LOS ANGELES -- Last year, UCLA’s Tony Parker won the Overheard Quote of the Weekend — "Yo, where the Australians at?" — which perfectly summed up the controlled chaos at Adidas Nations. This year, surely remembering me (I may have unknowingly worn the same grey-on-grey shirt), he did it again after easily putting in a two-handed flush a few feet away.
A day at Adidas Nations with sleepy jumpers, future stars and Tracy McGrady
Top high school players, college players and NBA players all convened in Los Angeles at the Adidas Nations camp this weekend. The results were as dizzying as you might expect.
Adidas Nations
“Yo, how you doin’ youngster?”
I am four years older than Tony Parker. I have a beard – inelegant, but a beard nevertheless – and at 5’11, 170 pounds, I am a reasonably-sized human.
But to Tony Parker and the other 175 or so top prospects in the world, we mortals are all youngsters. They have been adult-shaped since middle school. Tony is now 6’10 and, having slimmed and trimmed nicely since our last get-together, probably around 245 pounds. He may as well be my uncle.
My favorite part of Adidas Nations, two years running, was the pre-game stretching. Everyone lines up on opposite baselines, so it’s 80 massive humans staring at 80 other massive humans stretching their quads and delts with a few Ball Is Life guys and me in the middle trying not to look intimidated. If you haven’t stared down the Canadian U19 team while they do coordinated lunges, you haven’t lived.
Some catch-all details about Nations before we get into it:
- Nine high school teams came to the Next Level Sports Complex in Garden Grove, Calif. – four of them are from the US, classes 2015 and 2016, then international teams from Africa, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Europe, and Latin America.
- 28 college players attended – from incoming freshmen like LSU’s Josh Gray to seniors like UCLA’s Norman Powell, who dominated. They took part in the drills with the high school kids and then headed to their own court to play against each other.
- Tons of NBA scouts in attendance. I’m sure there were more, but the ones I saw included Detroit, Minnesota, Chicago, Orlando, Dallas, Houston, Washington, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Brooklyn, Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti and a super sad looking scout from Indiana who kept absentmindedly touching his tibia.
- Players’ families. All of the ups to Matthew Freeman, the 6'9 16-year-old out of Auckland, New Zealand who ran over to talk to his mom during a timeout. Mom drew up an inbounds play, maybe.
THE THON MAKER HYRULE
My SB Nation peers have already spent years of their lives writing about Thon Maker, so I’ll just say this: In 150 years, this is what humans will look like. But here in 2014, we as a society are ill-prepared for the kind of devastation this being is about to set upon the basketball world.
THE BIGNESS OF STANLEY JOHNSON
Goodness. Last year, I waxed about Wayne Selden Jr.’s NBA-ready body as an incoming freshman at Nations. Stanley Johnson is on another level. You can’t really pick one part of him that’s massive, but then you look down and oh, he’s taking up half of the paint by himself.
Kid plays very under control, uses a nice blend of smooth athleticism and OH THAT’S YOUR SHOULDER IN MY JAW strength to get where he wants on the court. Love how his jumper projects, love his fashion, love the hair. I think he’s immediately the best player on a very good Arizona team and a potential high lottery pick next year.
Also: I scribbled down the words “BOYHOOD: STANLEY JOHNSON” which I suppose meant seeing a retconned version of the Richard Linklater film only with Stan as the lead. I seemed pretty excited about it at the time. Basketball is a hell of a drug.
THE SLEEPIEST JUMPERS ARE THE SEXIEST
There’s a startling lack of sleepy-looking NBA players since T-Mac retired (Marreese Speights does not qualify due to actually being asleep). Rest assured, though – there’s a collection of prospects coming down the pipeline ready to infuse us with beautifully lazy jump-shooting.
Kansas freshman Kelly Oubre (who is perfect) tucks you in and lulls you to sleep before a quick lefty wrist flick. Chase Jeter actually takes a nap mid-jumper. Fellow undeclared 2015 recruit Bennie Boatwright puts on a leather jacket just before he shoots like he doesn’t even care. But they go in. They all go in.
The sleepy jumper revolution will be publicized.
OKAY CAN I TALK ABOUT MONTREZL NOW?
I don’t like watching anybody do anything as much as I like watching Louisville junior Montrezl Harrell exist on a basketball court.
He has all the things I want in a basketball player. High-fives. Jostling. Thunderous dunks. Barking incoherent things at himself or his teammates or god. Too much confidence in his jumper (I’m a Sixers fan.) Sneaky-good passing.
He is a natural plus-one-negative-one with Shaq Goodwin of Memphis. Shaq, who is a specimen in his own right, operates very similarly on the court, but with the smiliest smile that would make even Nick Young blush. Goodwin flirted with the equipment girl, Montrezl landed on her after a dunk attempt in transition.
One time after a dunk, his momentum carried him towards the benches behind the basket where I was sitting. He was very close to landing on me. Too close. I couldn’t will myself to move. I think subconsciously I wanted to see what would happen to my body if he landed on it. Do bones scream? He caught himself just before I could find out.
NBA GUYS GRILLIN’ AND CHILLIN’
Kyle Lowry and Arron Afflalo went at each other. Hard. It’s amazing how much smaller Lowry is than most of these guys, but he’s Kyle Lowry, so. Dude took a charge in a scrimmage with college kids the day after Paul George’s season ended. He only has one speed, and that speed is L-O-V-E.
Tracy McGrady playing basketball again, of any kind, is great. I want to see him pop up at various camps and pro-ams until he’s 50. No more baseball, only pickup hoops.
And here are some unclassified thoughts:
- Chase Jeter has a high butt. Like it’s way up there.
- Frank Kaminsky has just the right amount of Wisconsin dickishness. He didn’t shoot well, and he wasn’t happy about it. So after one game he had Shaq Goodwin rebound for him as he hoisted bricked jumper after bricked jumper. Just didn’t have any legs left. Then Shaq walked away to do Shaq things and Frank missed a few more jumpers, muttering to himself in frustration. Shaq came back, called for the ball, and nailed a three, then walked away. Frank missed another three, then spiked the ball. Later, he regaled Iona guard A.J. English (who played great ball) with tales of his AAU team. Such a magnificent Big Ten bro.
- The Greek food in Garden Grove is about as good as you’d expect.
- Guys I Am All-In On: Kelly Oubre x10, Kobi Simmons, Tyler Dorsey, Rawle Alkins, Maverick Rowan (Maverick Rowan!), Kelly Oubre’s Brother Or A 12-Year-Old Who Had The Same Hair As Kelly Oubre, Canada’s Dillon Brooks, Derrick Jones, Charles Mathews, De'Aaron Fox, Tracy McGrady again.
- You have to be really, really good to be a professional basketball player. Worth remembering.
- Overheard someone say "we on the hop!" I don’t know what that means, but I like it. Kids these days!
- NBA prospects and people who watch NBA prospects have the best fashion.
And here are the top plays from the weekend courtesy of Ball Is Life. You’re gonna want to stick around for the last two.
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