Basketball Updates

This year, The Northeast Basketball Club and NJ Hoop Recruit hosted the first annual Northeast Classic which was held at the Bethany Community Center in Washington Township, NJ. The Gary Forbes Team East had the height, with guys like Brad Ezewiro (LSU Commit) and Samson Johnson (UConn Commit) tipping the scale at least at 6’8 or above. Team Filayyy had the skilled guard play with guys like RJ Melendez (Illinois Commit), Elliott Cadeau (‘24 of Bergen Catholic), and Simeon Wilcher With three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, coach Gary Forbes’ Team East had possession of the ball down by one point.

These 2 groups of people are Lebron James fans and Lebron James haters. Now let that sink in for a second, the point of the game is to put the ball in the basket and when it comes to that, James has done that more than everyone that ever played except for 2 people, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone, who are both hall of famers. The final fan sided point about James is another topic that brings a lot of fire and it’s his four championship rings. Lebron haters will always point to the fact that Jordan has more rings (6) and never lost in the finals where he went 6 for 6 and Lebron has lost as many times as Jordan won.

Kids weren’t staying home for school anymore and the Big Apple simply didn’t produce the top-tier talent that it once did. This is the City where guys like Andre Barrett and Kenny Satterfield took their games from Rice High School to the league in just a matter of a few years. A lot of the youth are afraid to get hurt by playing on concrete, as a result, a lot less elite players pull up to the park in the  summertime anymore. Dyckman, Gersh Park, Hoops in the Sun, Watson, Lincoln Park, The Cage and Rucker Park are all some of my favorite spots to catch some good basketball, but the level of play isn’t what it used to be.

New faces in new places like Gordon Hayward getting his money and then some in Charlotte, Danilo Gallinari signing with the Hawks, and Montrez Harrell moving across the hall in LA to the Lakers. The Nets will win the Atlantic division but I don’t see this coming easy at all with stacked  comp being the Raptors who will no doubt give them a fight, the Celtics who will give them a run for their money and the 76ers who may be a lot or steady and less controversial with Doc leading the way. The Utah Jazz will win it behind a career year from Donovan Mitchell with Denver a close second and Portland not far behind in 3rd. If Houston stays the way they are currently as far as roster then they should hold onto second while Memphis  comes in at 3rd and battles close for that 8th playoff spot.

18 months after Kevin Durant tore his Achilles as part of the Golden State Warriors, he returned to the court in a Brooklyn Nets uniform facing his former team. Irving came out the gate smoking hot scoring 26 points in 25 minutes, including 17 in the first quarter and 24 in the first half. It’s only been one game for the Nets, but when you have this type of offensive firepower you have to place this team amongst the top contenders right away. Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris Levert are battle-tested and can get buckets on their own, Joe Harris is a knockdown shooter who can’t be left open and DeAndre Jordan is a defensive anchor who rebounds and alters shots at a high clip.

The 2019-2020 National Basketball Association season will go down in history as one of the most Scary, Unique, Proud, Important and Longest seasons ever. Now it wasn’t flawless by any means as we did have a small incident where Rajon Rondo‘s brother had to be ejected from the bubble crowd after getting into a heated exchange with Russell Westbrook, a little more serious situation where Daniel House had to leave the bubble for violation of its rules concerning guest, and finally the silly ordeal involving Lou Williams and his quick trip to the strip club which became known as “Titties over titles”. After all of that action on and off the court it then brings me to the word Important, which is what the social justice awareness was to me, the players, and all of the fans. The players and fans showed unity after George Floyd, Breona Taylor and many others who were fatal victims of racial and social injustice.

Leaders of young men like Coach K and Bruce Pearl get to break out the clipboard and gameplans to hopefully make it to March Madness. Collin Gillespie and his squad is out to a 4-1 start while UNC is 3-2, Kansas is 5-1 and Kentucky 1-3. The preseason all americans to keep an eye on are Luka Garza a senior out of Iowa who put up 23.9 points, 9.8 rpg and 1.8 blocks per game, Jared Butler a junior guard starting for Baylor who returns with averages of 16.0 Points and 3.9 dimes per contest to go along with 1.6 steals. Rounding out this group is super freshmen/top 5 nba pick Cade Cunningham who comes into college ball with Oklahoma State and tries to bring them to the top of the Big 12 and beyond in one year.

There are sophomores in the AAU tournaments in high school playing on the A team vs. B team with legit middle school age players. A freshman playing on JV level with his high school team is doing a finger roll to the basket on an 8th grader in the AAU. In High School and working in the professional basketball business, all the best high school players would perform at either the legendary five-star basketball recruit camp or the ABCD camp at Fairleigh Dickerson University. It was the best against the best of basketball athletes, and performing in that camp, would get your child’s name recognized as an elite level player and top in their state.

Harrell, the reigning sixth man of the year, agreed to a deal for the full mid-level exception: $9.25 million the first year and $9.72 million the second. The deal is said to be a four year, $220 Million agreement Michael Jordan is said to have overpaid for Hayward, who will not lose much of the $34.7 Million that he opted out of in Boston. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports (via Twitter) that Ibaka will receive $19MM over two years on his new deal, with the Clippers using their full mid-level exception to get the deal done. Howard was a key piece of the Lakers’ championship run during the 2019-20 season and now takes his talents to an underachieving Marc Gasol signs a two year deal with the Lakers Just when you thought the Lakers were in trouble for losing Dwight Howard and Javale McGee

One prospect to keep an eye or two on is Cole Anthony, a University of North Carolina point guard by way of New York City (Archbishop Molly High School) with a quick pit stop in Virginia (Oak Hill Academy). A very heady and intelligent floor general that has the guidance and in house well of experience to pull from in his father Greg Anthony who himself was a former NBA point guard for the Knicks, Grizzlies, Sonics, Blazers, Bulls and Bucks which came after a great college career at UNLV where Greg played for and learned from one of the great basketball minds in Jerry Tarkanian aka Tark the Shark. One kid off the top that has caught the attention of a lot of scouts is Deni Avdija, a 6’9 210 pound small forward from Israel that has drawn comparisons to Hedo Turkoglu, this young man can also play shooting guard and has the passing ability and basketball IQ to become a good point forward in the future. Killian Hayes is a tall, lanky, left handed point guard from France that has shown the early signs of being a combo guard once he develops his outside shot but currently is a smooth lead guard with good body control.