Frank's notes:
At the NBA Players Camp in Washington, DC this past week there were 80
players, 8 teams and 10 players on each team. Jason Straight, Eddy Curry, Roger Powell,
Pierre Pierce, Mike Thompson, Ricky Cornett and Rod Middleton were the Illinois
representatives. Ricky Cornett and Eddy Curry were both unable to play with injuries.
However, the experience was enough in itself to attract these fine players despite not
being able to play.
Jason performed very well, teaming with top players 7'0" Craig Forth from East Greenbush, New York, Ed Ferguson from Benton Harbor, Michigan and Marcus Spears from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. With another solid performance down in the books for him, Jason is getting ready for possibly the biggest exposure camp of the summer at the Adidas ABCD camp in Teaneck, New Jersey.
This was a very exciting week for me. "3 The Hard Way" (Najeeb Echols, Eddy Curry & Jason) was at the NBA Camp in Washington DC. We received a lot of Adidas gear from them, so that was pretty cool. There were 7 people from Illinois who went but only 2 from Chicago, Najeeb and me.
It was a very very good learning experience because I got to meet people that I never thought I would get to meet before such as Colin Powell, Jerome Williams (Detroit Pistons), Jahidi White (Washington Wizards) and Billy Hunter (NBPA Executive Director). The team that I was on was real good and real competitive. I had a really good camp and nobody in the camp could guard me. NBA players such as Doug Overton and Bruce Bowen told me that I was the best point guard there but not to let it go to my head. The camp was real competitive with a lot of good players there such as David Lee (St. Louis, MO), Carlos Hurt (Alief, TX), Eddy Curry (South Holland, IL), Marcus Spears (Baton Rouge, LA), Najeeb Echols (Chicago, IL), Josh Childress (Lakewood, CA), Jamal Sampson (Santa Ana, CA) and Julian Sensley (Oakdale, CT [originally from Hawaii]).
My team made it to the final four and lost to Najeeb Echols' team, which had Rashaad Carruth from Georgia. Najeeb's team went 10-1 the whole camp but we took them to overtime twice. Rashaad Carruth was real funny, him having that southern accent and all. I talked to him and Robert Whaley a lot, they were really funny. By talking to Robert Whaley and Jeff Ferguson I learned that Missouri has a strong interest in me because they both committed to them (the Missouri Tigers).
My personal opinion on the camp was that it was a good learning experience but we didn't play enough basketball. The basketball as a mental aspect was very good but again there wasn't enough basketball. My grandmother, Addie Thompson, really liked the idea that we were in the classroom more then we were on the basketball court. Now I'm looking forward to the ABCD (All-American) camp in New Jersey. I'm going to go there and play hard also. There is also an All-American camp in Long Beach, California right after that but I'm not sure if I'm going.
After coming home from the NBA Camp I had a lot of recruiting mail but there was one in particular that caught my eye. I received a poster from Marquette with my picture on it that Frank took off of the last Player Journal which was really cool. I still have strong interest in Iowa State, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio State, Marquette, Connecticut and Pittsburgh. Coming in two weeks I will have full coverage of my time at the Adidas ABCD Camp.
I'm ganna get up with ya'll later,
J. Straight
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