McDonald's All American Game: Flashback
The McDonald's All American Game comes to Columbus, Ohio this Wednesday night and Stepien Rules has been credentialed for coverage of the games, so I'm going to head down...call me if you want to carpool.
But before I do, I wanted to look back at the last McDonald's All American game I went too: the 2003 LeBron James verison of the event at Quicken Loans Gund Arena in Cleveland. For some reason, seven years later, I still have the program that I bought. I think I thought it might be worth money one day at the time...not sure if is...but it was definetely helpful for offering this look-back below:
2003 McDonald's HS All American Teams
West All Americans - 2003:
Aaron Brooks - Franklin HS, Seattle WA
Shannon Brown - Proviso East HS, Maywood IL
Brian Butch - Appleton West HS, Appleton WI
Brandon Cotton - St. Martin DePorres HS, Detroit MI
Ndudi Ebi - Westbury Christian School, Houston TX
Olu Famutimi - NW Edision HS, Flint MI
JR Giddens - John Marshall HS, Oklahoma City, OK
Kris Humphries - Hopkins HS, Minnetonka, MN
David Padgett - Reno HS, Reno Nevada
Kendrick Perkins - Clifton J. Ozen HS, Beaumont TX
Leon Powe - Oakland Tech HS, Oakland CA
Vakeaton (Von) Wafter - Heritage Christian Academy, Cleveland TX
East All Americans - 2003:
Brandon Bass - Capitol HS, Baton Rouge LA
Jackie Butler - McComb HS, McComb MS
Luol Deng - Blair Academy, Blairstown NJ
Ivan Harris - Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson PA
LeBron James - SVSM, Akron OH
Michael Jones - Thayer Academy, Braintree MA
James Lang - Central Park Christian HS, Birmingham AL
Andrew Lavender - Brookhaven HS, Columbus OH
Travis Outlaw - Starkville HS, Starkville MS
Chris Paul - West Forsyth HS, Clemmons NC
Mustafa Shakur - Friends Central HS, Wynnewood PA
Charlie Villanueva - Blair Academy, Blairstown NJ
According to my count, eleven of these 2003 McDonald's All Americans are currently active in the NBA. That list being as follows: Shannon Brown, Aaron Brooks, Kris Humphries, Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe, Chris Paul, Brandon Bass, Travis Outlaw, Charlie Villanueva, LeBron James, Luol Deng. What's also interesting is that Von Wafer could definetely be in the NBA if he wanted to - after a great run through the play-offs last season - but he opted to play professionally in Europe this season instead for more money than he could have made stateside.
I'll do a little research later, but on the flip side, there's defintely some names on this list that don't really ring a bell with me. Mike Jones had a solid career at Maryland, Drew Lavender had a successful career at both Oklahom and then at Xavier - nearly knocking off OSU to go to the Final Four his senior season - and Giddens, Butch and Padgett all had good careers at Kansas, Wisconsin, and Louisville respectively as well. Mustafa Shakur was also obviously solid at Arizona, but the names Brandon Cotton, Olu Famutimi, Jackie Butler and James Lang don't jump out to me as having notable careers since playing in this game with the likes of LeBron James and Chris Paul. I'll google, or bing it, later this week and get back to you, but regardless, the crop of the twenty-four 2010 McDonald's All Americans that will take the floor at Value City Arena on Wednesday will include more than a handful of future pros, and maybe the next Chris Paul...there is no next LeBron James, who was the MVP of the game in 2003.
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* For a recap of 97-90 Cavs win yesterday, via Rick at WFNY, go here
* For the latest Bloguin NBA Power Rankings, go here
