2011 All-NBA teams blast from the past

Pretty interesting article about the 15 guys who made all NBA when they were in high school. Having only really followed basketball intensely for about 5 years it was nice to hear someone reminisce about something before my time. This was copy and pasted from ESPN.com and written by Dave Telep.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog?name=telep_dave&id=6540265

The NBA released its All-NBA teams this week and guess what? In a shocker, most of these guys were elite players long before they traveled on charter planes or needed bodyguards to keep admirers at bay. In fact, once upon a time, these guys were regular prospects who probably thought making the McDonald’s All-American Game was the most important thing in their basketball life at the time.

Fifteen players were honored as part of the NBA’s best and nine of the 15 players were McDonald’s All-Americans in high school. Three of the guys — Manu Ginobili, Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki — didn’t play high school basketball in America. Al Horford and Russell Westbrook made at least one Top 100 list. However, Dwyane Wade wasn’t on a Top 100 list, at least not one that I can remember.

So, you still think the McDonald’s game isn’t important? This is why some committee members passionately stick up for what the game means and ask that the selection process be held to a higher standard. The proof is in the pudding and this game can help project the stars.

In honor of their NBA successes and achievements, this blog is about taking them back to their high school roots.

First team: Rose, James, Howard, Bryant and Durant

• The first time I ever saw D-Rose was at the Nike Hoop Jamboree. My friend, Vince Baldwin, pulled me over to a court and told me to watch the next big thing. Vince, nice call!

• I’ve got more LeBron stories than I know what to do with them. How about the summer when he was injured and went on tour. He was a guest of adidas at ABCD where he conducted an interview in a King James t-shirt. A few days later he strolled into Nike All-American Camp with an entourage. I think it was the same year his current manager, Maverick Carter, also camped at Nike. Nevertheless, LeBron didn’t play a game in July and led the nation in gear bags collected.

• Howard is the career leader in smiles given. He was also the anchor of the greatest frontcourt in the history of AAU basketball. He was flanked by the Atlanta Hawks’ Josh Smith and Randolph Morris.

• Durant’s shooting display at his final Boo Williams Invitational is one of the best single game AAU performances I’ve ever seen.

• I got into the recruiting game one year after Bryant graduated from Lower Merion. No joke, during an ESPN interview for a production assistant job in 1996, Al Jaffe asked me about high school basketball. With all the B.S. I could muster, I went on and on about Kobe. I didn’t get the job. Fifteen years later, I got this one instead.

Second team: Wade, Westbrook, Gasol, Nowitzki, Stoudemire

• D-Wade played for the Illinois Warriors. Check that, he was on the team. I can’t recall Wade ever starting for the squad. Now, there were rumblings about his senior year out of Chicago but still, he wasn’t a household name.

• Westbrook went to the same high school — Leuzinger — in Los Angeles that produced an unprecedented run of late bloomers including Dorell Wright who got it started.

• You can’t make this up. I walked into the media room at Nike Camp one year and a guy handed me a folder and told me he was Amare’s (that was before he became A’mare) public relations "guy". I think I mentioned to a Nike staffer that might be a violation and never saw the guy in the room again.

• Nowitzki, had he gone to college, was down to Cal and Kentucky before deciding to play professionally in Europe.

• Gasol sought a renaissance education and played in Spain.

Third team: Ginobili, Paul, Aldridge, Randolph, Horford

• Aldridge was one of those bigs who left high school as more of a prospect than actual dominant player. Of course he had his moments, but didn’t develop his basketball ego until later in life.

• Before he was Z-Bo he was Zach and Mr. Randolph put such a hurting on Nike Camp when he was only a junior that seniors were throwing in the white towel. He was, and still is, one of the best rebounders I’ve ever seen.

• Horford was on the losing end of a historic AAU game. He and Drew Neitzel lost the Big Time championship to a team that had Howard, Smith, Morris and on the bench was Brandon Rush.

• Ginobili sought a renaissance education and played in Argentina.

• I saved the best for last. The best point guard in the world, bar none, is Paul. He played two years on the junior varsity at his high school. He was once offered a walk-on spot at North Carolina and scored 61 points to honor his grandfather who was 61 and killed the night before the game. He and LeBron turned out to be the best high school players from the Class of 2003.