The search continued for the next LeBron on Wednesday at the United Center.
It was a futile hunt, but that didn’t seem to stop anyone from looking during the EA Sports Roundball Classic.
The usual gaggle of NBA scouts was on hand to see if any of the 21 players has close to the talent of LeBron James, who scored 28 points in the game a year ago and currently is a candidate as the NBA’s rookie of the year with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And 15,421 spectators watched too. That was about 4,000 fewer than attended last year, and about half of Wednesday’s crowd came from freebie tickets and bus transportation provided to Chicago Public Schools students thanks to donations from Classic alumni, including the Bulls’ Eddy Curry.
The crowd also included Naperville Central superstar Candace Parker and Homewood-Flossmoor junior standout Julian Wright.
“With LeBron, we didn’t have to do that last year,” Roundball Classic founder and director Sonny Vaccaro said of the giveaways. “That’s the difference.”
Another difference is that, even without James, this year’s roster contained more talent than last year’s, even if it generated less electricity. Vaccaro believes, probably correctly, that eight to 10 high school seniors will enter this June’s NBA draft.
This, of course, will cause mass fainting spells among those who believe Western civilization will wobble if more than a couple of McDonald’s All-Americans skip college. Vaccaro doesn’t agree.
“I think everyone should go [pro] who has that opportunity, and you can quote me,” he said, adding that his sentiment applies only to players who will be certain first-round picks.
Vaccaro, of course, has a very vested interest in all this as senior director of grass-roots basketball for Reebok. But that doesn’t mean he’s completely wrong.
The view here long has been that high school stars with little interest in attending college are better off going pro if they will go in the first round of the draft–where the guaranteed money is–and can deal with sitting on an NBA bench.
College basketball has enough hypocrisy already and doesn’t need more rent-a-players who will stick around only a season or two.
The kids to worry about are not the likes of 6-foot-11-inch Dwight Howard of Atlanta, 6-9 Josh Smith of Powder Springs, Ga., and 6-7 Shaun Livingston of Peoria Central, Roundball Classic participants who are projected as early first-round picks. The ones to fret about Wednesday were whoever turns out to be the next James Lang.
A year ago the 6-10 Lang appeared heavy, slow and out of sync during the Roundball Classic. At least twice he failed to turn James’ pinpoint passes into baskets, producing looks bordering on disgust from “the Chosen One.”
Lang was as ready for the NBA as he was to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He nonetheless declared for the draft and slid into the second round, going on the 48th pick to the New Orleans Hornets.
He had not had a second of regular-season playing time when the Hornets waived him Dec. 29. He played briefly for the Asheville Altitude of the National Basketball Development League before being waived March 2.
Vaccaro acknowledged Lang made a mistake but attributed it in part to the player’s being academically ineligible to play as a freshman in a NCAA Division I program. Lang, of course, could have sat out a year at that level or played immediately at a junior college, but almost all high school All-Americans are above that or are in too much of a hurry to stoop to such levels.
For that we can blame the treatment stars get from hangers-on, agents, club coaches, college recruiters, all-star game organizers, shoe companies, recruiting analysts and the media. The media have succumbed to even more hype than usual this season in their search for the next LeBron.
Sebastian Telfair, the New York City guard whom some have stuck with that title, has seemed to grace more magazine covers than George W. Bush, including a recent Sports Illustrated cover. He was supposed to play in the Roundball Classic but withdrew because his high school season has not ended.
Those who played delivered a vintage all-star game, with non-stop dunks, 99 baskets in 209 attempts–that’s one shot every 14 seconds–and at times awful fundamentals. We’re talking 48 turnovers and 19 free throws in 45 tries.
West coach Chuck Buescher, whose team won 124-110 only four days after his Peoria Central team won the Class AA state title, had matters in the proper perspective.
“I tried to stay out of the way,” he said, laughing. “I just tried to give them a little organization, get them to play hard and respect each other’s abilities.”
Livingston still is contemplating whether to attend Duke or go straight to the NBA, although his strong 12-point, seven-assist effort Wednesday makes the latter route increasingly likely. Vaccaro seems to have been courting him forever and no doubt will be waving a megabucks shoe-endorsement offer the minute Livingston enters the draft.
“I’ll have to see,” Livingston said of his pending decision. “I’m not in a rush.
“It’s a learning experience. I’m learning every day.”
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btemkin@tribune.com
