By Marcus Shockley
The nation’s premier All-American talent showcase for high school basketball talent will be playing its’ 2011 game in Chicago, at the famed United Center on March 30. While the game is hardly a true representation of what these players will be able to do once they land in the college ranks, making the roster is an honor, and it’s based on their body of work during their high school careers.
Chicago is a great basketball atmosphere and this should be a great game. Even though the rosters won’t be set for some time, there are some names that are likely to be locks, such as point guards Austin Rivers and Marquis Teague, power forward James McAdoo and small forward Michael Gilchrist. There is some good talent in this class, although the big men tend to be more of a power forward skill level.
One thing is certain, it’s a celebration of basketball, not just at the high school level, and many of the players who land on the Mickey D’s roster end up in the pros just a few short years later. To be perfectly fair, there are a lot of players who play in the game that do not go on to pro careers; there is a lot of focus on the fact that Lebron and Shaq played in the game and that tends to slant the memory of the game. But you can still see some of the best talent in the nation as they finish up their high school careers.
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