easports roundball classic

	What:	2004 EA Sports Roundball Classic
	Who:	22 EA Sports All-American Players
	When:	Wednesday, March 24, 2004
	Where:	United Center Arena Chicago, Illinois
	TV:	See the Delayed Broadcast Schedule here Live on CSTV (check your cable listing)

When Sonny Vaccaro left adidas and headed over to Reebok to head that company's "Grassroots" basketball program, he took with him two events which for years had been synonymous with adidas and the "Three Stripes": Those two events were the "ABCD Camp" all-star camp, and the "Las Vegas Big Time Tournament," events which he owned the naming rights, and which will henceforth be sponsored by Reebok.

But there's a third event which Sonny has taken with him, one which even preceded even his association with Nike, a spring all-star tournament for graduating high school seniors, which got its start as the "Dapper Dan" basketball classic in Pittsburgh. Eventually the event became known as the "Magic Roundball Classic" (for a variety of reasons, including wanting to avoid any confusion with a high school wrestling event of the same name which is sponsored by the Dapper Dan Club), and then, after adidas became involved, the event was renamed yet again, and a few years ago, Sonny partnered with EA Sports, and it is now known as the "EA Sports Roundball Classic." Last year the event was moved to the United Center in Chicago, where it will be played today. If you're really at all interested in the history of the event, you can read about it here. At present, the event is sponsored principally by EA Sports, with additional sponsorship from Reebok, the Chicago Sun-Times, International Specialty Insurance, and Student Sports.com.

For those interested in current events rather than history, just know this: The EA Sports Roundball Classic will be played today, Wednesday, March 24, 2004 in Chicago at the United Center, and it will feature 22 EA Sports All-American selections, who include a number of players from California, and SoCal in particular. For those who can't get to Chicago today, the event will be shown later in May on Los Angeles television (KABC on May 8 according to the published schedule). For those with satellite or from other areas, check the broadcast schedule link above. The game will also be broadcast live on CSTV (College Sports TV, a relatively new cable network); check your local cable listing to see if you receive it.

Dorrell Wright (formerly of Leuzinger HS, now at South Kent Prep)--headed to DePaul
Aaron Afflalo (Compton Centennial HS)--headed to UCLA
DeMarcus Nelson (Sacramento Sheldon HS)--headed to Duke
Gabriel Pruitt (Westchester HS)--headed to USC
Robert Swift (Bakersfield HS)--signed with USC, may be NBA-bound

Afflalo, Nelson, Pruitt and Swift will play for the "West All Stars" and if you click on this link, you'll get the entire West Team team roster. The East All Star team also features a number of top players, including Wright. We understand that Sebastian Telfair won't be playing because of some issues with his New York high school eligibility, but we've not been able to confirm this.

And here's another interesting bit of trivia which is sure to confuse most: The "EA Sports Roundball Classic" should not be confused with yet another event which is also sponsored by adidas and EA Sports, known as the "adidas EA Sports Superstar Game" which is scheduled to be played on March 26, 2004 at the University of Tennessee's Thompson Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, and which is also supposed to feature a number of the same players (e.g., Robert Swift). We'll have a separate story posted on that event shortly, along with a complete list of the participating players.

So, if you're in Chicago tonight, check out the game live. If you're not, like the rest of us, be sure to catch a broadcast when it's shown later this month or in coming months.

And we also want to extend our congratulations to the players named as EA Sports All-Americans, because they certainly all deserve the honors accorded to them.