THE WORLD ACCORD'N 2 TREALO

BOOTY SHAKING SWEETS

2012-02-07T13:41:00.000-06:00

GO LOW

2012-02-06T16:06:00.000-06:00

HANDS ON YOUR KNEES

2012-02-06T16:03:00.000-06:00

Dolly Sweets - Rose Red

2012-02-06T14:51:00.000-06:00

Dolly Sweets - Supa Freak

2012-02-06T14:49:00.000-06:00

Dolly Sweets - Stupid Hoe

2012-02-06T14:48:00.000-06:00

BYTCH HAND

2012-02-06T14:44:00.000-06:00

Whatever happened to Dajuan Wagner?

2012-02-06T11:15:00.002-06:00

Last month, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon just before Christmas, Dajuan Wagner strolled into a Cherry Hill gym. It was only a minute or two before tip-off of a game between Camden High and Cherry Hill East, and he sat close to the door, at the very end of the first row of bleachers, shaking a hand or two and nodding back at some folks who recognized him - the greatest high school player New Jersey's ever seen.

Mostly, Wagner just sat silently, his eyes following his purple-clad Camden Panthers up and down the court. Sometimes he mouthed some words to the players, uttering instructions they couldn't have heard. When he seemed frustrated, like when a ball slipped out of a Camden guard's hands or clanged off the rim, he leaned in closer, his boots just a few feet from the court.

Just part of the crowd: Dajuan Wagner takes in a game last month between Camden High and Cherry Hill East.DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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Watching Wagner watch a basketball game, I got the sense that he was having to hold himself back, using all the power in his 6-2, 200-pound frame to stay off the court. Those who know him say Wagner's personality is defined by the game. On the court, he's a killer. Off it, he's shy.

Wagner is now 28, at a point in his life when many in South Jersey once believed he'd have a trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame all but locked up. But Wagner wasn't in town on an East Coast road trip. He didn't have a few games off from playing with the Cavaliers, or the Warriors, or anybody else. In fact, it's been more than 5 years since he's played in the NBA. "It's hard to tell a 28-year-old that you're at the end of your career," says his father, Milt, now an assistant coach at Auburn. "He hasn't even hit his prime yet."

That's the thing about Wagner, though. He never said it was over. Not on Facebook or Twitter. Not on YouTube. Not even to the local newspapers. He didn't hang it up so much as he just disappeared.

That's why I was at a high school basketball game in Cherry Hill on a crappy Tuesday afternoon, staring at him from across the gym. After years of hearing rumors about Dajuan Wagner, after reams of unreturned letters, of unaswered phone calls and unopened doors, I had found him at a basketball game. If it was truly over, I wanted to hear him say it.

Looking at Wagner, his face still round and boyish, his shoulders still thick like grapefruits beneath his shirt, it's hard to believe it's been more than a decade since he slammed an exclamation point on all the hype that once surrounded him - when on Jan. 16, 2001, he scored 100 points in a high school game and established himself as a player so skilled on the hardwood that the "Messiah" tattoo on his left biceps seemed an apt nickname.

He had already been a local star for years by then. In Camden, people talked reverently about Dajuan Wagner when he was in middle school. In high school, he was one of the nation's best players, scoring more points in New Jersey than anyone before or since. He averaged more than 42 points per game his senior year, and became a regular in the pages of newspapers and magazines all across the country. If anyone saw trouble for Wagner, or believed his destiny was to be anything but an NBA star, they were drowned out by those in Camden who believed he was, at least on the court, flawless.

He went on to play in his one season at the University of Memphis before being drafted sixth overall in the 2002 NBA draft by the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers, a team in dire need of a savior. Just before Christmas that year, the 19-year-old rookie dropped 33 points against the Toronto Raptors. His future seemed certain. "He's going to be a great player in this league one day," Raptors forward Morris Peterson told the Associated Press after the game.

But Wagner would never have a better game in the NBA. For the next 3 years, health problems toppled along like dominoes: a bladder infection, torn cartilage in the right knee, an inflamed liver and pancreas, a sprained ankle, and another surgery on the same knee. He seemed to be the Icarus of basketball, punished for flying too close to the rim. The least worrisome of his problems - chronic stomachaches - had been with him since Memphis. Yet they eventually turned out to be his biggest problem, causing him to lose weight and sapping his strength. When he was finally released by Cleveland after 3 years, he was diagnosed with colitis, a debilitating inflammation of the colon.

Soon after surgery to replace his colon in October 2005, he began a comeback. Plenty of teams expressed interest. "Today, he is more skilled than anybody on the Sixers except Allen Iverson," Dick Jerardi wrote in the Daily News after watching Wagner score 57 in a sweltering summer-league game in 2006.

The Golden State Warriors signed Wagner to a 2-year contract worth $1.6 million. But he scored only four points and was released only a few months later. In the summer of 2007, he signed with Poland's Prokom Trefl Sopot, averaging 8.3 points in six games. "He's a finisher and he's tough," a man with a thick accent says in a YouTube video of Wagner's Prokom highlights. "Now with the Polish team, he's looking to re-find his form."

He never did. After hurting his hip and reinjuring his knee in Poland, he returned to South Jersey, his career seemingly over.

On my first day as a part-time sports reporter at the Courier-Post, Wagner scored 33 points for Camden High School. Those days, his presence in the paper was unavoidable. Although I had never seen him play live or met him in person, it was easy to believe the hype around him; he seemed to live up to it almost daily. By summer 2002, I had moved on to covering news for the paper, and Wagner's body had already begun to turn on him.

I didn't follow Wagner's every move in the NBA, or hear about his health problems in Cleveland. I was busy covering crime in South Jersey, where I spent a lot of time in Camden, one of the nation's most dangerous and poorest cities. I sat in courtrooms, waited for reports in the police station, and visited rowhouses, taking notes while grandmothers grieved over their babies - some gunned down only a block or two from the church where my mother was baptized. One thing I did know was that Wagner's rookie season was over when I wrote this sentence: "A federal indictment names 13 defendants, including an alleged drug supplier described as the stepfather of former Camden High School basketball star Dajuan Wagner."

Wagner was often in the courtroom during the trial of his stepfather, Leonard "Pooh" Paulk. It was his fame, the fear that his family could be kidnapped and held for ransom, that led Paulk to stockpile weapons, his defense attorney claimed. Federal prosecutors saw it otherwise, believing Paulk was a violent drug dealer. Wagner never testified and never said a word to reporters before or after the hearings. By the time his stepfather was sentenced, Wagner was recovering from colon surgery. Paulk was given a life sentence.

When I came to the Daily News in 2008, the idea was to bring some South Jersey to the paper. Basically, anything I found interesting from Trenton to Cape May Point was fair game for me to write about. I still wound up in Camden quite a bit, looking for a homeless boxer, covering the trial of homegrown terrorists, listening to prostitutes choke up when I asked about their kids. By then, I had lost track of Wagner, as had almost everybody else.

Over the years, people had seen him around: standing on the sideline during his son's football games; dishing out advice to youngsters at local basketball games; hanging out in Camden with his friends and family. His legacy in the city - where he once shoveled snow from basketball courts to play ball, where he led the Panthers to a Tournament of Champions victory, where he was once described as the "Prince of the City" - is forever etched.

"The things he's done, he has to be the best who ever came out of Camden," says Milt Wagner, a former Camden star himself, who won an NCAA title with Louisville and an NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Not everyone was enamored with Dajuan's presence, though. Police officers I spoke with in Camden would often bring up his name in passing, saying they had seen him here or there, driving some big SUV. Wagner owned a big, new house in West Deptford. I got the sense some cops felt he should stay there.

In October 2008, I wrote a story about Rasheed Land, a Camden man who allegedly had gone berserk while high on PCP and injured two police officers. Police said Land was an enforcer for some drug operations. They were annoyed that Wagner, Land's cousin and friend, had bailed him out of jail. When Land was shot and killed less than a year later, the Inquirer wrote that "police accounts have not involved Wagner in the shooting."

Last year, I stumbled upon a story in the Newark Star-Ledger that talked of a Dajuan Wagner comeback, a topic Wagner seemed somewhat reluctant to expound upon. He wouldn't talk about his finances. He wouldn't let the reporter see his home, or talk with his family, or take a picture of his son. He did say it was Dajuan Jr. who inspired him to give it one more try.

That was in February. For weeks afterward, I expected see his face pop up "SportsCenter," an anchor announcing, "Remember Dajuan Wagner? He was one of the most hyped . . . " When the NBA lockout happened, it seemed to be another unlucky break for him. But then the season was saved, and he still didn't appear on a roster. "Everyone has forgotten about Dajuan Wagner," an NBA scout recently told me. "No one talks about him."

This fall, I started trying to reach out to Wagner, with no luck. He didn't respond to phone calls or letters. When I visited his home in West Deptford, it was dark and empty-looking. If not for the dog barking inside, I would have thought no one lived there. Arthur "OG" Barclay, Wagner's best friend and former teammate at Camden and Memphis, was hard to reach too. He eventually told me that Wagner was shy, that years of national media coverage and life in the NBA hadn't changed that.

Just part of the crowd: Dajuan Wagner takes in a game last month between Camden High and Cherry Hill East.DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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Wagner made about $10.7 million from his rookie contract in Cleveland and smaller but still sizable sums from Golden State and the Polish team. By all accounts, he doesn't live extravagantly. There are no statues on his lawn in West Deptford, no indoor basketball court with his initials painted on it. He does have a net in the driveway.

Barclay said he was trying to set something up for me, but I got the feeling that Wagner would avoid an interview if he could. Finally, after weeks of failed attempts and false leads, after numerous pleas with Barclay to help me out, he offered a simple suggestion: "Why don't you just go the game today?" he said. "That's the best place to catch him."

If you want to find Dajuan Wagner, go to a Camden basketball game. Duh.

The game, it turned out, was a good one, with Camden and Cherry Hill East trading leads throughout. While he watched, Wagner rarely said a word to the people sitting around him. His son, a spitting image of his father, goofed around with other kids in the bleachers.

At one point, when the ball rolled out of bounds and rested close to Wagner's feet, he cracked a smile and feigned shooting a three-pointer. Then he let another guy throw the ball back in. It reminded me of something his agent, Leon Rose, told me: "He's a very low-key person, but you certainly don't want to mess with him on the court."

I approached him at halftime, while his son went to the concession stand. If Wagner didn't want to talk, he didn't act like it. He was soft-spoken and polite, shy even. He told me he's on the court almost every day, alone in empty gyms and or playing in pickup games that have become profoundly meaningful to him. His skills, his dead-on radar for the basket, haven't left, but he did say he needs time to feel right before he thinks about coming back. He needs to be confident that his body can do what it once did without question. "My goal is to be out there playing basketball someday," he says. "No one's ever had the problems I've had and come back. I'm getting there. This is the best I've ever felt in a long, long time. People think I'm out there just sitting around, but I'm not."

Over the last 18 months, Wagner has been training at a facility just outside of Ocean City. Jon Porter, the strength-and-conditioning specialist at Elite Athletic Performance in Seaville, said Wagner is about 90 percent ready. He trains like "a football player," Porter says, and straps 100-pound weights around his waist when he does pull-ups. "He does everything I ask, no questions asked."

Porter thinks Wagner could be ready for the 2012-13 NBA season. "It's a matter of getting the legs back to game shape," he says. "His shot is incredible. That hasn't changed at all. He can shoot from pretty much anywhere. It's almost surreal to watch."

The ability to score, to find his shots, has never been the issue with Wagner. It's his health that has. "If he said tomorrow, 'I am playing,' there would be such a buzz. The whole league would be abuzz," the NBA scout says. "Can he play? Is he healthy? Those are the million-dollar questions."

The scout, who asked not to be identified, says Wagner needs to showcase his talents in competitive games, either in Europe or the NBA Development League. One of the advantages of not having played all these years, the scout says, is Wagner's body hasn't taken NBA-style abuse for years.

"If he's in good shape and he's healthy, then go show us. The league is dying for talent," the scout said. "If Dajuan Wagner is a guy who came off your bench and gave you 11 or 12 points, he could fit anywhere."

Still, neither Wagner nor anyone in his inner circle will commit to a date.

"I honestly don't know the timetable," Barclay says. "He's been working out for a while now. He's definitely going to give it another try."

Even when he was being hailed as "Prince of the City," in Camden, Wagner says, he never felt the pressure, never let the hype get to him, because it was always about basketball. Sure, an entire city hitched its hopes to his success. But he was always the best.

"I didn't ask for the attention, but it came and I thrived on it," he says. "It made me tougher."

Expecting Dajuan Wagner to be the next Michael Jordan wasn't fair to him, of course. But you take hope where you can find it in Camden, even if you know better, even if you know those hopes so often tend to wind up languishing in prison cells or lost in corruption.

I know exactly when I learned a lesson about false hope in Camden. It was June 2005, and I was covering a story for the Courier-Post about three little boys who had vanished. I was certain that they were alive and that I'd eventually be writing a feel-good story about the boys bounding back home. Instead, on a sweltering summer day, the father of one of the boys found them in the trunk of a car, all dead.

In Camden, it's best to be realistic.

A few months after those boys died, the Courier-Post had a story about Wagner making his first NBA comeback after Cleveland declined to sign him for a fourth year. He felt good. He was making shots. NBA teams were interested.

Not long after, he was getting his colon removed.

Wagner might have been the closest thing Camden has ever seen to personifying Walt Whitman's dream of a "city invincible," something almost perfect in a city plagued by so many problems. Now he's an underdog, just like his hometown, and I find myself rooting for him. Not to be a savior, but just to be a basketball player again. Even that is a long shot, for sure, but he's made plenty of them in the past.

2012 JORDAN BRAND CLASSIC ROSTERS

2012-02-02T15:11:00.002-06:00

EAST TEAM (HOME)
Name School Position College
Kyle Anderson St. Anthony (Jersey City, N.J.) PG UCLA
Kris Dunn New London (New London, Conn.) PG Providence
Jerami Grant DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, Md.) PF Syracuse
Gary Harris Hamilton Southeastern (Fishers, Ind.) SF Michigan State
Brice Johnson Edisto (Cordova, S.C.) PF North Carolina
Ricardo Ledo South Kent (South Kent, Conn.) SF Providence
Tony Parker Miller Grove (Lithonia, Ga.) PF Undecided
Rodney Purvis Upper Room Christian Academy (Raleigh, N.C.) SG N.C. State
Kaleb Tarczweski St. Mark's (Southborough, Mass.) C Arizona
J.P. Tokoto Menomonee Falls (Menomonee, Wis.) SF North Carolina

WEST TEAM (AWAY)
Name School Position College
Brandon Ashley Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) PF Arizona
Isaiah Austin Grace Prep (Arlington, Texas) C Baylor
Anthony Bennett Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) PF Undecided
Archie Goodwin Sylvan Hills (Little Rock, Ark.) SG Kentucky
Danuel House Hightower (Houston) SG Houston
Grant Jerrett La Verne Lutheran (La Verne, Calif.) PF Arizona
Shabazz Muhammad Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) SF Undecided
Marcus Paige Linn-Mar (Marion, Iowa) PG North Carolina
Alex Poythress Northeast (Clarksville, Tenn.) SF Kentucky
Rasheed Sulaimon Strake Jesuit (Houston) SG Duke

LeBron James jumps over John Lucas

2012-01-31T14:25:00.000-06:00

[HD] BLAKE GRIFFIN POSTERIZES KENDRICK PERKINS! DUNK OF THE YEAR!

2012-01-31T08:41:00.000-06:00

GLC FT. LARRY HOOVER JR. I REP MY STAR GDN

2012-01-20T12:51:00.000-06:00

Anthony Davis Official Senior Season Mixtape

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"Dumb It Down" - Lupe Fiasco

2012-01-09T11:06:00.000-06:00

INSIDE LOOK: RICK ROSS 'RICH FOREVER' MIXTAPE

2012-01-06T15:55:00.000-06:00

sauce money "back poppin"

2012-01-04T14:16:00.000-06:00

Deion Sanders "Prime Time" - Must Be The Money

2011-12-27T15:27:00.000-06:00

TWERK TEAM

2011-12-23T12:56:00.000-06:00

secret moneii watch this

2011-12-20T16:06:00.000-06:00

Sebastian Telfair!!! Cappie Pondexter

2011-12-19T16:45:00.000-06:00

5'6 Ray Taylor

2011-12-18T14:19:00.000-06:00

Shabazz Muhammad BEST Player In High School Right Now!

2011-12-18T13:37:00.000-06:00

Derrick Rose Wind Mill Dunk

2011-12-15T09:19:00.000-06:00

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2011-12-15T09:05:00.000-06:00

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2011-12-08T15:22:00.000-06:00

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CONGRATS 2 DICK VITALE 1 OF THE GREATS

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Brandon Jennings

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Brandon Jennings, Derrick Williams And Tyreke Evans SHOW OUT At Midnight...

2011-11-29T15:31:00.000-06:00

Tyreke Evans Shows His INSANE Handles At The Elite 24 Midnight Scrimmage!

2011-11-29T15:29:00.000-06:00

Tyreke Evans Has NASTY Handles; Rookie Of The Year Mixes Top Players In ...

2011-11-29T15:28:00.000-06:00

Ball So Hard | Life + Times

2011-11-29T15:25:00.000-06:00

Tyquone Greer: 6'5 rising star in Chicago HS basketball

2011-11-29T15:22:00.000-06:00

Guard Play with Kenny "The Jet" Smith" featuring Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell

2011-11-28T15:37:00.000-06:00

MAL MALLOY

2011-11-28T13:07:00.000-06:00

Jeremy Lamb Dunk on 11/11/11

2011-11-14T11:34:00.000-06:00

ESPN's The Life: Michael Jordan Classic (Part 3)

2011-10-26T12:43:00.000-05:00

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2011-10-26T12:39:00.000-05:00

ESPN's The Life: Michael Jordan Classic (Part 1)

2011-10-26T12:38:00.000-05:00

Dajuan Wagner The Life 3

2011-10-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

Dajuan Wagner The Life 1

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Dajuan Wagner The Life

2011-10-26T12:01:00.000-05:00

1996 McDonald's All American Game Highlights

2011-10-26T11:58:00.000-05:00

1997 McDonald's All American Game

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2002 McDonald's All American Game Highlights

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2001 McDonald's All American Game Highlights

2011-10-26T11:53:00.000-05:00

ABCD Camp 2005 Pt. 4 Mayo vs Stephenson

2011-10-26T11:51:00.000-05:00

LeBron James and Telfair ABCD Camp

2011-10-26T11:48:00.000-05:00

Jereme Richmond NBA Draft Workout

2011-10-26T11:40:00.000-05:00

K. Michelle - Sweetest Love

2011-10-19T11:04:00.000-05:00

Skylar Diggins Toughest Workout ESPN

2011-10-07T15:15:00.000-05:00

ut on espnW

Rick Ross The Bossumentary Trailer

2011-08-21T16:22:00.001-05:00

JEREME RICHMOND ARRESTED

2011-08-09T15:26:00.002-05:00

Former Illinois basketball player Jereme Richmond has been charged with three felonies, including aggravated battery, stemming from a confrontation with a woman, according to Waukegan police commander Gabe Guzman.

The felony charges are aggravated battery, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated assault. He also was charged with domestic battery, battery and two counts of disorderly conduct.

According to Guzman, Richmond, 19, was involved in a confrontation with a woman on the 3000 block of Golfmoor in Waukegan on Monday. When a Waukegan police car arrived on the scene, Richmond was in the resident's yard.

According to the police report, Richmond made a statement to the resident, "You looking for me? I'm here now. I'll shoot your [expletive]."

Three of Richmond's friends were found in a car outside the resident's home. A loaded .40 caliber Smith and Wesson handgun was discovered in the car, and all three passengers were taken into custody. Two of the men were arrested for disorderly conduct, and a third was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a firearm.

Richmond and the 17-year-old woman had a dating relationship, the Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Ill.) reportedm citing Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Stephen Scheller.

Richmond's bond was set at $100,000.

Speaking for the family, William Richmond, Jereme's older brother, declined comment.

Richmond,, who left Illinois after one season to enter the NBA draft, was once seen as a potential lottery-worthy talent, but he went undrafted in June.

Richmond was ESPNChicago's boys basketball player of the year in 2010 and was a McDonald's All-American at Waukegan High School. He was a major recruit for Illinois and had been committed to the program since his high school freshman year.

STEPHEN ZIMMERMAN 2015

2011-08-03T15:22:00.003-05:00

It's pretty hard not to notice Stephen Zimmerman in any setting. He's 6-foot-10, wears a size 19 shoe and towers above everyone in any room he enters.

But here's the most astounding part of Zimmerman's story: He's only 14 years old and just finished the eighth grade.

Zimmerman had already reached the 4-foot mark by the time he turned 4. At 11, he became a 6-footer and was dunking a basketball two years later. Now at 14, he's 6-10 and - get this - supposedly not done growing yet (doctors predict he'll stop between 7-1 and 7-2).

So, no, Zimmerman certainly won't be a typical freshman walking the halls this fall at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas. But Bishop Gorman isn't the typical high school, either. Gorman could be the top-ranked basketball team in the nation with four elite D-I prospects, including the No. 1 player in the 2012 class, Shabazz Muhammad.

And the newest addition to this roster of stars already is emerging as one of the most intriguing. UNLV, UCLA, Kansas and national champion Connecticut already offered scholarships, Zimmerman says, and the NBA is certainly not out of the question.

Stephen Zimmerman already is talking NBA, and he's just 14.
"As a freshman he has the highest potential of any kid I've seen at Gorman," Gorman head coach Grant Rice said. "Just with his height, his ability and work ethic. He's definitely going to be a special kid.

"It's going to be one of those things where the small- to mid-level schools won't even call because they know they won't be in the ballpark. He's one of those few kids that will be able to pick whatever school he wants to go to. He'll have his choice."

Zimmerman's 2015 class won't hit the national rankings for another couple of years but rankings don't matter to him. His goals are set much higher than a high school ranking.

"I'm just trying to get to my ultimate goal of being in the NBA and being the best player I can," said Zimmerman, whose father is only 6-foot-5. "I want to be one of the best centers that the NBA has ever had."

Eric Bossi, a national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said of Zimmerman:

"Obviously he already has size, but he's more than just a big kid running around and looking big. Zimmerman shows excellent skill, has soft touch and is already pretty comfortable with his big frame. He's a pretty fluid athlete given his size and young age.

"I first had the opportunity to see Zimmerman at a showcase last fall as an eighth grader and he's come a long way since then. Despite being the youngest player on the floor in basically every game he plays with Dream Vision's 16-and-under team (his AAU summer traveling club), he's acquitted himself quite nicely."

His height, however, has hurt his chance at living a normal childhood - and it goes well beyond his 8,000-calorie/day diet needed simply to avoid losing weight.

Because of his height and basketball ability, Zimmerman was exposed to the sketchy side of athletics at a young age. His stepmother, Lori Stevens, tells a disconcerting tale of how Zimmerman used to be cornered in public school during seventh grade by coaches from as far away as Southern California.

"(Bishop Gorman) feels like home," she said. "We are accepted. He's accepted. We had him in public school and he would come home and say, 'This man brought me his business card and wanted my phone number.' That, as a parent, freaked me out. I called the school and there was nothing they could do about it because it was public property. We are doing what we have to do to keep him safe so we went to private school."

Zimmerman's coach praised the work he's put in over the past six months, calling it "incredible" for someone of that age. "He's in the gym almost every night working out with some of the older guys getting after it," Rice said. "I've just seen the progression in the months I've known him and I can't imagine what it's going to be like the next three or four years."

Stephen Zimmerman won't back down from his famous teammate.
He'll immediately step up to Gorman's varsity squad this year, even though he didn't play organized basketball in eighth grade because he was too much of a mismatch for his opponents. Playing alongside an athlete such as Muhammad, who people have compared with a number of NBA guards, should make Zimmerman even better.

"It's a perfect fit for Stephen coming into a loaded team," Rice said. "There's so much hype surrounding him and he's so talented that the great thing about it is there's no pressure for him this year. If we didn't have some of these guys, the expectations would be extremely high for him this year. He's definitely going to get some minutes. He's definitely going to be a big part of the varsity team.

"It's going to be a really good year for him to get to learn from some of the older guys, who are three and four years older than him. Once it comes to his sophomore year, he's going to have to take on the leadership role."

Perhaps even more entertaining than watching this Bishop Gorman team in games this season would be watching its practices.

Zimmerman talks about trying to defend the goal against the rim-rattling Muhammad in practices. He knows he has a chance to be one of the many that gets dunked on but would like to be one of the few who actually deny Muhammad near the basket.

"Whenever I play against Shabazz, everyone else is afraid to go up against him but I go up with him just because," he said, "whenever he drives, everyone backs up and I'm the only one going up with him. I think of it as, if he's going to get the reputation of dunking on me, which he's done to a lot of people, I want to get the reputation of blocking Shabazz's shot."

Zimmerman's idol and the player he most tries to emulate is 7-foot Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki. Just like Nowitzki, Zimmerman says his strength is his ability to hit the jumper all the way out to the 3-point line while also having a soft touch in the paint. A weakness? Zimmerman says that he needs to work on is his ball-handling.

As Zimmerman tries to grow his game at the same rate as he's sprouted the past 14 years, he is also attempting to buck a trend that has been increasing in recent years. The United States doesn't generate big guys as much these days. The proof was in this past draft as five of the top seven players selected were 6-9 or taller, yet none of them hailed from this country. Those picks were Enes Kanter (Turkey), Tristan Thompson (Canada), Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania), Jan Vesely (Czech Republic) and Bismack Biyombo (Congo).

The more Zimmerman becomes known nationally, the more pressure there will be for him to end that trend.

Being the biggest puts added stress to succeed and, even though Zimmerman is having fun with it so far, his mother knows the pressure will arrive at some point.

"I just want him to do his best," Stevens said. "He still really thinks like any other eighth grader. I'm still kind of a realist where I have to hold everybody down. I have to hold the balloon string and if it happens, it's amazing and wonderful but if it doesn't, you are still a success and we are still proud of you.

"We love you whether you are a chiropractor, a dentist, whatever, as long as you give your best, it doesn't matter."

MONTANA DELEON DANCING CLASSIC

2011-07-30T12:56:00.001-05:00

State Of The Cap: Chicago Bulls

2011-07-30T12:24:00.003-05:00

2011/12 Payroll: $61.6 million
2011/12 (Projected) NBA Salary Cap: $54 million
Roughly: $7.6 million over cap

Derrick Rose Highlights: It doesn’t take a genius to see that Derrick Rose is the centerpiece of this Bulls team. The All-NBA First Teamer continued his meteoric rise to super stardom by raising his scoring average to 25 per game (7th in the league) and his assists to 7.7 per game (10th in the league) taking home MVP honors when he could still be in college. Rose has been nearly unstoppable going to the hoop, which makes him a great 4th quarter finisher. He even rises to the occasion in the playoffs, scoring 39 in a first round game against Indiana and 44 in a second round game against the Hawks. Even though the Heat were able to stymie Rose in the Eastern Conference playoffs, there is little doubt that a team can win a championship with Rose as the best player. In this league, that is very select company. Rose will earn just under $7 million next season, the last year on his rookie contract, making him one of the biggest steals in the NBA. He’ll be getting max money very soon, so the Bulls had better be ready. At least Rose is one of the few that is worth it.

Taj Gibson has been another good bargain for this team. Gibson is one of Chicago’s key bench players. His minutes went down with the arrival of Carlos Boozer but he remained efficient, putting up 7.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game. At just $1.2 and $2.1 million the next two seasons, Gibson is a very affordable option to provide bench depth and his youth means he should only get better.

Lowlights: The Chicago Bulls had a lot of success last season, but it came at a price… an unfriendly cap price. Last summer, the Bulls signed free-agent Carlos Boozer for five years and about $75 million. Then, in October, they extended the contract of center Joakim Noah for five years and $60 million. With Luol Deng still owed $40 million the next three years, Chicago has an awful lot of salary tied to just three players.

I don’t doubt that those three players are pretty good, I just don’t think they should be paid as much as they are. Boozer has been an efficient, double-double machine throughout his career and averaged 17.5 points and 9.6 rebounds this season. But a yearly salary of $13.5 to $16.8 million is superstar money, and Carlos Boozer is NOT a superstar. He is also very injury prone, missing 23 games this year and large chunks of three other seasons in his NBA career. Joakim Noah is a good center and a player you want to have on your team, but for $10 to $14.2 million a year? That is a lot of money for someone who is good but not great. His 10.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game are nice, they just aren’t quite worth the money he’ll be making, especially with an 11.7 scoring average. And Luol Deng has been a good second or third option on this team. He scored 17.5 points per game, contributed on the glass with 5.8 boards per game, and he shot decent percentages from the field. But would you consider those numbers to be spectacular? Hardly. Yet Deng will still be paid $12.3 to $14.3 million each of the next three years.

It’s not out of the ordinary for the NBA’s best teams to overpay on talent. As long as the wins are there and the playoff runs go deep, the money is usually worth it. However, the problem here is that all three of those players are overpaid by about $4 to $5 million per year. That adds up to $12 to $15 million per year in wasted dollars that could be better spent elsewhere. Still on the fence? Consider this: the Bulls have $50.9 million in player salaries on the books for the 2012/13 season and none of those players are named Derrick Rose. Now you see the problem. Rose is the guy most responsible for the team’s success. Everyone else is just helping out. You need good secondary players to play with your star, but they shouldn’t be making nearly as much as the star. With the new CBA in negotiations, there is no telling what the rules may be in the future concerning the salary cap. That $12 to $15 million could have been used to easily fit Derrick Rose into their cap or make future upgrades on their bench or at shooting guard. Instead, the Bulls will find it more difficult to make future roster moves.

The Future: Chicago is in a great place as one of the top three teams in the Eastern Conference and they look like they should be there for a while. But to get over the hump, a few things will need to go right. Boozer must stay healthy. Noah must continue to improve and keep his head on straight. And the Bulls must improve their bench.

They were 25th in the league in bench scoring and they don’t really have anyone that can light it up some nights to provide a big spark. Kyle Korver is an excellent three point shooter and fills that role well, but he isn’t much of a scorer beyond the one or two threes he’ll make every game and he doesn’t contribute in other areas (and at $5 million a year, he should). Ronnie Brewer is a decent defender but he doesn’t stretch the floor at all and scores even less than Korver. Taj Gibson is a good young forward, but beyond him there isn’t anyone on the Chicago bench that excites me or causes opposing teams to take notice.

They are especially weak at backup point guard, which means Rose has to play heavy minutes during the regular season. C.J. Watson just isn’t getting the job done so the Bulls would do well to find an upgrade at their back up PG spot. The Bulls could use someone in the Luke Ridnour mold to hold down the fort while Rose gets some rest. Just how important is your bench? The Dallas Mavericks were #2 in bench scoring last season. The Miami Heat were dead last. If Chicago can find a way to upgrade their reserves, the Bulls will be poised to knock off the Heat next season. However, with all the money they’ve already spent on their roster, finding good upgrades will be problematic.

Grade: B-

ANDRE DRUMMOND 2012

2011-07-14T09:15:00.002-05:00

I saw Andre Drummond for the first time in about a year today. He's up to 6-11, 285 pounds. The kid is a beast. He looks like an NBA power forward.

Drummond played two games with his AAU team, Connecticut Basketball Club, at the Super 16 Showcase at Sport & Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford. He played less than half of each game as coaches are resting him after a series of important tournaments and with more to come in the near future.

Drummond is so physically dominant. And he won't be 18 until next month. When he packages together all of his skills, he'll be upstoppable -- as he already is, at times.

Drummond has three options right now ...

-Return to St. Thomas More for a post-graduate year, then attend the college of his choice (UConn appears to be the clear front-runner).

-Return to St. Thomas more for a post-graduate year, then go directly to the NBA. He is projected as the No.1 pick in the 2012 draft.

-Skip that post-graduate year and go to college, enrolling almost immediately. There are, still, rumors that Drummond will enroll at UConn in August and be with the Huskies in 2011-12. But he said, "No way that happens."

It's nice to have options, and Drummond has many. He clearly has a bright future no matter the path he chooses.

Asked why he would want to remain at the high school level for another year when college is an immediate option, he said, ""Developing, maturing, on and off the court, would help me."

I like the way Drummond carries himself. He's not overwhelmed by the spotlight and not getting carried away with the process. How nice to see a kid actually wait and weigh options, find out what is best, before committing to something.

"He gets better all the time," said Ken Smith, CBC's high school director. "A lot has been put on him, because he's the biggest kid in the state and probably the country. I would like to see him make the best decision for him and his family."

"His shot is greatly improved," said CBC U-17 coach Pat Sullivan. "He's got a great spin move. He's got a number of low post moves, and we let him put the ball down on the floor if it's open ahead of him, if there's no traffic. He's worked really hard to improve tremendously on defense. And he has such jumping ability for someone his size."

CBC will compete in the Adidas Super 64 in Las Vegas staring July 19, then move on to Orlando for the AAU Nationals. Drummond will mix in games at the Greater Hartford Pro-Am, and also head to Los Angeles for the Adidas Nations Global Experience next month.

There isn't anything he can't do, but Drummond is the first to admit that every facet of his game can improve. He made a three-pointer Wednesday, finished an alley-oop with a powerful left-handed dunk, had a few nice post moves, some put-backs, rebounded well -- even got T'd up for shoving his massive forearm into the chest of an opposing player. He's much more gentle off the court.

"I'm just enjoying my time as a kid, really," he said.

5'6 Aquille Carr Official 2010-11 Mixtape

2011-05-24T11:54:00.000-05:00

D.C. Blue Devils vs Athlete's First (Kevin Durant, Ty Lawson & Blake Gri...

2011-05-23T08:37:00.000-05:00

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2011-05-19T15:07:00.000-05:00

2004 Battlegrounds: King of the World - Paul McPherson vs Junie Sanders ...

2011-05-16T08:57:00.000-05:00

Taj Gibson Throws Down On D-Wade

2011-05-16T08:51:00.000-05:00

Jabari Parker POSTERS 6'11 defender at 2011 Spiece Run n Slam - #1 Prosp...

2011-05-12T13:08:00.000-05:00

BRIAN CARLWELL 6TH YEAR ???

2011-05-12T10:03:00.000-05:00

San Diego State is in need of a big man after Kawhi Leonard left for the NBA draft and Malcolm Thomas completed his eligibility. The rebuilding Aztecs hope the answer to their problem already lies within their program.

Center Brian Carlwell, a 6-foot-11, 300-pound presence who was a solid rotation member off the bench, has decided after some contemplation to petition the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Carlwell played in all 37 games this season and hopes his past can help him gain another year. In 2007, he was playing at Illinois and seriously injured in a car accident in which his teammate Jamar Smith eventually pleaded guilty to driving under the influence causing great bodily harm. Carlwell suffered a severe concussion and then suffered a season-ending injury after three games that season before transferring to San Diego State. Even though he has already taken five years to play in four seasons, Carlwell wants one more.

From the Union-Tribune:

Technically, Carlwell is not applying for a medical hardship waiver since his five-year NCAA clock has expired and his sophomore season at Illinois was counted as a redshirt year. Instead, he is petitioning directly to the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility based on what [coach Steve] Fisher calls "the whole package … of tremendously extenuating circumstances."

Massive head trauma can take months, even years, to overcome mentally and physically, and Carlwell has admitted he wasn’t "right" well into the following season.

"My equilibrium was thrown off," Carlwell told the Union-Tribune in a February 2010 interview. "Every now and then when I would walk, I would stumble. It was like I was really clumsy. Or things like a right-handed layup. I'm left-handed, so I had to rebuild that again … Everything was just a little off."

Getting Carlwell for another senior season would help the Aztecs, as he would become their leading returning rebounder after averaging 2.7 per game. San Diego State also has Loyola Marymount transfer Kevin Young becoming eligible to give the team a 6-foot-8 forward with a knack for rebounding.

Perhaps just as important, Carlwell was a member of two NCAA tournament teams and could bring that experience back to the Aztecs. They could certainly use that link to the past while preparing to defend the Mountain West Conference title.

AQUILLE CARR

2011-05-10T11:51:00.002-05:00

When you stand just 5-foot-6, you usually aren't considered a basketball prodigy.

When you are just a 17-year-old sophomore in high school, you usually aren't considered a pro prospect.

Aquille Carr -- in what many will consider a surprise -- apparently is both.

The quick-as-lightning, high-scoring, show-stopping point guard from Patterson (Md.) High School returned from a recent tournament in Milan, Italy, with a $750,000 contract offer that conceivably could be worth nearly $1 million.

Really? Yes.

But before anyone need shout that this is just the latest example of too-much too-soon in the youth athletic world, realize this -- the offer from Lottomatica Virtus Roma of the Italian league actually makes sense when you break it down.

It's the result of a perfect storm of events that culminated with Carr leading the U.S. team to a gold medal at the Junior International Tournament in Milan in late April.

Consider:

• Carr was the best player in the tournament, averaging more than 40 points per game;

• Carr's height -- or lack thereof -- actually gives him more of a professional appeal. The Italian fans literally carried him off the court after his heroics in one game;

• The pro team making the offer had great success with its previous U.S. high school import, Brandon Jennings, who used his year in Italy to improve his NBA draft status;

• Under Armour, which already has Jennings as a client, is looking for the next fresh face in the European market. Carr, who already plays on an Under Armour-sponsored AAU team, could be in line for a shoe deal, too;

• And though Carr is still a sophomore, he is an over-aged one. He's already 17 and will turn 18 during the next school year.

While all of these things work in his favor, staying in the U.S. may not. Because of his height and some academic concerns, Carr actually is only considered an upper mid-level collegiate prospect here, according to Rivals.com national basketball analyst Jerry Meyer.

Carr, who first confirmed the offer to Scouts Focus chief scout Joe Davis, told Davis the offer is something he is considering right now -- and for the future.

"Yes, I would be interested in [playing abroad] one day," Carr told Davis on the video above. "It was fun over there. I had to get adjusted to how they were playing. My second, third, fourth and fifth game, I was averaging like 41 points.

"I just want to keep [the Roma offer] in mind. I don't want to make my decision so fast. But perhaps we might do that."

It's unclear how long the offer will be on the table. And while his high school coach, Harry Martin, told Prep Rally he expects Carr to return to school, he did it with some hesitation.

The terms of Carr's offer were confirmed by Martin and another person close to the Carr family, with Martin adding that Carr plans to speak with Jennings about playing in Italy in the near future.

Virtus Roma is the same Italian side that signed Jennings to a $1.2 million, three-year contract when the 18-year-old point guard decided to decline a scholarship offer to Arizona in favor of a season of professional basketball in Italy. Jennings, of course, returned to the U.S. after one season in Rome and was a lottery draft pick for the Milwaukee Bucks, for whom he has become an All-Star starting guard.

In addition to his AAU affiliation with the brand, Carr's high school program in Baltimore will also begin a two-year affiliation with Under Armour beginning next fall. Part of that athletic sponsorship will include an appearance by Patterson High at the Brandon Jennings Invitational next January in Milwaukee.

Martin said that Jennings plans to meet with Carr in the coming months to discuss playing in Italy. It's clear that while Carr's current plan may be to finish high school in Maryland, he and his family will keenly consider all options on the table.

"I think he's committed to playing for Patterson for the next two years, and then he would consider all options," Martin told Prep Rally. "I think it's just him keeping his options open. …

"This time next year we'll have a better understanding what he's doing academically and what his options are."

While it is unknown if or when Carr might accept the Virtus Roma contract offer, the source close to the Carr family told Prep Rally that he expected the Carrs and the player's team of advisers to consider European options seriously. While Carr has a cult following in the Baltimore-D.C. corridor -- he scored 58 points in a victory against Forest Park (Md.) High this winter, and he reportedly has a 48-inch vertical leap -- some question whether he would academically qualify to compete at the NCAA level, or whether he would be successful there given his height. Martin said he was already beginning to reach out to European contacts to see what Carr's true market value might be should he decide to play abroad.

Carr's family could make the transition to Europe slightly easier if the athlete does decide to take that option, as well. The sophomore's parents live together in Baltimore and he has only two siblings, both of whom are already out of the house; his older brother Allen Jr. was a standout football player in the Baltimore high school football scene and his older sister Ashley will graduate from nearby Towson University in the coming weeks. It's possible that either one of his siblings -- or his father, Allen, or mother, Tammy -- could move abroad with Carr should he choose to play in Italy.

The $750,000 offer is not the first made to a pre-graduation American teenager by a European club, but it is the most lucrative. Six-foot-11 San Diego (Calif.) High star Jeremy Tyler left school after his junior season with a plan to play professionally for two years before declaring for the NBA draft. He first signed a $140,000 contract with Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Haifa, in April 2009, but left Maccabi after just 10 games and returned to practice near his home in March of 2010. Four months later Tyler signed a contract with the Tokyo Apache of the Japanese professional league, for which he competed in the 2010-11 season.

Many have pointed to Carr's height as the primary reason to doubt his skills. Rivals.com analyst Jerry Meyer said it will be interesting to see if Carr's skills transfer to the professional game in Europe, should he decide to accept his offer.

"The question on Carr as a high-level basketball prospect is whether or not his strengths as a player are strong enough to overcome his lack of height. Evidently, Virtus Roma thinks so."

It's also instructive to ponder whether Carr's European recruitment could serve as a potential watershed moment in how Euro teams approach American prospects. The European leagues have traditionally feasted on U.S. players who wash out of the NBA or aren't able to make its initial cut, with the notable exception of Josh Childress' spell in Greece and Jennings' time in Rome, among a few others. At the same time, European soccer clubs rely on an academy system to fuel their success, acquiring and training athletes at a young age and helping to build them into stars at the club.

While it's a stretch to say that a signing of Carr alone might signal a switch to American incorporation in the academy model, a successful transition into the Italian game from the Baltimore native might open doors to such a possibility for other American teenagers.

From the experiences Carr had at the Junior International Tournament, there is little question that the pint-sized point guard enjoyed his first trip to Italy. In addition to an impromptu Aquille Carr fan club, which was pictured hanging signs in Milan at the U.S. games, Martin said Italian fans in general flocked to treat Carr and his teammates as celebrities.

"I know after one game he scored 45 points and Italian fans carried him off the court," Martin told Prep Rally. "They tell me the kids over there had him signing lots of autographs. He loved it. That's what he was looking forward to. Experience the different culture and lifestyle over there, and experience some tourist things."

Needless to say, he came back with more than just championship memories.

ANT DAVIS NBADRAFT.NET

2011-05-02T11:00:00.001-05:00

41 - Anthony DavisKentucky
Birthday: 3/11/93NBA Position: Power ForwardClass: HS SeniorHt: 6-10Wt: 208Hometown: Chicago, ILHigh School: Perspectives Charter

NBA Comparison: Kevin Garnett/Brandon Wright

Strengths: Combines a versatile skill-set with excellent length, fluidity and athleticism ... Was a 6'3" guard his junior year before a major 7-inch growth spurt, so he possesses good perimeter skills ... Ball handling and passing skills are very strong for a player his size ... Capable of throwing brilliant outlet passes to set his teammates up for easy points ... Very unselfish ... Runs the floor extremely well, usually beating his man down the court with ease ... Outstanding length (7'4" wingspan), activity and instincts makes him an absolute terror as a defender ... A dominant shot blocker who also shows great ability defending on the perimeter ... Despite skinny frame, is an excellent rebounder ... Seemingly impossible to keep him off the offensive glass ... Soft hands and long arms allow him to catch virtually anything thrown in the vicinity of him ... An easy target for lob passes ... Has great instincts around the rim, touch within 5 feet of the basket ... Great athleticism, body control and touch makes him a very strong finisher in the paint ... Very efficient ... Virtually unstoppable around the basket... Strong motor and aggressiveness ... Willing to make the hustle plays and is not afraid of contact at all ... Humble kid with tremendous upside...

Weaknesses: Very slender, even for the collegiate level ... It's likely that he just needs some time to fill into his new found height, but that remains to be seen ... As of now, the combination of his frail frame and aggressiveness gets him into foul trouble fairly quickly when matched up with a bigger opponent ... Isn't refined offensively. His shooting ability and post moves are solid, but will need to show improvement if he ever wants to be a go-to scorer at the NBA level ... Growth spurt could cause some issues with his knees, could experience some significant pain and could also be a little injury prone for the next year or so ...

Outlook: Considered the top player in his class by many college recruiting sites, including Scout and ESPN... Was the highlight of the Jordan Brand Classic with 29 points (13-15 FG), 11 rebounds and 4 blocks... Will be playing for a very deep Kentucky team next season, where he can utilize his strengths... Likely one-and-done candidate who projects to be a top-5 pick in next year's draft ...

Tyler Ingle 4/30/11

YouTube Clip - 5/3/2010

Pinkk Princess Dancin

2011-05-02T10:59:00.000-05:00

WSHH Candy Deelishis Of VH1 She Works Hard For The Money

2011-04-30T12:23:00.000-05:00

WSHH ERICKA

2011-04-30T12:17:00.000-05:00

Demetri McCamey Interview

2011-04-30T09:32:00.002-05:00

A standout senior point gaurd at Illinois, Demetri McCamey averaged 14.6 ppg 6.1 apg, (2-1 a/to ratio), and 3.4 rpg. He also knocked down 45% (74-164) from 3 point range.

How was your senior year at Illinois?

My senior year taught me a lot about the game of basketball, what’s important, how to approach the game. I always try to improve on all aspects but I came into this season looking to improve my outside shot and 3pt percentage.

Demetri McCameyHow is the future of the program looking?

We have young guys like (D.J) Kennedy and (Brandon) Paul. Both are hardworking guys. They will need to keep working on their ball handling and point guard skills to help the other guys next season.

You lost to Michigan in the Conference tournament then beat UNLV before losing to the #1 Kansas in the NCAA tournament. What are your thoughts on the post season tournament and conference play?

It was a real good learning experience for the young guys. It was hurtful but it taught me a lot as well. It makes you want to work harder to do better.

In the Big Ten tournament, we played against Michigan who ended up having a pretty good year. Darius Morris is a good player with nice handles. He had a good season.

What is your best memory of Illinois? When are you graduating?

Scoring 31 against Eric Gordon (Indiana) in my freshmen year. We ended up losing the game at the end in double overtime but that game was against one of the best players and teams in the country.

I graduate 14th May and it can’t come soon enough. I studied a Recreation, sports and tourism degree.

You recently declined to participate at the Portsmouth Invitational. How is the rest of your pre draft schedule looking? What workouts/camps do you have planned?

I’m heading to the Wizards on Saturday, they are interested in bringing in a back up point guard who is a little different to John Wall. I will be working out with the Knicks as well, I just need to confirm when. After that, I will be preparing for Chicago pre draft camp. I won’t be attending the group work out in New Jersey.

Demetri McCameyI chose not to play at Portsmouth so I could work on my own game. The competition I felt I needed to face leading up to the draft wasn’t in Portsmouth.

What will you bring to an NBA team?

As a back-up point guard, I will bring toughness and the ability to stretch defenses with my outside shooting.

My focus is on making team mates better and getting assists

What part of your game are you looking to improve on?

I am working on everything, all aspects of my game. Each day I do different drills, shooting, defensive, ball handling.

Ill need to keep working on the pick and roll and my one on one defense.

Who is your toughest opponent on any level?

My big brother Evan Turner. I played against him a few times in my junior year and we matched up just about every time. As a 6”7 point guard his versatility is really tough to defend. He can shoot, beat you off the dribble, post-up.

Who is your favorite player? Do you pattern your game after anyone?

I’m going to go a bit old school and say Baron Davis.

He’s a big body guard. Now I like Deron Williams.

Your thoughts on NBA playoffs?

Here there isn’t much choice but to be a Bulls fan but I think the winner out of Bulls and the Heat will take it all.

It’s hard to say who is going to come out of the west with the Hornets giving the Lakers a hard time. Ill say between the Lakers and Thunder, both teams have a lot of talent.

Allen iverson

2011-04-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

Allen Iverson Teaches The Crossover

2011-04-26T11:11:00.000-05:00

New Eye Candy Model Diana Escotto a.k.a Mizz D.R.

2011-04-25T12:49:00.000-05:00

Isaiah Thomas Has BOUNCE

2011-04-04T09:35:00.000-05:00

RESPECT. Rick Ross Cover Story

2011-03-30T14:52:00.001-05:00

Guess it’s time for me to show love to you cheapskates. Here’s my Rozay cover story from the latest issue of RESPECT. You’re all welcome. Ha! Got to Respect-Mag.com for exclusive photos from our phenomenal shoot.

Untouchable

A cop? The King of Hip-Hop? Rick Ross has withstood character assassination that would’ve crippled a lesser man. Instead, he’s overcome all the hate and made greater music. Success sure does silence critics.

Words: ELLIOTT WILSON

Rick Ross is lost in the music. Grooving to the sounds of his own voice, the man who gave himself the nickname “Rozay” is out to prove he is indeed a photographer’s dream. With toke after toke from his Swisher blunt and sips from a red cup filled with Ciroc and lemonade, Ross is reveling in all the surroundings behind his RESPECT cover shoot.

Days later, we would spend his 35th birthday at his sports-memorabilia-filled Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, home as one of hip-hop’s most polarizing characters played gracious host. Who woulda thunk it? William Leonard Roberts II withstood the confirmation of his correctional officer past and personal melodramatic theatrics from rival 50 Cent in 2009 to emerge today as one of rap’s top artists in the game—a fact that’s not lost on him. He waited a very long time to get here. And he has no plans of stepping down.

So he’ll answer the tough questions with tougher music. Turn on the charm ’til all the haters are disarmed. And persevere until his name his mentioned in the same breath with fellow rap peers Kanye West and Lil Wayne. Mock if you must. But I wouldn’t bet against him.

RESPECT: Do you feel like you’re in some kind of crazy creative zone right now?

RICK ROSS: Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m in the zone. I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, and that’s just making doper-ass music. That’s all the drive I need. Competing to be the best—number one.

Teflon Don—some people had it at number one for 2010. You came right back with the mixtape, Ashes to Ashes. Why was it important to give people another project after you’d already given them a really strong album?

My expectations for myself may be higher than the usual standards. And I thought it was cool. My core audience really enjoyed Teflon Don, and they want to know what’s next. And when you give them a project like Ashes to Ashes, it’s always cool to let them in on the inside.

You’re giving people A-level material for free.

A lot of people feel like Ashes to Ashes should’ve been sold, but there’s a time and place for everything, and I think the time was to put the music out now, coming into the New Year. At the New Year, a lot of people want to know who they can expect to be on top of their A-game, and I think, coming from this MMG camp, you know what time it is. We made that clear.

But if you feel like you’re on your A-game, number-one level, why agree to be an opening act on Wayne’s “I Am Music 2” tour?

I still have a lot of room to grow. This tour is definitely a great opportunity, if you’re on top of your game. Wayne’s an icon of this generation, and just being a part of that shit and touching that crowd is going to help your brand. And also that’s my fam. So I’m not only excited from a business and a financial standpoint, I’m also excited because I know how we all work. Me and Birdman, we got maybe 30 to 40 records we did together. Me and Wayne, the new record we got on Tha Carter IV, uhhh…you know.

It’s gonna hurt somebody [laughs]? It’s a homicide?

That’s the record that I’m most excited about being a part of in 2011. It’s that mixtape Wayne! It’s that shit, it’s that talk that them street niggas love, you know?

Do you think your movement in some ways has also helped inspire him? In his absence, you’ve hit the streets hard.

It’s a good possibility. Because at the end of the day, we all respect and admire each other’s music, and we show that admiration for each other. That’s what I love most about this generation of entrepreneurs, niggas working with each other. It’s always about that unity. Doing business in New York, with some New York street niggas, doing some business in L.A., in Chicago, in Atlanta. That’s what I’m most eager about—doing business around the globe with real street dudes. That’s what translates into longevity.

Speaking of New York, the other day you celebrated your birthday there. Being such a student of the game, how special was—

Of course it was. I’m getting love from the Dominicans. The Dominicans brought me up there to Washington Heights. It was pink Champagne everywhere, smoke was in abundance, people sending me gifts, bottles, and I’m getting bags of cologne, cakes and gifts from street niggas. This is a type of appreciation that you can really appreciate at the end of the night. Give a shout-out to all my homies in New York City, caliber niggas, and what we really wanna see, and what we want to come from all this. We want a union before we want a standoff.

You speak often in the code of the streets, but no artist has taken more attacks on their credibility than you.

That’s why I’m still here, stronger than ever, richer than ever, bigger than ever. I’m going to call the shots as long as I want to. That’s the difference between [me and] other niggas who talk about it. Who really be about it? Who really bringing money to the table for niggas? Who really bawsed it up, who really putting their egos to the side and wanna see their partners win? Who really wanna see their lil’ homies have a good Christmas? That’s what really separates the true bosses, you know what I mean?

How does the music on the next album connect to the title of God Forgives, I Don’t?

It’s not even necessarily about me personally—it’s more about life. A lot of times I think life can be really unforgiving. On Christmas Eve, I buried one of my closest friends ever. He was slain in front of his three little kids in a home invasion. So I think life can be really unforgiving. Sometimes you really just gotta look that shit in the eyes and suck it up for what it is, you know what I’m saying? So it’s appropriate for where I’m going with the music. I think it’s going to help everybody absorb what’s happening.

So it’s bigger than you?

Of course. The music is always bigger than you. I’m just telling the story. I’m telling the first-hand story from real niggas. But like when we did the photo shoot, I was talking to one of my homies in federal prison, and this is one of my closest friends ever, and it’s unfortunate. But at the same time, I’m here to tell a story for a lot of things I’ve witnessed—and a lot of niggas doing time right now. So hopefully when somebody hears my music, I’m pretty sure they hear that uncut, true shit. It only comes from seeing that shit straight up and down.

“MC Hammer” and “BMF”—where did those songs come from? Talk to me about the creation. Do you remember the process of either one of them?

I was in L.A., man, I was smoking this miracle marijuana, I’ll never forget, from the Gourmet Green Room. We was just riding around Cali—I love to be in the hills, you know, Miami’s so flat—and I turn the music up, let the windows down, and I’m smoking this shit. I just start the “I’m MC Hammer, I got thirty cars.” You know, FYI, I got more than 30 cars [laughs]. I actually start chanting the chorus then, and Spiff pulled out his BlackBerry and just started jotting it down. It went on for 30 minutes, just riding through Cali.

Just the idea of that success…

Just the idea…

Excess…

Of how big he did it. The nigga was on cartoons, you know what I’m saying? Big-ups to him, because he really, really inspired me on that level.

[Linebreak]

With the 50 battle, some people forget you jabbed him first, right? With the “Mafia Music” joint—you kind of tapped him.

Right.

Because you just didn’t like his energy?

It boiled down to what really was going on. It wasn’t nothing at the time that was personal against 50 Cent, but he was attacking people, and began attacking people closer and closer to me, to a point where I had to make a decision. I felt I was gonna be next on that list. So I took the offensive.

People were shocked by that. It’s like you don’t pick a fight with the bully. It stunned the whole game overall.

Niggas gotta study history. The mob bosses always get whacked at the end. Sometimes by someone of lesser value, of lesser importance, you feel me? So, on that note, you gotta understand there’s always niggas that’s willing to make that sacrifice on some real shit. When you really step out there, and you want to get into some shit, you’ve got to be on your A-game. My goal is to deliver hit records. But don’t get it mistaken, we are the muscle—we are the muscle.

But isn’t it really just about dope music trumps all? It’s not about C.O. talk, it’s if I make the dopest shit, I win?

If I’m the richest nigga on the block, if I’m the flyest nigga on the block, it ain’t no way to get around that. If I’m feeding the most niggas in the ’hood, if I’m looking out for the most bitches, and keeping it real with the most niggas that I can, it’s no way to get around that. And if you’re doing that, wherever you at, you’re gonna be successful. And at the end of the day, if you’re not successful, no one cares about you. Being successful, making dope records, it’s being a part of dope moments in musical history, you feel me? That’s the only thing I’m concerned about. I have no personal quarrels with no one in this music business—none. I set my goals, my standards. Other than that, it ain’t nothing personal. I fuck with who I fuck with, and they know who they are, and anybody else…. I’m all about moneybags. You feel good once you crack that 20 million mark; I wanna know what it’s like to hit 50.

How did we get here, Rick? You got signed in ’96. This isn’t overnight success.

The love of music. When you come in my house, you see a big-ass 1970s jukebox. You see another record player on the floor—that’s just my Prince vinyl, my Thriller vinyl. I love music, I love making music more than anything, man. It was after making music for 10 years and never making a dollar from it; at some point you just accept that this is what you love to do, it is what it is.

But the beautiful thing about it is I’ve gained so much experience, I feel like when it comes to making music, I’m one of the best music-makers in this business. I’ve written hit records for so many other artists…hit records…number-one records. “Aston Martin Music” is my first number-one record for Rick Ross. Not number-one album—I’ve had several of those—but number-one single. “Aston Martin Music” was my number one for Rick Ross, but not for William.

I gotta go and check my credits [laughs].

We actually have five offers on the table for my Maybach Music Group. Five aggressive offers. It’s safe to say every label wants to work with my imprint, my brand, which is something I’m extremely proud of. I’m hands-on. I’m capable of making that much music, I’m capable of making four or five records a day. All hard records, you know what I’m sayin’? That’s what we’re doin’ over here: developing artists. We got reggae artists, another big movie deal. Shout-out to my Latino division, Maybach Latino. I’m doing a lot of different things. We’re giving a lot of brothers opportunities to chase their dreams, and shit’s only going to get better. I’m on my Pat Riley shit, man. It’s just that time. I’m not going to believe in everybody. But Meek Mill and Wale, I believe in.

Talk to me about you and Kanye. You just shot a video for your part in “Devil in a New Dress.” How did that collab come together? That verse is hard.

It’s definitely one of those dope records. That just comes from me being a fan of the music he created from The College Dropout and Graduation. It’s like, “When I wake up in the morning, I play those records, Mr. West!” [Laughs] He really created a new lane of hip-hop. That was the beauty of his success.

But to go back, he produced a track for a particular artist, another artist that I happened to write the rhymes for. We were in the studio together, making sure this particular artist delivered the record properly [laughs], and on the downtime while this particular artist was workin’, me and ’Ye was vibing on some chill shit.

We rhymed for each other, for maybe two to three hours. My whole catalog, his whole catalog. This was before he ever had a major hit, before I ever had a hit, just me and him in the studio. We actually had conversations [about] him producing my whole album. Like, “Damn, man, your verses.” And it just so happened we set dates to link with each other, exchanged numbers, and that following week he had the car crash. I believe the week after the car crash was when me and him was supposed to get in the studio.

So that’s where the “had cyphers with Yeezy before his mouth wired” line came from.

That’s why I know when he heard it. I know it took him back, because this is something we don’t talk about. We don’t talk about before, when we both were nobodies. We never forget where we come from, but it’s like, we love to see each other shine. It took me an hour to write the rhyme. I laid the verse. I kept calling because the album was at mastering. They called back and were like, “Yo, shit is phenomenal.” And you know, I just reflected on, We here, man. At the end of the day, we know where we came from, we know what our dreams as, what our plans was, and I’ll never forget something my grandfather told me years ago: “As long as you accomplish what you set out to accomplish, you won.”

And when I approached the record, it’s like I just went back to me and Kanye sitting in a little studio in Miami, trying to inspire each other. And to see where we’re both at today, to know the mansions we were in and out of in Hawaii, and I’m fuckin’ hang-gliding, and we see the whales. I’m going, Thank you, God. I see whales—you see what I’m saying? Yeah, man, it was a beautiful moment.

So was being a rap star your one big career goal?

I never forget. I was cutting school. I was in the sixth grade, this was when my dad had left for a time, so I wasn’t doing good, this was before football came into my life—that’s what really turned me around—and I went to the flea market, and they had a game room [with] a big screen where they didn’t play nothing but videos. I was sitting there, between the games, in there just watchin’, and “The Symphony” was on. It was a couple of girls, they walked up in front of me to get the best view of it. I’m lookin’ at one girl, she’s like the finest bitch with the biker shorts on lookin’ at Big Daddy Kane, and I’ll never forget her remarks. I started wearing my flat-top that day.

Like you just mentioned, football was also your thing, right?

Football during high school. In my elementary years…I was kicked out of public school. Like in the third or fourth grade, I had to go to some other shit for a little while, then I went back to public school, and then middle school wasn’t really much better. But by the time I got to high school and started playing football, that shit kind of got me on. My coach helped rearrange shit and got me focused. I loved playing football, that’s all we ever did.

Your position?

Center. Yeah, All-American.

But the streets were always a factor.

Of course. That’s what it was. Coming from where I come from in Miami, it’s like if you’re doing your thing by the time you’re in the eighth or ninth grade, it’s not even abnormal. For people not from Miami, I know it’s hard to understand. Any nigga that’s in prison right now that love you, he’s going to tell you, “Do the right thing, man, this ain’t where you wanna be. You don’t wanna play with these people.”

You studied the game, saw it from a different perspective, and then, being that sponge, it’s like, now it’s your time.

Of course, of course. Rick Ross being on top of hip-hop is not by mistake. It’s the furthest thing from that. And I don’t take that for granted. And I’m-a play my position. It’s like, I’m not necessarily seeking pop…that’s not necessarily my goal. My goal is to make sure the work that I put out is better than the previous. From the concepts to the ideas to the way it makes somebody feel. The best artists can control all those elements.

You just make the art.

Exactly. That’s my priority when I make music.

Give me some more insight into God Forgives. How far into it are you? Do you feel like you already have singles in your mind? How far along do you feel the project is? What’s the temperature of the album?

COMEBACK: DAJUAN WAGNER

2011-03-16T11:33:00.006-05:00

The dark gym inside Camden’s Henry L. Bonsall Elementary School is a long way from Madison Square Garden and Staples Center, but this is where the best high school basketball player New Jersey has ever produced can be found.

He blends into the crowd in the wooden bleachers, an unassuming figure in jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt. He thumbs text messages into his cell phone and glances at the action on the court, then turns and drifts into his own thoughts.

Ten years ago, Dajuan Wagner was the biggest name in high school basketball as he finished up a career at Camden High. The scoring machine once netted 100 points in a game and averaged an unthinkable 42 for an entire season. Around town, people christened him the basketball Messiah.

But today, the No. 6 pick of the 2002 NBA Draft is back where it all started, watching youth league games at an elementary school in relative anonymity.

The spotlight that followed Wagner has faded, but it’s hard to tell whether he cares.

“Juanny doesn’t express his feelings like that,” said Arthur Barclay, Wagner’s best friend and a former high school and college teammate. “He keeps a lot of it inside. Just in the 15 years I’ve known him, if I was to say, ‘Hey Juanny, how you doing?’ He’d just say, ‘I’m all right.’”

Wagner, now 28, hasn’t played competitive basketball for three years, but says he’s in the process of making one last NBA comeback. He had surgery on his right knee last year and recently was cleared to resume playing.

His schedule is perpetually flexible because he has not worked the past three years. And while he declines to discuss the specifics of his finances, or invite outsiders to see his home in nearby West Deptford, friends say he has plenty of money and lives comfortably. The rookie contract he signed with Cleveland nine years ago was worth $10.7 million over four years.

What Wagner has been up to the past three years seems mysterious — if not entirely simple.

He said he watches a lot of games in South Jersey and that he rarely goes out at night, preferring to bowl when he does. And he said he devotes most of his time to raising his 5-year-old son, Dajuan Jr., a spitting image of his father, with a round face, large eyes and wide smile.

He also does his best to shield his son and keep his immediate family insulated.

Wagner is hesitant to have his son photographed for a newspaper story, saying he wants him to grow up without the burden of the athletic pressure he felt as the son of Milt Wagner, a Camden legend in his own right.

Neither his longtime agent, Leon Rose, nor his college coach, John Calipari, returned messages seeking comment for this story, and Wagner declines to provide contact information for his mother and five sisters. And when Dajuan Jr.’s mother is approached and asked to chat, she declines. Wagner first has to give the okay, she says.

“I just don’t like the attention,” Wagner said. “I could never get used to it.”

• • •

The Camden people still love to recount their favorite images from Wagner’s youth.

Wagner dribbling a tennis ball through the streets to improve his ball handling. … The youngster wearing strength shoes during the day to build leg muscle. … The kid cutting a solitary figure on the crumbling courts off Ferry Avenue and South 9th Street, shooting long after dark. ... Wagner scooping snow off the same courts so he could shoot jumpers after winter storms.

Wagner said he wasn’t born great. He made himself great.

“Everybody puts you on this pedestal and you want to live up to those expectations,” Wagner said. “I just always wanted to be the best.”

Wagner was anointed the next Camden star as a fifth-grader while still on the team at Morgan Village Middle School, which included eighth-grade boys. Three years later, he punctuated a championship victory with a dunk.

Camden is a basketball city that has produced a number of great players — Itchy Smith, Billy Thompson and Milt Wagner.

But Dajuan would be better than them all.

He scored 737 points as a freshman, a state record. His junior season, he led the Panthers to a victory in the Tournament of Champions final — marking the last time a public school won the state’s ultimate title. He finished his career as the state’s all-time scoring leader with 3,462 points.

Some recruiting analysts speculated he would jump straight to the NBA, but he decided to go to college for a year, picking Memphis.

“He brought a lot of pride to the city,” said Russ Cook, Wagner’s uncle. “He brought the city together at a time when everybody was apart. He gave people something to cheer about and something to all rally behind and root for.

“And it seemed like it all got pulled out from under him.”

• • •

The aches and pains in his stomach started at Memphis — a dull throbbing that kept him awake. Wagner thought it was just something he ate, but eventually discovered it was far worse.

Wagner was selected by Cleveland in the 2002 NBA Draft, but from the start he was rarely healthy. He missed his first 14 games with a bladder infection, and later in his rookie season he tore cartilage in his right knee.

The next two years were a series of setbacks: dehydration, an inflamed liver and pancreas, a second right knee surgery, a sprained ankle. In three injury-riddled seasons with the Cavs, Wagner played in 102 of 246 games.

Cleveland declined to pick up his option and released Wagner after the 2004-2005 season.

Dajuan Wagner, shown during his high-school days, finished his career at Camden High as the state's all-time leading scorer with 3,462 points.

“You just sit back sometimes and you’re like, he has to be one of the most unlucky kids in the world when it comes to injuries,” Barclay said. “It never was a question of his athletic abilities. It was just a bunch of injuries.”

After the Cavs parted ways, Wagner learned he had colitis, an inflammation of the colon or large intestine. He had major surgery in October 2005 to remove his colon and replace it with a pouch made from part of his small intestine.

“Just like that, everything stopped,” Wagner said. “I played basketball my whole life and then for two or three years I couldn’t do nothing.”

Wagner made a remarkable recovery from the surgery and attracted interest from NBA teams in the summer of 2006. Golden State signed him to a two-year contract worth $1.6 million.

After a strong preseason, Wagner started to think his body couldn’t keep pace with the NBA rigors. He appeared in only one game and was released in November 2006; his contract was bought out for an undisclosed sum.

He spent four months playing in Poland, signing another big contract, but he injured his hip and reinjured his knee.

After the season, his career in tatters, Wagner returned to Camden.

“The bitter moment is the fact we had to see it come to a close,” Barclay said. “The sky was the limit for him. Who knows what he could have accomplished?”

• • •

Just like 10 years ago, Dajuan Wagner has captivated basketball fans in Camden, his legend growing with every jump shot.

Only this time it’s Dajuan Wagner Jr., a blossoming star in the league at Bonsall.

The void in Dajuan’s life that used to be occupied by basketball has been replaced by a passion for his son.

Growing up, Dajuan’s only saw his dad in the summer, when Milt was home from playing professionally overseas.

Dajuan said he won’t let his son feel that distance.

“Just being around my son, that was a blessing,” Wagner said in a rare moment of levity. “Just seeing him be a little kid.”

Wagner used to want to make it back to the NBA to prove to he could.

Now there’s another reason: Dajuan Jr.

“He’s never seen me in the NBA,” Wagner said. “So that’s one thing I want to do — get back to the NBA so he can watch me. Just us being in the house, him watching the games, I think it would be good to see his dad out there.”

Wagner said he will intensify his workouts in the coming weeks to prepare for a comeback, but if things don’t work out, he’ll finish his degree and get into coaching.

These days, Wagner said it’s painful to watch NBA games. He’ll stare at the television screen for a few minutes, analyzing the action, and then he’s had enough. He’ll change the channel to something else.

Wagner makes exceptions when he’s with Dajuan Jr., who loves watching LeBron James and marvels at how he glides up and down the court.

Wagner used to do the same things, he thinks to himself.

One day, he’ll show his son.

One day, that will be him out there.

Preps Chicago Hoops Episode 11: part 2 of 2

2011-03-14T12:20:00.000-05:00

Preps Chicago Hoops Episode 11

2011-03-14T11:52:00.000-05:00

Michael Jordan: Derrick Rose is MVP

2011-03-10T12:13:00.000-06:00

Former Bulls legend Michael Jordan believes Derrick Rose is the MVP of the NBA.

"MVP of the season," Jordan said about Rose after the Bulls' 101-84 win over his Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night. "He deserves it. He's playing that well. He deserves it. Without a doubt. And if he doesn't get it, now he'll see how I felt a lot of years."

Rose, who scored 20 points in the Bulls' victory, loved the support from arguably the greatest player of all time.

"That's huge, man," he said with a smile. "When the person that you're playing behind, all you hear about is Mike, especially in Chicago, look up to him. For him to say that, it's unbelievable. It's an honor and I'm speechless right now."

Rose is averaging 25 points, eight assists and four rebounds per game this season.

"It's great that he said that, it's an honor, but we're just trying to keep winning," Rose said. "The award, like I've said, it will come if we keep winning. But we're just trying to play hard, play together, and keep playing aggressive and play with an edge."

Rose said he didn't talk to Jordan, the Bobcats owner, after the game, but hopes to later, when the stakes are higher.

"No, I didn't talk to him," Rose said. "But probably in the playoffs. [I'll] probably have to talk to him about certain things."

J. Cole Freestyle On RapFix Live [Feb - 2011]

2011-03-07T11:41:00.000-06:00

JEREME RICHMOND DRAFT EXPRESS

2011-03-01T10:09:00.002-06:00

Jereme Richmond, 6'9, Freshman, Forward, Illinois
7.8 Points, 5.3 Rebounds, 1.9 Assists, 1.7 Turnovers, 51% FG, 59% FT, 20% 3P

A consensus top-30 recruit and McDonald's All-American last season, Jereme Richmond has had an inconsistent rookie campaign littered with moments of brilliance, including an 18-point 10-rebound outing against Ohio State in late January. After dealing with some personal issues that caused him to miss a few practices and sparked rumors of a mid-season transfer, Richmond has since reaffirmed commitment to the Illinois program despite its difficulties in Big Ten play.

Though Richmond hasn't had a tremendously productive season, nor does he possess a reputation for fundamentally sound play offensively, he is amongst the most impressive physical specimens in NCAA basketball and a legitimate NBA prospect because of it. Tremendously long and athletic, Richmond has great speed in the open floor, explosiveness, and a frame that has room for additional muscle. He's an emotional player, who can get his team going with a highlight reel play, but needs to hone his basketball IQ and skill-level.

Richmond's potential is most notable on the defensive end, where he's been very good for stretches this season despite his inexperience. He has struggled at times against more aggressive, experienced slashers and savvy pick and roll-oriented scorers, but he's shown the tools to defend the perimeter effectively and could emerge as a high-level defender with additional coaching and strength.

Richmond's ability to defend the perimeter is important because at just 6'6, he has spent most of his time playing a power forward-type role offensively for the Illini in the high post to allow Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale to using their shooting ability stepping out on the baseline. Despite showing a raw versatility and midrange game that give him intriguing upside, most of his offensive possessions come from basic hustle plays and post-ups against smaller guards off of switches. An extremely effective finisher and rebounder thanks to his leaping ability, Richmond flashes a hook shot that could be an asset to him against smaller players if he continues to develop it down the road.

Richmond's knack for making plays at the rim is a big part of his contributions in the college game, but the development of his perimeter scoring arsenal will dictate his long-term success. He shows soft touch when shooting inside and good follow through on occasion, but the rhythm and release point of his jumper remain inconsistent and will limit his ability to play the wing full time in the NBA early on. He's made just two 3-pointers in 27 games thus far this season.

The 18 year old forward also has plenty of room to grow as a slasher. He has the first-step and rangy stride that could make him a handful to keep out of the lane, but lacks the ball-handling ability and strength to confidently get to the rack. Very raw on the whole, Richmond is the type of player who will coast for long stretches before making one great play seemingly every game to remind you of how good he might be down the road.

If Richmond can develop the capacity to knock down catch and shoot jumpers from the outside, play low-mistake basketball and emerge as a lock-down defender, he has the potential to fill a highly coveted role in the NBA. With Mike Tisdale, Demetri McCamey, and Mike Davis all graduating, Richmond could be in position to have a breakout year in 2012, but his physical tools make him a potential first round pick as soon as this summer if he feels the urge to make the leap early. Something of a blank slate at this point, Richmond has plenty of improvements to make and plenty of time to make them whether it is on a NBA bench or in Champaign.

2011 JORDAN BRAND ALL*AMERICAN GAME ROSTER

2011-02-22T15:34:00.001-06:00

Jordan Brand Classic -- East Team

Khem Birch, C (Montreal/Notre Dame Prep)
Ht.: 6-9 | Wt.: 210 | Rank: 11 | C Rank: 1 | College: Pittsburgh
Birch is an off the charts athlete that can charge the game on the defensive end of the floor with his ability to block shots and rebound. His is a big time clear path finisher and when his offense catches up to his defense is game goes to next level. Birch has great upside and has drawn comparisons to former Cincinnati and NBA star Kenyon Martin.

Michael Carter-Williams, SG (Hamilton, Mass./St. Andrew's)
Ht.: 6-5 | Wt.: 175 | Rank: 18 | SG Rank: 5 | College: Syracuse
He has evolved into one of the elite players nationally. He plays with energy on both sides of the ball and has shown the ability to impact a game as much defensively as with his scoring. Although he is an outstanding scorer that carries the load at the high school level, he plans to transition into more of a point guard when he arrives on the Syracuse campus.

Rakeem Christmas, C (Philadelphia/Academy of the New Church)
Ht.: 6-9 | Wt.: 230 | Rank: 16 | C Rank: 2 | College: Syracuse
He has shown the ability to dominate the game on the defensive end. Although we were a little discouraged by his offensive development and progression from his junior year to the present, there is no denying his potential upside as a dynamic interior player as he brings some intangibles to the court that can't be taught.

Michael Gbinije, SF (Chester, Va./Benedictine)
Ht.: 6-6 | Wt.: 194 | Rank: 28 | SF Rank: 7 | College: Duke
Gbinije is a fundamentally sound player that allows the game to come to him. He should have an easier transition than most prospects heading onto college because of his overall grasp of the game and skill set.

Michael Gilchrist, SF (Somerdale, N.J./St. Patrick)
Ht.: 6-7 | Wt.: 210 | Rank: 3 | SF Rank: 1 | College: Kentucky
He always seems to rise to the occasion when challenged. Gilchrist is a winner with the disposition to dominate and does the dirty work that leads to championships.

P.J. Hairston, SG (Greensboro, N.C./Hargrave Military Academy)
Ht.: 6-6 | Wt.: 220 | Rank: 13 | SG Rank: 3 | College: North Carolina
Hairston is a big time shooter with range beyond the arc and finisher at the rim. If he adds a mid range game and gets into great shape the sky is the limit for this big strong and physical guard who can take over a game on the offensive end of the floor at times.

James McAdoo, PF (Norfolk, Va./Norfolk Christian)
Ht.: 6-8 | Wt.: 216 | Rank: 5 | PF Rank: 3 | College: North Carolina
McAdoo is an old school throw-back that highly skilled and fundamentally sound. He understands the games nuances and takes advantage of positioning and angles to make it look easy.

Quincy Miller, PF (North Chicago, Ill./Westchester Country Day)
Ht.: 6-9 | Wt.: 210 | Rank: 4 | PF Rank: 2 | College: Baylor
Miller is an elite player and one of the top NBA prospects in this class. He reminds us of a more athletic Danny Manning who is highly skilled and understands how to play.

Austin Rivers, SG (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park)
Ht.: 6-4 | Wt.: 189 | Rank: 1 | SG Rank: 1 | College: Duke
Rivers is the most prolific offensive player in the 2011 class. He is fearless attacking any type of defense and has the ability to go on some amazing runs when he gets heated up. His advanced skill level and competitive drive set him apart from his peers as he seems to thrive when most others wilt with the game on the line.

Shannon Scott, PG (Alpharetta, Ga./Milton)
Ht.: 6-2 | Wt.: 170 | Rank: 29 | PG Rank: 6 | College: Ohio State
Scott is a solid all around point guard that can make a team run very smooth. His instincts and decision making makes him special.

Marquis Teague, PG (Indianapolis/Pike)
Ht.: 6-2 | Wt.: 175 | Rank: 8 | PG Rank: 1 | College: Kentucky
Teague is built for Kentucky's dribble-drive offense and should excel when demanded to defend to his capabilities under John Calipari's tutelage. He is different than John Wall in that he is more an explosive power pack as opposed to a thoroughbred, but should flourish within the system in much the same way.

Jordan Brand Classic -- West Team

Bradley Beal, SG (St. Louis/Chaminade)
Ht.: 6-3 | Wt.: 177 | Rank: 7 | SG Rank: 2 | College: Florida
A player with his ability to fill it up will always find a place in the lineup. He is a pure shooter who wants the ball in pressure situations and thrives in key moments.

Jabari Brown, SG (Oakland, Calif./Oakland)
Ht.: 6-3 | Wt.: 200 | Rank: 24 | SG Rank: 8 | College: Oregon
Brown is a true shooting guard who can score inside and out with deep shooting range. He is strong and competes. Brown is one the best shooters in the Class of 2011with the confidence to take and hit big shots.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, SG (Greenville, Ga./Greenville)
Ht.: 6-4 | Wt.: 190 | Rank: 22 | SG Rank: 6 | College: Georgia
The State of Georgia has its share of elite level shooting guards and Caldwell-Pope has quietly elevated himself to the top of the list with his consistent ability to score against any type of defense.

Anthony Davis, PF (Chicago/Perspectives Charter)
Ht.: 6-10 | Wt.: 195 | Rank: 2 | PF Rank: 1 | College: Kentucky
No one in the 2011 class has elevated their game like Davis. He has gone from a relative unknown to being considered one of the top if not the top prospect in the country. He is a matchup nightmare.

Myck Kabongo, PG (Toronto/Findlay Prep)
Ht.: 6-2 | Wt.: 160 | Rank: 9 | PG Rank: 2 | College: Texas
Point guards play the most important position on the floor and are ultimately judged by winning. The Canadian import is a coach's dream that excels at all the key skills that make up an outstanding floor leader.

Johnny O'Bryant, PF (Cleveland, Miss./East Side)
Ht.: 6-10 | Wt.: 265 | Rank: 30 | PF Rank: 7 | College: LSU
O'Bryant is one of the few pure power players in this year's class. He has great size and strength to carve out position on the block. He does a nice job of working for and demanding the ball in the paint.

Dom Pointer, SF (Roseville, Mich./Quality Education Academy)
Ht.: 6-6 | Wt.: 195 | Rank: 34 | SF Rank: 8 | College: St. John's
Pointer is a tough physical competitor who can score, defend and offensive rebound. He is a terrific perimeter defender.

Otto Porter, SF (Sikeston, Mo./Scott County Central)
Ht.: 6-9 | Wt.: 200 | Rank: 42 | SF Rank: 11 | College: Undecided
Porter brings great length and skill to the forward position. He has a deadly mid range game and can make teammates better with his passing and willingness to share the ball.

Adonis Thomas, SF (Memphis, Tenn./Melrose)
Ht.: 6-7 | Wt.: 210 | Rank: 10 | SF Rank: 3 | College: Memphis
His overall skills are very strong and put him in position to get a lot done on the floor, but it's the intangibles that stick out. Thomas is a coach's dream who wins not only games but championships while leaving a lasting impression on your program.

Kyle Wiltjer, PF (Portland, Ore./Jesuit)
Ht.: 6-9 | Wt.: 221 | Rank: 15 | PF Rank: 5 | College: Kentucky
He can score from anywhere on the floor and is a match up nightmare. He can pass and handle the ball as well.

Tony Wroten Jr., PG (Renton, Wash./Garfield)
Ht.: 6-4 | Wt.: 206 | Rank: 14 | PG Rank: 3 | College: Washington
He is a physical wing-type with point guard skills. His jump shot looks smoother out to the stripe and he has the ability to punish his defender by posting him up.

2011 McDONALD'S ALL*AMERICAN GAME ROSTER

2011-02-10T20:31:00.002-06:00

McDonald's All-Americans -- East team

Bradley Beal, SG (St. Louis/Chaminade)
Ht.: 6-3 | Wt.: 177 | Rank: 7 | SG Rank: 2 | College: Florida
Stats: 33.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 5.2 apg
Paul Biancardi's breakdown: Beal is one of the most outstanding and consistent jump shooters and 3-point shooters in high school basketball. He always plays under control and is a very smooth performer. Watch him move without the ball because he understands how to get open and use screens.
Dave Telep's take: Regarded by most as one of the elite competitors in high school basketball, Beal was named captain of his two USA Basketball squads, which both won gold medals. To hear him speak of the experience with reverence will go down in my mind as a special story. To me, Beal is an ideal teammate, a quiet star and a fantastic all-around basketball player.

Chane Behanan, PF (Bowling Green, Ky./Bowling Green)
Ht.: 6-7 | Wt.: 230 | Rank: 27 | PF Rank: 6 | College: Louisville
Stats: 23.4 ppg, 13.5 rpg, 4.2 spg
Biancardi's breakdown: Behanan is an agile, rebounding machine who gets in the paint and carves out space for himself. His thick frame also lets him take contact and finish inside.
Telep's take: This past spring, Behanan was in search of an invitation to the NBA Top 100 Camp. At no point would anyone have projected him to walk out of the building with the MVP award, but that's exactly what happened. His performance on the big stage led to scholarship offers and his eventual selection as a McDonald's All-American.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, SG (Greenville, Ga./Greenville)
Ht.: 6-4 | Wt.: 190 | Rank: 22 | SG Rank: 6 | College: Georgia
Stats: 28.2 ppg, 5.0 apg, 6.0 spg
Biancardi's breakdown: He's a big-time shooter who lets the game come to him. Caldwell-Pope can score effectively against man or zone and stretches out the defense. He also has the potential to be an excellent on-the-ball defender.
Telep's take: He's a man of few words and deep, high-arcing jump shots. Mark Fox's signature recruit put on a show in the spring in Hampton, Va., with the Georgia Blazers. Granted, he clicked off a lot of shots, but he had my attention with a 10-for-22 shooting spree that culminated in 37 points. Quiet kid, loud game.

Michael Carter-Williams, SG (Hamilton, Mass./St. Andrew's)
Ht.: 6-5 | Wt.: 175 | Rank: 18 | SG Rank: 5 | College: Syracuse
Stats: 20.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 6.3 apg
Biancardi's breakdown:Carter-Williams is a long, thin athletic scoring guard who is always in attack mode. He is also excellent at creating space for his jumper or creative with the dribble to get to the rim, especially with the clock winding down.
Telep's take: In his final summer on the AAU circuit, Carter-Williams captained a youthful group of BABC All-Stars. His first game at the Peach Jam was a 44-point eruption and was the catalyst for his candidacy as an All-American. ESPN's Mike LaPlante noted that he made 30 of 35 free throws on his first day at the Peach Jam.

Rakeem Christmas, C (Philadelphia/Academy of the New Church)
Ht.: 6-9 | Wt.: 230 | Rank: 16 | C Rank: 2 | College: Syracuse
Stats: 11.3 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 3.9 bpg
Biancardi's breakdown: Christmas has shown the ability to dominate a game from the defensive end because he works the glass and is difficult to score against thanks to his 7-foot wingspan. However, he also runs the floor on offense and has good touch inside.
Telep's take: It's tough to look back and find one singular moment regarding Christmas. However, he did one thing as a high schooler that I'll never forget. Christmas' gift is his ability to elevate in traffic, above the rim, over everybody. I'll remember him as the guy who spent a good portion of his career peering through the rim.

Quinn Cook, PG (Hyattsville, Md./Oak Hill Academy)
Ht.: 6-1 | Wt.: 180 | Rank: 39 | PG Rank: 7 | College: Duke
Stats: 19.1 ppg, 10.9 apg, 2.5 spg
Biancardi's breakdown: He is a battle-tested point guard who is adept at driving and kicking to open teammates, but if you leave him alone, he will make you pay. Cook is also solid in transition where gets the ball to his playmakers.
Telep's take: Cook wasn't the most talented guard on the two USA Basketball teams he played for during his career. Regardless, he was USA's starting point for two straight summers because he made the game easier for those around him and kept the superstars happy. He won a pair of gold medals with the squad.

Michael Gilchrist, SF (Somerdale, N.J./St. Patrick)
Ht.: 6-7 | Wt.: 210 | Rank: 3 | SF Rank: 1 | College: Kentucky
Stats: 21.1 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 5.0 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: Gilchrist is a tremendous athlete who wants to dominate and has the disposition to do so. The future Wildcat is a consistent producer who beats defenders with his rebounding and ability to drive to the basket, and is a capable outside shooter.
Telep's take: The first time I met Gilchrist was in the Dean Dome, and St. Patrick coach Kevin Boyle pointed out this thin yet talented eighth-grader who was playing that day for Boyle's son's AAU team. Boyle told me he was going to be "pretty good." A year later, he was the top prospect in the class of 2011, and he is now the most competitive player in the senior class. He won a celebrated camp matchup against Harrison Barnes and was named the 2009 NBA Camp's top overall prospect.

P.J. Hairston, SG (Greensboro, N.C./Hargrave Military Academy)
Ht.: 6-6 | Wt.: 220 | Rank: 13 | SG Rank: 3 | College: North Carolina
Stats: 25.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 4.7 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: Hairston is a skilled defender with great size and strength who can knock down 3s, get to the rim, make contact and finish. When he lets it go, you think it's going in, and he can break open a game with consecutive 3s.
Telep's take: He led the NBA camp in scoring and once hit for 53 points in a game for Greensboro Dudley, but neither stands out as much as his 20-point second-quarter outburst against Kinston in a 3-A regional loss to Reggie Bullock. With UNC coach Roy Williams sitting courtside, the future teammates combined for 57 points in front of 6,500 fans.

James McAdoo, PF (Norfolk, Va./Norfolk Christian)
Ht.: 6-8 | Wt.: 216 | Rank: 5 | PF Rank: 3 | College: North Carolina
Stats: 21.6 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 2.4 bpg
Biancardi's breakdown: McAdoo is a highly skilled power forward who has good fundamentals and plays with great effort. He is also an active rebounder with a face-up game to 15 feet who can run the floor and finish with the best of them. Simply put, when you're dreaming about power forwards, he's your guy.
Telep's take: He has a Tim Duncan-esque way about him. There isn't a more unassuming star in the senior class, yet he has every reason to toot his own horn. As fundamentally sound a player as there is in high school ball (sounds like Duncan, right?), McAdoo was named USA Basketball's 2009 male athlete of the year. At 16 years old, he became the youngest person ever to win the award.

Johnny O'Bryant, PF (Cleveland, Miss./East Side)
Ht.: 6-10 | Wt.: 265 | Rank: 30 | PF Rank: 7 | College: LSU
Stats: 19.2 ppg, 14.7 rpg, 6.2 bpg
Biancardi's breakdown: O'Bryant is a true post player whose powerful body and strength allow him to carve out position in the paint. He also has strong hands to rebound and soft hands to score inside.
Telep's take: This kid, because of his long hair and mature body, looks like the last guy you'd want to tangle with. He'll be remembered for his size and overall athletic ability. On dozens of occasions at major national events, O'Bryant would complete a spin move or knock down a jumper. The move would defy his size but demonstrate his physical gifts.

Marshall Plumlee, C (Warsaw, Ind./Christ School)
Ht.: 6-11 | Wt.: 215 | Rank: 37 | C Rank: 4 | College: Duke
Stats: 12.0 ppg, 12.0 rpg, 3.5 bpg
Biancardi's breakdown: Plumlee is a mobile big who runs the floor extremely well with focus, energy and purpose. He has a solid face-up jumper to 15 feet, is an active rebounder and is difficult to score over.
Telep's take: He spent three years at Christ School playing in the shadow of his brothers, one of whom also played in the McDonald's game. As a senior, Plum-3 came into his own. Always smiling, he's the epitome of a happy-go-lucky kid trapped in a 7-footer's body. Not too many centers can say they beat Deuce Bello (High Point, N.C./Westchester Country Day) in a slam-dunk contest, but Plumlee did at this year's City of Palms Classic.

Shannon Scott, PG (Alpharetta, Ga./Milton)
Ht.: 6-2 | Wt.: 170 | Rank: 29 | PG Rank: 6 | College: Ohio State
Stats: 13.0 ppg, 7.0 apg, 2.5 spg
Biancardi's breakdown: No senior has improved more than Scott. He is a true point guard who is a floor general with great instincts and prides himself on making his team win.
Telep's take: The pressure of being the son of the ACC's first-ever black player never outwardly affected him. He made the McDonald's game mainly on his inspired play as a senior. In two national TV games, Scott showed his toughness, and his nomination to this team is a vindication that the high school season still has meaning.

McDonald's All-Americans -- West team

Khem Birch, C (Montreal/Notre Dame Prep)
Ht.: 6-9 | Wt.: 210 | Rank: 11 | C Rank: 1 | College: Pittsburgh
Stats: 18.0 ppg, 13.0 rpg, 6.0 bpg
Biancardi's breakdown: He is a terrific, young athlete and tremendous shot-blocker. Defensively, Birch can cover a lot of ground and is one of the few prospects who can influence the game without leaving the paint.
Telep's take: The 2010 LeBron James Academy was the setting, and Derrick Favors comparisons were ringing out from the crowd. Months later, Birch would switch from the class of 2012 back into the 2011 class. He played beat the buzzer, then inked with Pittsburgh giving Jamie Dixon his highest-rated recruit ever as Panthers head coach.

Wayne Blackshear, SG (Chicago/Morgan Park)
Ht.: 6-5 | Wt.: 205 | Rank: 17 | SG Rank: 4 | College: Louisville
Stats: 33.7 ppg, 16.5 rpg, 6.3 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: Blackshear is a strong, physical perimeter player who gets to the rim and scores despite contact. He is also an excellent rebounder on both ends of the floor and has the tools to be an awesome defender.
Telep's take: We're in the evaluation and prediction business, and because of our qualifications, we can tell you Blackshear's memorable moment will come in April. Despite a résumé of big numbers and deep jumpers, his shining moment will come when they call his name as a starter in the McDonald's All-American Game, which takes place in his hometown of Chicago.

Anthony Davis, PF (Chicago/Perspectives Charter)
Ht.: 6-10 | Wt.: 195 | Rank: 2 | PF Rank: 1 | College: Kentucky
Stats: 32.0 ppg, 22.0 apg, 7.0 bpg
Biancardi's breakdown: He is the most unique prospect in the class. Davis combines excellent athleticism, shot-blocking, scoring prowess, rebounding and ballhandling in a 6-10 frame. The Kentucky signee is an absolute matchup nightmare.
Telep's take: At the Hensley Memorial in May, Davis popped up on the national radar. Somewhere between the pregame layup line and halftime, he earned numerous invitations to national camps and planted the seed in my mind that he might be the best prospect in the country. Davis' shining moment (and he's had a bunch in a short span) was when he was named the top overall prospect at the 2010 NBA Camp.

Branden Dawson, SF (Gary, Ind./Lew Wallace)
Ht.: 6-6 | Wt.: 220 | Rank: 20 | SF Rank: 5 | College: Michigan State
Stats: 28.7 ppg, 18.6 rpg, 5.6 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: Dawson is an explosive, powerful and prolific rebounder who runs in transition and can finish high above the rim. He will bring toughness and competitiveness to the game.
Telep's take: He's cultivated a reputation as one of the best rebounders in the country, and Tom Izzo should know, because he watched every one of Dawson's games during the summer. As a junior, Dawson hit up powerful Milwaukee Vincent High for 40 points and 20 rebounds in a road game. One college coach who caught his act phoned in from the gym proclaiming he'd never seen anyone have a better presence on the glass than Dawson.

Myck Kabongo, PG (Toronto/Findlay Prep)
Ht.: 6-2 | Wt.: 160 | Rank: 9 | PG Rank: 2 | College: Texas
Stats: 17.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 6.5 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: He's a one-man fast break who shows shades of former Longhorn T.J. Ford in terms of being a true point guard and floor general. He understands how to make guys better, is excellent in the pick-and-roll and always makes the right read. Kabongo always brings his vivacious personality and wears his emotions on his sleeve.
Telep's take: He's been on championship AAU teams and powerhouse prep clubs. However, his best work came as the leader of the 2010 NBA Camp. Arguably the top performer at camp until a fever took him out of action, Kabongo woke up as many campers as he could every morning foroptional 7 a.m. workouts. Months later, he handled a decommitment and subsequent recommitment to Texas with class on ESPNU.

LeBryan Nash, SF (Dallas/Lincoln)
Ht.: 6-7 | Wt.: 230 | Rank: 6 | SF Rank: 2 | College: Oklahoma State
Stats: 23.0 ppg, 9.0 apg, 5.0 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: Nash is possibly the most physically gifted player in the McDonald's All-American Game. His explosiveness, power, strength and athleticism make him hard to stop once he gets in the paint with the drive or the post-up. The future Cowboy also gets rebounds out of his area and has an improving jump shot.
Telep's take: If there's one thing we know about Nash, it's that he's got style and flair. Most kids announce their college choice by donning a baseball cap. Not Nash. Live on ESPNU, Nash busted out a bright orange 10-gallon cowboy hat and played as though he had a pair of six shooters, then committed to Oklahoma State.

Austin Rivers, SG (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park)
Ht.: 6-4 | Wt.: 189 | Rank: 1 | SG Rank: 1 | College: Duke
Stats: 30.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.0 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: Rivers is the most dangerous scorer in the high school game who loves to compete and has the swagger needed to be the best. If the game is on the line, give it to him, and he will deliver. He also can take over a game, especially with his deadly shot.
Telep's take: Rivers set the USA under-18 record when he scored 35 points against Canada during the summer. The performance always will be remembered for his accuracy behind the arc. Rivers connected on his first nine 3-pointers against the Canadians. In leading USA to the gold medal, Rivers averaged 20.2 points. In the first game I ever watched him play, Rivers coaxed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to go down making an outstanding first impression.

Marquis Teague, PG (Indianapolis/Pike)
Ht.: 6-2 | Wt.: 175 | Rank: 8 | PG Rank: 1 | College: Kentucky
Stats: 22.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 5.7 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: He can take an outlet pass, can go coast-to-coast as fast as anyone and is almost unstoppable in transition. Once he's in the paint, you're at his mercy: He will either finish or make an assist.
Telep's take: In April, at the Elite Youth Basketball League in Hampton, Va., Teague was the best player at the event. He opened up the elite spring tournament by scoring 30 points and putting on a show that cemented his status not just as the nation's top point guard but as one of the truly elite players in the senior class. The part of his game that consistently stood out the most was his speed. He carved up high school and AAU defenses as though he was on the power play in open ice confronting a helpless goalie.

Adonis Thomas, SF (Memphis, Tenn./Melrose)
Ht.: 6-7 | Wt.: 210 | Rank: 10 | SF Rank: 3 | College: Memphis
Stats: 23.0 ppg, 12.7 rpg, 4.0 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: Thomas is a difficult matchup because he is too strong and athletic for perimeter players and too strong and quick for bigs. He brings great energy to the game and is a highlight reel in transition.
Telep's take: There sat Thomas, front row at Memphis Midnight Madness staring up at big screen, as Penny Hardaway extolled the virtues of staying home and playing for the Tigers. Thomas' official visit and Memphis' courtship of the local star is one of the better recruiting stories of the year. No matter the setting, Thomas' motor ran at the same speed, and he became universally lauded for his on-the-court intelligence.

Amir Williams, C (Birmingham, Mich./Detroit Country Day)
Ht.: 6-10 | Wt.: 220 | Rank: 36 | C Rank: 3 | College: Ohio State
Stats: 19.0 ppg, 13.0 rpg, 5.0 bpg
Biancardi's breakdown: He's a super long, talented post who can block shots, run the floor and score. Williams, who has a high ceiling, is especially good at scoring with his back to the basket or on drop-off passes.
Telep's take: Williams entered the trials for USA Basketball's U18 team as a long shot last summer. In a head-to-head battle for a spot, he outplayed Mikael Hopkins (Hyattsville, Md./DeMatha) and earned himself a roster spot for a team that won the gold medal. As a junior, he won a state title while playing with Detroit standout Ray McCallum.

Kyle Wiltjer, PF (Portland, Ore./Jesuit)
Ht.: 6-9 | Wt.: 221 | Rank: 15 | PF Rank: 5 | College: Kentucky
Stats: 20.5 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 3.2 bpg
Biancardi's breakdown:

He is a versatile prospect with some old-school moves. Wiltjer is a legitimate 3-point shooter who can score with his back to the basket, is a perfect pick-and-pop player and understands how to lift a defender off the ground and score.
Telep's take: The Kentucky signee has Olympic dreams and last summer he utilized his dual citizenship and helped Canada to a strong showing at the FIBA World Championship. Wiltjer's father, Greg, played on the 1984 Canadian Olympic team. On a lighter note, at NBA Camp the "Toilet Bowl" matches the two worst teams in camp, and it was Wiljter's perimeter barrage that sparked his team in the infamous game.

Cody Zeller, PF (Washington, Ind./Washington)
Ht.: 6-11 | Wt.: 210 | Rank: 12 | PF Rank: 4 | College: Indiana
Stats: 24.1 ppg, 13.7 rpg, 3.0 apg
Biancardi's breakdown: He is a talented and tough power forward who has great hands in the post and loves to shoot jump hook over his left shoulder. Zeller is also a strong rebounder with a good basketball IQ.
Telep's take: It's all about family for Zeller. With his selection, Cody becomes the third Zeller to participate in the McDonald's game. Brothers Luke (Notre Dame) and Tyler (North Carolina) began the tradition. Zeller is regarded as the crown recruiting jewel of Tom Crean's tenure in Bloomington.

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2011-02-09T11:20:00.000-06:00

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2011-02-07T16:25:00.000-06:00

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2011-01-20T13:40:00.000-06:00

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2011-01-14T12:49:00.000-06:00

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2011-01-10T11:35:00.000-06:00