The 2002 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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

game played on Thursday, April 4, 2002 at the Madison Square Garden in

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The game's rosters featured the best and most highly recruited high school boys graduating in 2002. The game was the 25th annual version of the McDonald's All-American Game first played in 1978.

2002 game

The game was telecast live by

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%). Th ...

. For the 25th game, McDonald's chose a prestigious venue: the Madison Square Garden. 2002 was also the inaugural year of the McDonald's Girls game. The East team was led by

JJ Redick Jonathan Clay "JJ" Redick (born June 24, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player who is a podcaster and sports analyst for ESPN. He was selected 11th overall by the Orlando Magic in the 2006 NBA draft. He played college baske ...

, who earned the MVP award by scoring 26 points, which included 5 3-point shots made. Other players who starred were

Carmelo Anthony Carmelo Kyam Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been named an NBA All-Star ten times and an All-NBA Team ...

, who entertained the crowd with several dunks and scored 19 points;

Rashad McCants Rashad Dion McCants (born September 25, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player who has played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as overseas. He played for Trilogy in the BIG3 three-on-three league. High schoo ...

, who scored 22 points; Bracey Wright, who recorded a double double with 16 points and 11 rebounds; and

Chris Bosh Christopher Wesson Bosh (born March 24, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. A Texas Mr. Basketball in high school, he played one season of college basketball for Georgia Tech before declaring for the 2003 NBA draft. Bo ...

, who had 14 points and 7 rebounds. 2002 game and rosters at page 83. Of the 24 players, 13 went on to play at least 1 game in the NBA. Two players declared their eligibility for the 2002 NBA Draft: DeAngelo Collins and

Amar'e Stoudemire Amar'e Carsares Stoudemire ( ; he, אמארה יהושפט סטודמאייר; born November 16, 1982) is an American-Israeli professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as a player development assistant for the Bro ...

. Stoudemire was selected with the 9th overall pick by the Phoenix Suns, while Collins, who was by far the oldest player in the All-American game at almost 22 years of age, went undrafted and never played in the NBA, opting to play professionally overseas.

East roster

2002 roster at page 9.

West roster

Coaches

The East team was coached by: * Head Coach Bob Farrell of

Seton Hall Preparatory School Seton Hall Preparatory School, generally called Seton Hall Prep or "The Prep", is a Roman Catholic all boys' high school located in the suburban community of West Orange in Essex County, New Jersey, operating under the supervision of the Arch ...

(

West Orange, New Jersey West Orange is a suburban township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 48,843, an increase of 2,636 (+5.7%) from the 46,207 counted in the 2010 Census.

) * Asst Coach T.J. Whitaker of

(

) The West team was coached by: * Head Coach Gary McKnight of Mater Dei High School ( Santa Ana, California) * Asst Coach David Taylor of Mater Dei High School ( Santa Ana, California)

All-American Week

Contest winners

* The 2002 Slam Dunk contest was won by Carmelo Anthony. * The 2002 3-point shoot-out was won by JJ Redick.

References

External links

McDonald's All-American on the webMcDonald's All-American all-time rosters

Game stats at Realgm.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald's 2001–02 in American basketball 2002