Calvin Griffin

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.