The 1997 McDonald's All-American Boys Game was an All-star

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

game played on Saturday, March 29, 1997 at the

Clune Arena The Cadet Field House is an indoor sports complex in the Western United States, western United States, located at the United States Air Force Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. The mul ...

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

. The game's rosters featured the best and most highly recruited high school boys graduating in 1997. The game was the 20th annual version of the

McDonald's All-American Game The McDonald's All-American Game is the all-star basketball game played each year for American and Canadian boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the concl ...

, first played in 1978.

1997 game

The game was telecast live by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

for the last time. Beginning in 1998,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

became the broadcaster for the McDonald's All-American games.

Tracy McGrady Tracy Lamar McGrady Jr. (born May 24, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player, best known for his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). McGrady is a seven-time NBA All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection, two- ...

did not play in the game because his mother and grandmother could not fly to Colorado Springs to attend the game due to the high prices of plane tickets. Since they could not be present, he declined to play. The 1997 game was the lowest-scoring of the history of the McDonald's All-American games.

Kenny Gregory William Kendrick Gregory (born November 16, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. He played the shooting guard and small forward positions. He is 6 ft 5 ¾ in (1.97 m) in height. Amateur career Mr. Ohio, Gregory play ...

won the MVP award with an entertaining style of play that included several dunks; other players who starred were Duke-bound

Elton Brand Elton Tyron Brand (born March 11, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player and the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing college basketball for Duke, he was selecte ...

, who scored 16 points;

Lamar Odom Lamar Joseph Odom (born November 6, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. As a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he won championships in 2009 and 2010 and was named the NBA Six ...

and

Larry Hughes Larry Darnell Hughes Sr. (born January 23, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. Hughes played for eight different teams during his 14-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Hughes attended Saint Louis Un ...

, who were respectively 1 point and 1 rebound shy of recording a double-double (Odom 9 points/11 rebounds; Hughes 17 pts/9 rebs); and

Dion Glover Micaiah Diondae "Dion" Glover (born October 22, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently an assistant coach for the Grand Rapids Drive of the NBA G League, ...

, who scored 15 points in 17 minutes. For the first time in the event history, two twins played in the game: this was the case of brothers Jarron and

Jason Collins Jason Paul Collins (born December 2, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player who was a center for 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal, where he was ...

, who were part of the West team. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the McDonald's All-American game, fans selected an all-time team: the final selections were

Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...

, Grant Hill,

Christian Laettner Christian Donald Laettner (, ; born August 17, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. His college career for the Duke Blue Devils is widely regarded as one of the best in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hi ...

and

Patrick Ewing Patrick Aloysius Ewing (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Georgetown University men's team. He played most of his career as the starting center for the N ...

.A LOOK BACK AT THE McDONALD'S ALL AMERICAN GAMES SUPERSTARS AND UNFORGETTABLE MEMORIES FROM GAMES PAST
/ref> 1997 game and rosters at page 81. Of the 24 players, 16 went on to play in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

: among them McGrady who declared for the 1997 NBA Draft and was selected with the 9th overall pick by the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

, following

Kevin Garnett Kevin Maurice Garnett ( ; born May 19, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player who played for 21 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed KG by his initials, and the "Big Ticket" for his emphatic dunki ...

(1995),

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...

and

Jermaine O'Neal Jermaine Lee O'Neal Sr. (born October 13, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. The center– power forward had a successful high school career and declared his eligibility for the 1996 NBA draft straight out of high s ...

(both 1996), three other McDonald's All-Americans who were drafted out of high school.

East roster

1997 roster at pages 7-8.

West roster

Coaches

The East team was coached by: * Head Coach Thomas Hargrove of

Anacostia High School Anacostia High School is a public high school in Anacostia, in the Southeast quadrant of the District of Columbia. History In August 2009, Friendship Public Charter School partnered with DC Public Schools to manage the high school. As a result, ...

(

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

) * Asst Coach Kevin Hargrove of

(

) The West team was coached by: * Head Coach Mark Beranek of Sierra High School (

) * Asst Coach Todd Morse of Lewis-Palmer High School (

Monument, Colorado The Town of Monument is a Home rule town situated at the base of the Rampart Range in El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Monument is one of the three communities that make up the Tri-Lakes area (along with Palmer Lake and Woodmoor). Th ...

) * Asst Coach David Shaub of Centennial High School (

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

)

All-American Week

Contest winners

* The 1997 Slam Dunk contest was won by Baron Davis. * The 1997 3-point shoot-out was won by Shane Battier.

References

External links

McDonald's All-American on the webMcDonald's All-American all-time rostersGame stats at Realgm.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald's 1996–97 in American basketball

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1997 in sports in Colorado Basketball in Colorado