-beens, we’ve got to find them earlier.

To me, Walker is old news. It’s the next Demetrius Walker that I’m interested in. But how do we find him?

For starters, our focus needs to shift from high school and junior high to elementary school and preschool. We have to look for the kids who dominate in Four Square, who run circles around classmates in Duck Duck Goose and who can always be counted on to Capture the Flag.

And then if we still can’t get to these kids early enough, we’ve got to shift our attention from the playgrounds to the playpens. We’ve got to find the real diaper dandies – the truly precocious ones who are potty-trained before turning two. Do they make Air Jordan’s in baby sizes?

And if for some reason we don’t have luck with the toddlers and infants, we are just going to have to start recruiting pregnant women with good genes.

You see, there’s just no such thing as too early.

Josh Purse is a senior in communications. He was a highly touted elementary school athlete before lack of growth stunted his career. He can be reached at [email protected].