First Glance At the 2K Sports Preseason All-Americans
Words. Aron Phillips
After the entirety of the 2K Sports Preseason All-American squad landed at JFK Airport last night, our man Aron “AP” Phillips met up with the team before they all took off for Paris, France. AP will have unfettered access to these kids, the premiere prospects in the Class of 2010 for the next week. He’ll take us on his journey, from the conversations over dinner to his scouting notes during crunch time.
Here’s a first glance at the team, together for the first time…
June 8, 2009 8:45 PM - Hanging out at the airport waiting to go. Guys traveled in from all over the country. Although this is the first time coming together as the 2K Preseason All-American Team, these guys know each other from years at all star camps, AAU tourneys, adidas Nations, etc.
Right now, everyone is scrounging for free internet on the laptops that can get it, checking out copies of Dime, and talking about how excited they are for the trip. This isn’t what JFK looks like on a regular Monday night.
6-3 PG Cory Joseph (Findlay Prep; Henderson, Nev.) and 6-10 PF Tristan Thompson (Findlay Prep; Henderson, Nev.) spurned the Canadian team to play with the US. It will be an interesting bus ride to the hotel with the Canadian National Team from Paris to Douai and when they meet later in the week on the court.
Also, Puerto Rico has a solid squad with Mike Rosario (Rutgers), Jio Fontan (Fordham) and Carlos Lopez (headed to UNLV, but having played with Cory and Tristan at Findlay Prep). All the countries are playing with U19 teams that include guys from the Class of 2008 and 2009, while the 2K Sports squad is just made up of the Class of 2010. As rising seniors, it will be good for these kids to get this international experience against some of the best young international talent.
What these guys are talking about:
- When is Lance Stephenson going to declare?
- Billy Donovan has to move on; his time is up in Florida.
- Jared Sullinger says that Tristan is going to be the next guy on the cover of Dime. This coming from a guy who was just ballin’ with Greg Oden back home.
- Tristan says that he wants to be the guy that the Raptors build around in T-Dot after Bosh leaves. Like the League did for Cleveland with LeBron.
- Unfortunately, Dominique Ferguson couldn’t make the trip.
June 9, 2009 11:00 AM (in France) - In case you didn’t know, the clock gets pushed forward six hours once you arrive in France. Upon our arrival it was cold and rainy, and the guys (including myself) are not looking forward to this type of weather. After getting out passports stamped and picking up the bags at baggage claim, it suddenly became clear why we’re here: to win.
Like Team USA last summer, these guys know the game and have their goals set. Funny walking around the airport with these guys as everyone comes up and asks if they play basketball. The fact that the average height is probably 6-5 and they’re being followed around by a film crew, they weren’t that far out of line. The Paris airport probably hadn’t seen guys this tall hanging around since the last time the Globetrotters were in town.
Once we made it to the bus it was straight iPods and sleep for these guys. It’s a long trip to Douai from Paris, and apparently there were some “very talkative” French people keeping some of the guys up on the way here…
