Top 100 attracts country's best

For the participants at one of the game of basketball’s most elite high school camps, John Paul Jones Arena has served as a stepping stone toward their dreams of playing professionally since the summer of 2007. That’s when the National Basketball Players Association’s Top 100 Camp made the move to the University of Virginia’s new facility.

Since then, rising stars like Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings, along with NBA mentors such as hall of famer Dominique Wilkins — who each attended the first camp in Charlottesville in 2007 — have called JPJ home for a short time. The four-day camp is regarded by many as the best in existence, and its unique approach of combining a camp for hopeful players and coaches help to support those claims.

“What we have are some of the best high school coaches, some guys who want to be either NBA or college coaches, that are actively involved in the lives of kids for four days, trying as hard as they can to help them become better basketball players and sharing some life experiences with them,” said Dave Telep, the camp’s player personnel director. “It’s a really unique deal. There’s really not anything like it, and at the same time, we’re kind of using this to kind of convince them to stay here and listen to what we’re talking to them about.

“It’s a pretty simple message: be a good person, treat people the right way, and compete.”

Some of the league’s most accomplished and well-known stars were once campers themselves, such as Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo and 2010 rookie of the year Tyreke Evans.

Howard, who went straight to the pros after high school, has since become one of the best defensive centers in the game, and looked back on his experience at the camp as “a blessing from God.” Former Cavalier greats Sean Singletary and Roger Mason, Jr., also attended the camp

The camp staff consists of former NBA players such as Antonio Davis, Kermit Washington and Purvis Short, and the coaching program is headed up by Ed Pinckney and Calvin Booth. Among this year’s coaching development trainees are current NBA players Jerry Stackhouse, Chris Duhon, Kevin Ollie, Maurice Evans, Theo Ratliff and Coby Karl, son of Denver Nuggets coach George Karl. The group is collectively learning the ins and outs of coaching, while at the same time teaching, mentoring, and sharing valuable advice to the youngsters, and even lacing up the Nikes and spending time on the court.

“The best part is, the guys who are in the league who want to be coaches really have embraced this,” Telep said. “I watched Jerry Stackhouse. I think he gave half of the camp an opportunity in the back gym to go one-on-one with him, and when the environment is closed and there’s nobody around, and Jerry Stackhouse pulls you out to go one-on-one with you, he’s going to talk to you, and you’re expected to talk back to him, and at the end of the day, that’s a heck of an experience for a high school kid. The cool thing is, he’s giving these guys an opportunity to take a swing, and that’s what’s important. It’s about the opportunity — what could be better than that?”

Duhon, a former Duke star and current New York Knick, was slated to attend the camp himself as a high schooler, but like a handful of this year’s class members like UVa targets Angelo Chol and Quinn Cook, Team USA tryouts happened to coincide with the dates. However, he is eager to absorb knowledge and give some back to this year’s campers at the same time.

“We go through seminars and learn the whole aspect about being a coach or an assistant coach, and it’s been very tiring, but it’s worth the while,” Duhon said. “Obviously these are a lot of guys who at some point are going to have the opportunity to be in the NBA. I’ve just been giving them advice of how if they haven’t committed to a school, how to handle the recruiting aspect of it, when they go to college, to enjoy every minute of it, and just show them and give them what it takes to get to the next level, I know that that’s what all their dreams are. It’s not an easy road, and you just try to mentor them as much as possible, encourage them to get better, and still do well in school.”

The camp also features the Parents Coaching Parents program, started in 2003 to guide players’ mothers and fathers through such issues as proper education, health and nutrition, NCAA rules and peer pressure.

One recruiting analyst who was on hand evaluating talent at the camp said that if passed, proposed NCAA legislation could prevent camps like the Top 100 to be conducted on Division I campuses. UVa and the NBPA have a contract for an undisclosed number of years which could be grandfathered in if such legislation is passed. Telep is one guy who’s in favor of staying put.

“From our standpoint, and in coming here for two years now, this building is so perfect for us because we have an unbelievable basketball facility, and then the ability to feed and house and work these guys out all in one place, it’s amazing,” he said. “It’s perfect, it’s like the utopia for what we’re trying to do, and when you put on an event like this, if you don’t have a good facility, it’s difficult to have a top-notch event. It really is a great match.

“We’re here as long as they’ll have us. I don’t make those decisions, but I know that the people higher up in the food chain believe that the John Paul Jones Arena is the place for the NBA camp.”

Notes

Two campers in town for the 17th annual event have been offered by Tony Bennett’s coaching staff, and each is also impressed by the environment at JPJ. Paul Jesperson, a 6-foot-7 native of Merrill, Wis., and 5-foot-10 point guard Myles Mack of Jersey City, N.J., each made their first trip to the area this weekend, and are both happy with what they’ve seen and experienced since they arrived on Wednesday.

“It’s a great school, I like it a lot,” said Jesperson. “Obviously, the facilities are amazing, there’s probably not too many schools that have got something like this, but I like everything about it. I like the coaches, the facilities, I like what coach Bennett is going to do, I know he’ll get the job done.”

Mack is a small but feisty floor general who said he’d definitely be interested to see what JPJ has to offer down the road.

“The arena is beautiful, I’ve never seen another arena like this… I’m loving it so far,” Mack said.

“The campus is great, the dorms are nice. I’m liking it right now.”

Mack went on to say that he has established “a nice relationship” with Virginia assistant Ron Sanchez through recruiting, and plans to narrow his list of college choices in about a month.