| Feb. 10, 2004 Hoop Summit Game Returns To USA Basketball Schedule COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- After being absent from the USA Basketball and international basketball competition schedule for three years, USA Basketball announced today the return of the Hoop Summit Presented By Nike, a game that features Americas' top senior boy high school players taking on a World Select Team comprised of the world's top players who are 20-years-old or younger. The 2004 Hoop Summit will be held on Sunday, April 4, 1:00 p.m. (CT) in San Antonio, Texas, during this year's NCAA Men's Final Four. The game will be played at the University of Texas-San Antonio Convocation Center (5,100 capacity) and will be televised by Fox Sports Net. Tickets for the 2004 Hoop Summit, priced $10 for reserved seats and $6 for general admission, go on sale Feb. 13 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster at 210-224-9600 or www.ticketmaster.com. "I'm excited to announce USA Basketball's participation in the Hoop Summit," said USA Basketball Executive Director Jim Tooley. "This is a superb basketball event which has spotlighted talents like Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Stephon Marbury and many others before they made big names for themselves. It is also an important event for USA Basketball and in fact a large number of our Hoop Summit players have gone on to represent USA Basketball in other international competitions. "This is not an all-star game. Each of the previous six games have been extremely competitive, with several games coming down to the final minute. This is a special opportunity for the selected players to represent their country in a meaningful competition and we look forward to expanding the legacy that the first six Hoop Summits established between 1995-2000," added Tooley. The 2004 USA Basketball Men's Junior National Select Team that will compete in the 2004 Hoop Summit will consist of 10 players, a head coach and one assistant coach, and will be selected by USA Basketball's Cadet and Youth Committee which is chaired by Don Showalter (Mid-Prairie High School, Wellman, Iowa). The USA Basketball and World Select team selections will be announced at a later date. The World Select Team will be selected by the World Association of Basketball Coaches (WABC) with the approved sanctioning of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the world governing body of international basketball. The World Select Team will consist of 10 players from FIBA's five geographic zones: FIBA Africa, FIBA Americas, FIBA Asia, FIBA Europe and FIBA Oceania. USA teams have won four of the previous six Hoop Summit match-ups and the Americans have done so on the shoulders of some outstanding showings by an impressive list of alumni. A premiere event for high school seniors, 50 former USA and World Select Hoop Summit team members have been drafted by NBA teams, and 28 USA players and nine world team members currently play in the NBA (as of 1/27/04). Some of the American NBA standouts boasting of Hoop Summit experience include Shareef Abdur-Rahim (Atlanta Hawks); Ron Artest (Indiana Pacers); Shane Battier (Memphis Grizzlies); Mike Bibby (Sacramento Kings); Elton Brand (Los Angeles Clippers); Baron Davis (New Orleans Hornets); Mike Dunleavy (Golden State Warriors); Garnett (Minnesota Timberwolves); Al Harrington (Indiana Pacers); Larry Hughes (Washington Wizards); Casey Jacobsen (Phoenix Suns); Joe Johnson (Phoenix Suns); Rashard Lewis (Seattle SuperSonics); Marbury (New York Knicks), Darius Miles (Portland Trail Blazers); Zach Randolph (Portland Trail Blazers); Quentin Richardson (Los Angeles Clippers), and Stromile Swift (Memphis Grizzlies). World Hoop Summit alums now playing for NBA teams include Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks), Parker (San Antonio Spurs), Vladimir Radmanovic (Seattle SuperSonics), Dan Gadzuric (Milwaukee Bucks), Darius Songaila (Sacramento Kings), Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje (Cleveland Cavaliers), Bruno Sundov (New York Knicks), Jerome Moiso (Toronto Raptors), and Bostjan Nachbar (Houston). Other former players still competing on the collegiate level include Duke's Chris Duhon, Miami's Darius Rice, North Carolina State's Scooter Sherrill, UCLA's T.J. Cummings, Texas A&M's Nick Anderson, DePaul's Andre Brown, and South Carolina's Rolando Howell. The USA owns a 4-2 series lead in the Hoop Summit after last edging the World Select Team 98-97 in 2000 in Indianapolis, Ind. In that contest, Randolph accounted for 24 points and eight rebounds, and Miles contributed 15 points and eight boards, while France's Parker paced the World squad in the loss, scoring 20 points and dishing off seven assists. In 1999 in Tampa, Fla., USA guard Jacobsen scored a U.S. team record 31 points on 6-of-8 shooting from 3-point as the Americans rolled to a 107-95 victory. In 1998, the World Select Team earned a hard-fought 104-99 victory thanks to a Hoop Summit record 33 points and 14 rebounds from future NBA All-Star Dirk Nowitzki. Current Pacer forward Harrington posted 26 points and nine rebounds for the U.S. in the loss. In the 1997 Hoop Summit, contested in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., future NBA standouts Larry Hughes and Ron Artest posted 20 and 19 points, respectively, as the USA squad battled to a 97-90 triumph. Despite Jermaine O'Neal finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots, the World Team claimed a 104-96 win in the 1996 Hoop Summit in Charlotte, N.C. In the inaugural Hoop Summit contest held in Springfield, Mass., the USA won 86-77 as Garnett accumulated 10 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocked shots, Marbury added 10 points and five assists, while Albert White tossed in 13 points and Jelani McCoy added 11. The USA coaches and players who will participate in the 2004 Hoop Summit will be selected by the USA Basketball Cadet and Youth Committee which is chaired by Showalter. The USA Basketball Men's Cadet and Youth Committee also includes AAU appointees Ron Crawford (head coach Arkansas Wings AAU) and Marcellus "Boo" Williams (head coach, AAU Hampton Roads, Va.); National Federation of State High School Associations appointees Pat Fitterer (head coach, Sehome High School, Wash.) and Eric Flannery (head coach, St. Edwards High School, Ohio); as well as athlete representatives Damon Baily (1999 USA Pan American Games Team / Bedford, Ind.) and Brian Rahilly (1993 USA Tournament of the Americas Team / Tulsa, Okla.). USA Basketball Actually, USA Basketball is an organization made up of associations. Current USA Basketball active members include the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), National Pro-Am City League Association, National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA), United States Armed Forces, USA Deaf Sports Federation (USADSF), Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). These 13 member organizations have representation on USA Basketball's various committees and ultimately determine how USA Basketball operates. USA Basketball was organized in 1974 and known as the Amateur Basketball Association of the United States of America (ABAUSA). The name change from ABAUSA to USA Basketball occurred October 12, 1989, shortly after FIBA modified its rules to allow professional basketball players to participate in international competitions. USA Basketball then admitted the NBA as an active member and made the change. Between the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, over 500 men and women will proudly represent USA Basketball at 28 international competitions. Some of the competitions those teams competed in, like the Olympics, are well known in the U.S. and around the world, while others like the World Championships, Pan American Games, World University Games, World Championship for Young Men/Women, and Junior World Championships are not quite as familiar. Although lesser known, these competitions are the foundation on which the USA's Olympic hoops success is built. Having completed in 2003 the third year of another four-year cycle, the summer of 2003 saw USA Basketball teams compile a 42-11 record for an 79.2 winning percentage. In addition to the selection and training of men's and women's basketball teams that represent the USA in international and national competitions, USA Basketball is also involved in the sanctioning of U.S. basketball team tours of foreign countries; foreign basketball teams tours of the U.S.; the licensing of players to play professionally overseas, as well as overseeing the certification of FIBA and USA Basketball officials and the assignment of certified FIBA and USA Basketball officials to international competitions.
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