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COPYRIGHT 2004 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com
Byline: David Noonan and N'Gai Croal
The squeak of basketball shoes on hardwood, the chirp of whistles, the thump thump thump of the ball. The familiar sounds echoed through the gym on Chicago's Near North Side as a bunch of high-school kids zipped and soared through their best moves. Many of the players were friends--they'd been sharing courts for years--but this was no mere game. It was serious business, with millions of dollars at stake. It was a practice session for the EA Sports Roundball Classic, a national all-star game featuring 21 of the best high-school players in the country. Looking on this past March as the teenagers demonstrated their skills were dozens of NBA scouts and executives, including Hall of Famer Larry Bird, president of basketball operations for the Indiana Pacers, and Billy Knight, general manager of the Atlanta Hawks. The pros were trying to decide whether they should select any of the untested kids in the 2004 NBA draft, which takes place this week. "This is part of our process now," says Knight. "We have to look at everyone."
It was big news last year when LeBron James, following in the footsteps of Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant, went straight from high school to the NBA. But, good as he is, James is just one product of an elaborate system (largely driven by the shoe companies) to identify the country's best players as early as middle school and develop them into bankable...
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