Words. HShoop

Brandon Jennings (photo. Kelly Kline)

WORDS. AUSTIN BURTON

Notes from Saturday’s Jordan Brand All-American Classic…

PRE-GAME
Blame the Spurs vs. Suns game for my not getting to MSG before tip-off. If Mike Finley and Tim Duncan hadn’t conspired to send that game into double-overtime, I would have gotten an earlier start on my laundry and would have left the house earlier. Oh well … As I’m getting my press pass at the VIP/media entrance, Jadakiss and crew show up. “What’s up with those Styles P floor seats?” Jada wants to know. One of the MSG employees informs ‘Kiss he’s got nine tickets for him and his boys. Of course, he wants 11. Before they get it worked out, I’m in the elevator …

FIRST HALF
Just as I get out to the court, 6-11 Tony Woods (Wake Forest) gets a vicious dunk over everybody. Yep, this is a high school all-star game alright … All of the players are wearing Jordan 23′s designed to match the Blue and White team unis. I’d take the blue/black/white kicks, but both are actually pretty sick … Among those having a good first half: Samardo Samuels (Louisville) for the White team, and DeMar DeRozan (USC) and Scott Hopson (Tennessee) for the Blue squad. If I were a Rucker Park announcer I’d nickname Hopson “No Other Choice,” because every time I see him play it’s like he has no choice but to get buckets. He doesn’t even seem like he’s trying; they just come to him. DeRozan is one of my favorites. I did a feature on him in Dime #39 (the Kobe cover) and found him to be a good kid who has Vince Carter potential as a ballplayer. And Samuels is someone who had deal with doubters his whole career. A lot of people say they aren’t impressed with ‘Mardo because it seems like he just bullies the opposition like a high school version of Shaq, but all he’s done is respond by winning titles and MVP’s. We’ll see how his game translates to the Big East … For a portion of the first half I sat with Dime’s own Jed Berger, who had some real good seats a few rows from the court and close to Irv Gotti. At one point this guy sitting in front of us turns and growls, “Are you gonna be f***ing talking the whole game?” Um, yeah, that was kind of the plan. “It’s f***ing annoying.” Jed informs “Mean Man” (Jed’s nickname for him) that this is a social event. I ask if he wants us to tell the other 19,000 people in the building to be quiet, too. That little piece of fun ended when Jed had to go home and catch the Bernard Hopkins/Joe Calzaghe fight, so I went back to press row … Someone asked me early last week who I thought would get MVP for the Jordan Classic, and I answered without hesitation: Tyreke Evans (Memphis) and Brandon Jennings (Arizona). Anyone who has seen them play knows they will both dominate the ball – Tyreke in the more traditional sense as he’s always looking for his shot, and Jennings in the sense that he’s all about racking up assists. Every time I’ve seen “Young Money” in an all-star setting, he sets a goal to break that particular event’s single-game assist record, so everything he does is designed to drop dimes. Tonight they’re both playing their usual style. Tyreke is firing shots from all angles, while Jennings is setting guys up left and right and getting a little irritated anytime someone blows a layup on him … Seen in the crowd: Kevin Durant and Jerryd Bayless (they arrived together), Vince Carter, agent Bill Duffy, agent Calvin Andrews (the infamous Tim Thomas look-alike), Ron Harper and Jay Williams. And, of course, Michael Jordan (surprisingly without Charles Oakley) … At halftime the White team leads by seven and D.C. rapper Wale performs …

SECOND HALF
The crowd seems a little restless because there haven’t been 100 dunks. I chalk it up to guys actually playing defense. They’re trying to lock their man down on the perimeter (especially UConn-bound pest Kemba Walker and Georgia Tech-bound Iman Shumpert), trying to block shots (the big man’s best chance at a highlight, since the guards dominate the ball so much), stepping in to take charges, deflecting passes, and showing hard on pick-and-rolls. It might not make for the type of prep All-American game you’re used to, but it’s actually a better brand of basketball … On the break, Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest) is bearing down on Wesley Witherspoon (Undecided) when White team assistant coach Oliver Antigua (St. Raymond’s H.S. in NYC) yells “Finish him!” Aminu goes up and throws one down on Spoon’s head … Devin Ebanks (Undecided) is a Rudy Gay clone. He’s got the length and athleticism, a wealth of untapped potential just like Rudy did coming out of high school, and he even kind of looks like him in the face. He can dunk on anybody here whenever he wants to … And just as I was writing that, Rudy Gay himself happens to walk in, flanked by Joey Dorsey … Tyreke isn’t as explosive as Derrick Rose, but he can be just as effective as a scoring lead guard for Coach Cal next year. With his long arms and natural fadeaway, his jumper is near impossible to block; his handle is air-tight; and while he rarely ever dunks (not even when we shot him for the cover of Dime #24), Tyreke just glides to the basket and finishes with both hands just like Monta Ellis … Witherspoon is the Jeffrey Jordan of this year’s JBAAC — the kid who people are wondering if he deserves to be here. According to recruiting sites Scout.com and Rivals.com, the 6-7 wing is the lowest-ranked player here (56th in the country). While he might not be as high-profile, he’s got skills. He’s announcing his college choice on May 1 from a list that includes Memphis, Texas, Virginia, Florida and Colorado … William Buford (Ohio State) has a group of family and friends sitting behind me, and whenever their boy does something they all scream “WB!” Burford gets three consecutive buckets to spark a Blue team run that eventually gets them the lead … Hopson extends that lead on a fast break when he drops the hammer on Shumpert, going left-handed for the dunk even as Shumpert pops him on the head. Hopson gets up and gives the Roc sign … After a wild sequence where Malcolm Lee (UCLA) gets about five offensive boards on the same possession, Blue teammate JaMychal Green (Alabama) bricks a dunk that goes flying into the crowd … The White team employs a last-ditch full court press, but the Blue squad withstands it and pulls out a 10-point win. Jennings spends the last couple seconds chatting with Durant on the sidelines … Jennings (10 pts, 14 asts) and Tyreke (23 pts, 7 rebs, 5 asts, 3 stls) get the co-MVPs, Jennings for the Blue team and ‘Reke for the White … Standouts for the Blue team: Hopson scored 21 points, DeRozan had 17, Greg Monroe (Georgetown) had 13 and 8 boards, and Witherspoon had 13 and 3 steals … For the White team, Ebanks scored 20, Aminu had 13 points and 12 boards, Shumpert had 7 points, 5 boards and 3 steals, and Samuels scored 16 …

POST-GAME
Tyreke, Jennings and Blue team coach Ed Azzam (Westchester H.S. in Los Angeles) are in the press conference room. Jennings talks about how MJ told the players before the game to go hard on both ends, and he thinks that sparked the extra defensive effort … A reporter sitting next to me addresses Evans as “Tyrese” before going into his question … Jennings (with his Shawn Kemp-style slanted fade) is, as usual, having fun in the press conference. Tyreke, as usual, looks like he wants to take a nap … After the press conference, the rest of the players are available for interviews in the tunnel. Ebanks and Witherspoon, the two undecideds, are surrounded with reporters trying to get a bead on where they’ll commit. NYC products Walker and Samuels are pretty popular. And a writer from a Wake Forest website corners Woods and Aminu, who both look like they just want to get on a plane and back to Georgia ASAP. Like I overheard one of the promotions people say in the hallway right after the game, “I just want to go home and sleep in my own bed for once.” …

Tags: Gametime
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Monday, April 21st, 2008

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