Area summer hoops has lost its luster - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

San Antonio Spurs' DeJuan Blair (45) and Utah Jazz's Alec Burks, right, chase a loose ball during the second quarter of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Wednesday, May 2, 2012, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

By John Harris

Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 12:30 a.m.
Updated 1 hour ago

The NBA Finals featuring the oft-despised Miami Heat and up-and-coming Oklahoma City Thunder have extended into mid-June, but summer basketball in Pittsburgh isn’t nearly as compelling.

Former Pitt and Schenley High standout DeJuan Blair was the only Pittsburgh native among 360 players on rosters at the start of the season, and the area’s lack of strong summer hoops is connected to that.

Blair’s rise — he started 62 of 66 games with the San Antonio Spurs this season — can be traced to when he played for a talented AAU team that finished second in the nation in 2006. Other team members included Schenley’s D.J. Kennedy, who starred at St. John’s and was a late-season call-up this year by the Cleveland Cavaliers; Aliquippa’s Herb Pope, who attended Seton Hall and was the area’s top college recruit since Shaler’s Danny Fortson; Jeannette’s Terrelle Pryor, who plays for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders; Aliquippa’s Jonathan Baldwin, now with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs; and Moon’s Brian Walsh, who landed at Akron after first signing with Xavier.

With the quality of Pittsburgh summer basketball in decline, it’s difficult for local players to have a similar impact. Instead of having one elite AAU team featuring the area’s top players, the talent is spread over several.

â€Å"Where the rest of America is starting to rev it up for summer basketball, Western Pennsylvania is shutting it down,” said John Giammarco, whose Pittsburgh Basketball Club includes approximately 3,000 players competing year-round in leagues ranging from fourth grade through the professional ranks. â€Å"To develop that elite talent, you can’t stop teaching basketball from June to when football ends in November. I’ve heard every conceivable excuse not to play more basketball in the summer. Players are made in the summer.”

Sonny Vaccaro, a Pittsburgh native known for signing Michael Jordan to his first sneaker deal and creating the ABCD Camp and Roundball Classic, said summer basketball in Western Pennsylvania lags behind the national curve.

â€Å"It’s almost like someone said, ‘We don’t need (summer) basketball,’ ” he said. â€Å"There are areas around the country that are much less athletically inclined than Pittsburgh, and their kids are doing well. It’s a cop-out.”

Football remains the sport of choice here, with some Division I recruits bypassing summer basketball so they can concentrate on the gridiron.

â€Å"We used to travel all over the country for games,” said local businessman J.O. Stright, who sponsored the Pittsburgh JOTS AAU team featuring Blair, Kennedy, Pryor, Pope, Baldwin and Walsh. â€Å"People would ask, ‘Why don’t you come out and play in this big tournament in September?’ I would tell them, ‘Half my team’s playing football.’ ”

Still, despite multisport athletes like Pryor and Baldwin choosing football, talented basketball players remain.

â€Å"Last year, several (high school) kids were recruited by Division I schools,” Giammarco said. â€Å"But to become that elite talent that is NBA-bound, you need to be doing that in sixth and seventh grade, and we don’t do it here.”

The list of Western Pennsylvania standouts joining Division I programs this fall features Beaver Falls’ Sheldon Jeter (Vanderbilt), Lincoln Park’s Devontae Watson (Temple), Highlands’ Micah Mason (Drake), Central Catholic’s Lincoln Davis (Fairfield), Plum’s Nolan Cressler (Cornell) and Butler’s Nate Snodgrass (Navy). Shaler’s Geno Thorpe, a member of the Class of 2013, has committed to Penn State.

â€Å"If you want to be successful, your elite team has to pool the best players from Western Pennsylvania,” said Stright, who disbanded his program in 2007 after nearly 20 years. â€Å"We played 60 to 70 games a year. The guys really had an advantage over everybody else.”

The void has not been filled. Former Duquesne assistant coach Daryn Freedman, who operates the local Basketball Stars of America program, said his AAU teams play about 30 games per year.

â€Å"It used to be one team going to a national tournament,” said Freedman, the boys basketball coach at Kiski School. â€Å"Over the summer, Basketball Stars of America will probably send six or seven teams to national events.”

Stright, whose JOTS players didn’t pay to play, doesn’t think much of Freedman’s attempts at building a summer AAU program, which charges a fee.

â€Å"Nobody has stepped up to the plate,” he said, â€Å"and pulled this together like we did.”

You must be signed in to add comments

To comment, click Sign in or sign up at the very top of this page.

There are currently no comments for this story.

What people are reading on TribLIVE.com

• Steelers’ Hampton tackles role of mentor

• Plum native R.J. Umberger familiar with NHL Draft process

• Star athlete leaps to his death off Route 28 bridge

• For Penguins star Malkin, Hart of the matter

• Bloomfield civic group to scale back as leader departs

• Jane Orie appeals convictions, asks for bail

• Seton Hill plans to be part of new athletic conference

• Egypt candidates both claim victory

• West Penn Allegheny will need more money from Highmark, says Moody’s report

• Penguins’ Niskanen rejects qualifying offer

• Clemens acquitted on all charges

• Sandusky trial ends for day; deliberations could begin Thursday

• Prosecutors, owners agree to close bar after shooting

• Steelers still eyeing long-term deal with Wallace

• Bomber kills Yemeni general