1997 McDonald's All American Game

[mavLOLs423]

who the fuck is Kenny Gregory!!!

[BlakkDymondMuzik]

HOW DA HELL YOU DON'T SHOW DA T-MAC SWITCH HANDS, COCK IT BACK & DUNK WIT DA LEFT ON A BIG MAN ??????!!!! DAT WAS DA TIGHTEST DUNK IN DA WHOLE DAMN GAME !!!!

[bigcritic69]

Lamar Odom had hair?

[epiphanyconsulting]

Is that Gus Johnson not going all GUS JOHNSON while broadcasting this game?

[1stlineofdfense]

Larry Hughes was in this game too. #20 PG in white

[ReymundoValdez]

Odom to Ronald Artest. Laker connection

[alanshanelewis]

he is a sad story of wasted talent.. to bad he never made the league

[grthst1623]

This is one of the worst McD's classes of all time, in retrospect...so much wasted talent. BTW, T-Mac skipped this event at the advice of his "handlers", as he could do nothing but hurt his stock in the draft becasue his buzz was through the roof following his Adidas All-American Camp explosion the previous summer, arguably the greatest performance in shoe camp history.

[jcaudill6921]

ESPN said it was because they wouldn't pay for his family to fly/come to the game. I remember it.

[grthst1623]

That's inaccurate. One of my good friends was in the game and he didn't have an ESPN spin when he told me. I have the poster autographed by the entire team...except T-Mac. It was strictly business.

[jcaudill6921]

By all means, tell me what you have heard because that was the reason given for him not attending.

[grthst1623]

He was advised not to attend this game. It is too high profile and it can either (A) raise your stock with a great performance (JR Smith, Jonathon Bender) or can hurt you if you're a straight to NBA candidate (when you could do that). He was already highly sought after by NBA scouts and execs so he probably had nothing to gain at the McD's game.

[grthst1623]

As stated, he absolutely blew up the previous summer and went from a relative unknown to one of the top players in his class nationally (w/Odom and Battier). I was a neighbor and friend of a member of that 97 team and have firsthand knowlege of this.

[jcaudill6921]

He was coming to Kentucky until he was told that he should go to the NBA.

[grthst1623]

That makes sense- pay is about the same and no schoolwork at either option. ;)

[jcaudill6921]

Ahh, I'm not going to get into an argument over that. Lets just say I disagree with your assessment of Kentucky basketball...well, at least in the 90s to today. Eddie Sutton destroyed our reputation for a long time.

[BRazor78]

@grthst1623 This class was NOWHERE near as bad as 2001(Think Kwame). At least Odom and Artest both got rings without riding the bench.

[grthst1623]

@BRazor78 Wow...just looked at that roster. Good Call. Torbert, Wagner, Cisse, Brown, Hodge, Rickert, Bozeman, Carruth, Thomas....THUD. Curry, Lee, Ford and Chandler are the only ones who've even had any semblance of NBA careers. That 95 class is my fav.

[mjharleem]

where t-mac?

[Trickishismael360]

It's always nice to see star players humble begginings

[tommyfam]

Kenny Gregory? Columbus Ohio?

[cambyman21]

You forgot to mention Tracy Mcgrady in this..

[Christmas800]

he didnt play in the mcdonalds game. he passed it up for personel reasons

[KenM22]

He was supposed to play for the Red team?

[Skip01]

Gregory shoulda won the dunk contest that year....all 50s and one miss