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Jordan All-American Classic Recap |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 25 April 2006 |
The “undercard†was the Regional game, pitting kids from New York City versus players from the New York suburbs. It was a decent opener, highlighted by Jamine Peterson from the Boys & Girls School in Brooklyn waking the crowd up with a reverse alley-oop finish and a one-handed stuff from the dotted line on consecutive possessions … First celebrity sighting: LL Cool J, who was sitting courtside and getting chatted up all night by music industry shot-callers … T.I. performed before the main event. Despite some issues with the sound system, the “King of the South†was cool about the whole thing and even rapped a cappella for a minute. When T.I. and LL showed each other love, the crowd went nuts. By the way, LL is at least a head taller than T.I...
The two Duke-bound kids – guard Jon Scheyer and center Brian Zoubek - got a few boos during introductions just for the simple fact that they’re going to Duke. Meanwhile, the biggest ovations for players went to New York products Curtis Kelley, Edgar Sosa and Paul Harris … We’ve seen it before, but it’s still amazing to witness Michael Jordan walk into a room. As soon as Money showed his face in the Garden, the whole place stood up and everything literally stopped until he sat down … Musiq Soulchild sang the national anthem and forgot the words right after “O’er the ramparts we watched.†Of course the crowd just killed him the rest of the way through, especially after he just shrugged when he forgot the lyrics … Harris – all 6-4 of him – jumped center with 7-foot Spencer Hawes. Harris won, but mostly because the ref botched the toss … Mike Jones, who is going to Syracuse along with Harris, got the “Who?†treatment every single time the P.A. announcer said his name, and it lasted all night. Not only that, but the crowd laughed at their own joke every single time, too. Mike showed some skills, but did blow a wide-open finger roll on a breakaway in the first half, then blew another breakaway in the second half when he lost the ball off his knee … Fabolous showed up, and his chain gave T.I.’s watch a battle for Most Blinding Piece of Jewelry of the Night … Just to forewarn the North Carolina fans: Wayne Ellington really likes to shoot the ball. We’re talking Eddie House-level gunning … DMC of Run-DMC was there … A few pro or soon-to-be pro ballplayers were also in the house: Vince Carter, Warren Sapp, Jamal Crawford, Al Harrington, Fred Jones, Rudy Gay and Rajon Rondo … There were three candidates for play of the night. First was Harris’ dunk over 7-foot Jonathan Kreft. Second was when Harris faked out Scheyer by flipping the ball under Scheyer’s arm and back to himself. Third was Thaddeus Young’s lefty windmill cram … Young picked up MVP for the winning team, putting up 28 and 11. Young is headed to Georgia Tech, and we’re predicting an ACC Freshman of the Year right now. The kid can do everything: threes, handle, rebound, D, post moves, and will dunk on anyone in the country … Texas-bound Kevin Durant got MVP for the losing team. He scored 16. His shot looked to be off, but trust us: Durant is going to be nice next year. We’re seeing a one-and-done … We also loved Kansas-bound PG Sherron Collins, who is basically impossible to stop from getting into the lane … The players were allowed to customize the writing on the heels of their Nikes. Most guys just went with their names, but Kelley had “Mama’s Boy†…
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