The ''Parade'' All-America Boys Basketball Team was an annual selection by ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

'' that nationally honored the top high school boys'

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players in the United States. It was part of the ''Parade'' All-American series that originated with boys basketball before branching to other sports. Started by the

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in 1957, it had been the longest ongoing selection of high school basketball All-Americans in the country at the time of its final selections in 2015. Many of the honorees went on to star as

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and

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players. As of March 2011, there were 162 ''Parade'' All-Americans that were playing in the

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(NBA). At its onset, the selections were handled by a New York-based public relations firm, Publicity Enterprises, which was led by

Haskell Cohen Haskell Cohen (March 12, 1914 – June 28, 2000) was the public relations director of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1950 to 1969. He is known as the creator of the NBA All-Star Game. He was inducted to the International Jewish Spor ...

, who was a former sportswriter as well as the publicity director for the NBA at the time (1950–1969). The first All-America team in 1957 consisted of three five-player teams, and the first-team selections appeared on television on ''

The Steve Allen Show ''The Steve Allen Show'' was an American variety show hosted by Steve Allen from June 1956 to June 1960 on NBC, from September 1961 to December 1961 on American Broadcasting Company, ABC,

''. The following year, 20 players were selected and participated in the first annual ''Parade'' All-American high school game. The list later expanded to 40 of the nation's top players, divided into four teams of 10 each.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem (alternatively spelled Karim or Kerim) ( ar, کریم) is a common given name and surname of Arabic origin that means "generous", "noble", "honorable". It is also one of the Names of God in Islam in the Quran. Given name Karim * Karim A ...

, known then as Lew Alcindor, became the first sophomore in 1963 to be named a ''Parade'' All-American. Fifteen years later, Earl Jones became the next sophomore to earn first-team honors, and subsequently joined Abdul-Jabbar as the first two players to be named to the first team on three occasions. "It was a real thrill for me to make it on the ''Parade'' list early, when I was just a sophomore. The recognition is a great thing for kids to shoot for," said Abdul-Jabbar as part of the announcement for the 2000 team. Starting in 2011, the selections were compiled in conjunction with ''

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'' and their writer, Brian McLaughlin. Candidates also began to be limited to players in their senior year. The selections went to a single-team format in 2012, and the size was reduced from 40- to a 20-player first team in 2014. McLaughlin described the selections as mostly Division I college-bound players that had a stellar senior year in high school. Additionally, ''Parade'' differentiated itself from most other All-American teams by not focusing solely on a player's standing among

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s. For example, some selectors might choose top recruits that had been injured much of their senior year. ''Parade'' discontinued its boys' basketball All-America selections after 2015.

Selections

1957–1959

1960–1969

1970–1979

1980–1989

1990–1999

2000–2009

2010–2015

Notes

References

External links

Parade All-America
at

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, includes players' college statistics {{Portal bar, Basketball, Sports Awards established in 1957 Awards disestablished in 2015 1957 establishments in the United States 2015 disestablishments in the United States