City of Basketball Love

Mark Jordan (@mnjsports)
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PORTLAND — The basketball stage just keep getting bigger, the competition tougher, and the stakes higher. Like a video game, beating a level brings some rewards but mostly just the beginning of a more difficult level. And the levels just keep coming.

For a basketball player, it seldom gets easier pursuing a dream. 

Through youth basketball, high school basketball, conference, district and state championship tournaments, all but the most impactful players are winnowed down. The rewards include improving game skills, trophies, a measure of notoriety, collegiate interest or scholarships and ultimately, the chance to play professionally in the National Basketball Association and make a significant sum of money.

Almost two weeks ago it was the McDonald’s All-American game, where the best talent in the United States squared off against each other in Houston, Texas. Now the next level has moved on to the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon on this Saturday night, April 8, with the Nike Hoop Summit.

The Nike Hoop Summit, a USA Basketball event in partnership with Nike, is the latest step up the ladder, showcasing teams of the best dozen high school senior boys and girls in the country — one Men’s Team and one Women’s Team — each against a World Select Team comprised of the world’s best talent in their age group, 19 and Under. In light of impressive television ratings and excitement around the recent NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, USA Basketball is already ahead of the curve in adding the first inaugural Women’s Team competition to the already highly regarded annual event. 

For Justin Edwards of Imhotep Charter School, D.J. Wagner of Camden High School (N.J.) and Hannah Hidalgo of Paul VI High School (N.J.), participating in this highest level yet means blocking out the pressure, refining their skills, adjusting to a new set of rules and styles. It means ignoring practice rooms filled with NBA scouts and other personnel. And doing it all in just one week.

The intrinsic advantage would appear to be with the World Select Teams because Hoop Summit games are played with the international set of rules, and some of their players are already playing professionally overseas. And yet, since the first Hoop Summit, played in 1995, the U.S. holds a 15-7 won-loss record on the boys’ side.

USA Basketball is a nonprofit organization and the national governing body for basketball in the United States. As the recognized governing body for basketball in the United States by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), USA Basketball is responsible for the selection and training of USA teams that compete in FIBA sponsored international basketball competitions, as well as for some national competitions, and for the development of youth basketball initiatives that address player development, coach education and safety.

Participants in this event don’t try out for this event specifically — they are selected by the USA Developmental National Team Committees for Men and Women. These committees are comprised of members from various USA Basketball constituencies such as the NCAA, AAU, coaches, athletes and officials from USA Basketball.  These committees evaluate potential participants and issue their invitation to both players and the staff. All selections are first approved by the USA Basketball Board of Directors. Unlike typical competitive team basketball, where coaches hold tryouts and then select the players they feel will form the best team, USA Basketball Team coaches have no direct input into who they will be leading.

USA’s women’s head coach for the Hoop Summit, Sue Phillips — who’s won more than 760 games at Archbishop Mitty (Calif.) and is on her sixth coaching assignment with USA Basketball — confidently says that USA Basketball “does a great job in the selection process, so we’re getting not only talented players but good people. It’s easy to get the buy-in when they understand that they’re playing for USA Basketball, the name that runs across their chest.”

USA Men’s Team head coach Steve Turner, the head coach at D.C. powerhouse Gonzaga since 2004-05, agrees. 

“We’ve had a lot of these young men be a part of our minicamps so they understand our game and some of the things we run,” he said. “A lot of them play with each other in different settings, whether it be in the AAU, going to the same camps that go on all year long — be it through USA, Nike, Under Armour or any of the other shoe companies as well, or being in the NBA Top 100 — so their familiarity with each other is probably greater than our familiarity with them. 

“Being able to give them concepts, allow them to play the game the right way, allows us to gel in a shorter period of time. They’ll do the best job they can, representing that brand that goes across their chest, and that’s ‘USA.’”

Still, this obviously presents some unique challenges for both coaches and players. They have less than a week to gel as a team and learn the strategies and tactics they will use to try to defeat Saturday’s opponents.

Edwards, a newcomer to the process, having only attended one USA basketball minicamp before, noted “there’s just so much to process and so little time to learn it. I was hoping I’d be prepared for that. Honestly it’s not really hard because you train your mind to learn new plays throughout the whole year having regular practices and learning new plays and stuff.” At the same time, he adds, “It’s just something I worked so hard for just to get here.”

Hidalgo, an experienced USA Basketball player who competed and won a gold medal in the FIBA U17 World Cup last year, acknowledges that the biggest challenge is “how fast you have to come together, all these top girls and just trying to play different combinations and stuff like that, and having to do it quick. Really quick.”

From the moment the tightly organized practices begin, things move very quickly. 

Coaches divide players into groups and take them to various ends of the two courts in the Portland Trailblazers’ training facility and begin to run drills. Up on the scoreboard you can see the time allotted for each training segment: ten minutes for warmups, four minutes for the first drill and so forth. Some drills end only when a player successfully makes a certain number of shots. It’s an organized chaos of constant motion and sound. 

Pausing periodically to “group up,” where coaches take the opportunity to encourage, admonish or instruct, players are then brought together in a halfcourt setting and begin to learn and practice running plays. Coaches critically observe from a variety of vantage points, shouting instructions, stepping in and out to provide more specific directions or adjustments. 

The movement is fast and the noise almost deafening at times between the coaches shouting, players yelling out constant status updates, and always the squeak and squeal of sneakers making fast, sharp cuts and the rhythmic pounding of the ball against the court floor. The ninety-minute session seems to end almost as soon as it begins. USA players only have from Wednesday to Friday to take in all they must learn, while their competition was able to begin a day earlier.

All the while, you’re constantly reminded as players rotate in and out of drills, that you’re watching an entire gym populated by the best of the best. And still, the participants from the Philadelphia area are standing out. 

Edwards is playing excellent defense, moving across the paint, hounding his opponent into traps at the corners, and releasing sizzling outlet passes after steals and rebounds. On offense, he seems to have little trouble creating space for himself for shots, either putting up high arching jump shots from the perimeter or slashing his way to the rim. He is totally focused on his team, seemingly indifferent to the rows of scouts, NBA staff and media that surrounds three sides of the court. 

Is there a lot of pressure in the background of knowing that the next level is there and watching? Not according to Edwards, the No. 1 player in the 2023 class, who says “I don’t pay them no mind. The more you pay attention to it, the more it affects you, so I try not to pay attention to it and just try to be myself.” 

Wagner, who’s trying to become the first third-generation NBA player, is constantly applying pressure defensively, getting steals, deflections or forcing turnovers. On offense he smoothly weaves his way through traffic enroute to yet another bucket at the rim, or drawing in defenders and then kicking out to open teammates. His joy for playing the game is evident. And that’s natural considering the advice he’s received from his father, DeJuan Wagner, and grandfather, Milt Wagner, both area and professional legends. 

Wagner reminds himself that they have told him to “just…have fun, enjoy it, keep doing what I love doing, and don’t get high on myself or take it super serious. I still take it serious but I still have fun, enjoy it, enjoy what I’m doing, working out and stuff like that.” 

Turner has noticed the progress and growth made by Edwards and Wagner, reflecting “they’ve grown as players since the first time I had a chance to lay eyes on them, and I’ve seen them for a few years now. Each one of them keeps getting better and better every time they get on the floor. Each one of them’s taken everything they can from their opportunities, whether it be in high school, AAU, the camps and coming in here and taking away things that have added to their games.”

Hidalgo is sweet off the court, but in play, she’s a stone-cold killer. Offensively, she clearly is the general in charge, surveying the court, moving the ball to the right person at the right time and if the defense prevents the play, she coolly brings the ball out and starts again. But she’s also capable at any time of suddenly getting to the rim or dropping a quick but accurate jump shot. And from the moment the opposing team inbounds the ball, she is on whoever receives it in a frenzy of moving hands and rapidly shifting feet. There’s almost no visible light between the two bodies and she generates numerous takeaways or forces ill-advised passes. It’s almost a bit frightening to watch. 

When told that, her face lights up in a smile, almost wolfish in appearance, laughing. “I gotta be! With this height, I gotta be. Gotta be impressive on defense being 5-7!” 

Phillips does an even better job of summing up the quality of Hidalgo’s play: “Her command of the team, her command of the pace, um, her ability to understand how she can impact the team defensively. For me, she has shown some of the most growth from when I had her this summer with the World Team to now, and I’m not selling anyone else short. 

“When that nucleus that came together with our U16 Team, she was one of the newer players on the team which is a tad bit intimidating, so she was trying to find her way. So now she’s a veteran of this group and it shows. She’s playing fantastic. High assist-to-turnover ratio, getting everybody involved and yet still a scoring threat, incredibly dynamic in the open floor, and defensively, we can go into any defense we want and she impacts games.”

The one goal constantly brought up is to be able to play in the next applicable international competition. USA Basketball is always looking for the best people to represent the United States - it is their primary mission, to field the best possible teams to compete against competition from around the world that is already skilled but just getting better and better. Both Wagner and Hidalgo have played in a previous FIBA competition while Edwards is relishing his opportunity to compete in his first game against international stars and under international rules.

D.J. Wagner (above) is on track to become the first third-generation NBA player. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

International games are played with a different set of rules that include a 24-second shot clock, fouling out after five fouls rather than the NBA’s six, a shorter 3-point shot distance, the number and duration of available timeouts, when a jump ball is called for and how possession works afterwards, and what constitutes goal-tending or basketball interference, a particularly interesting change for our USA players. Unlike in American basketball, where officials observe a cone extending upwards from the rim where the ball cannot be interfered with, under FIBA rules, once the ball touches the rim, it is considered a flat plane and can be swatted away or tapped in without an infraction being called. 

Many in the U.S. like to think that this country owns basketball, but consider how the number of internationals have increased - and excelled - in the NBA. And USA teams do not automatically win every game, even though, according to USA Basketball statistics, USA Basketball men’s and women’s teams in 2021 compiled a spectacular 48-5 win-loss record in FIBA and FIBA Americas events and captured gold medals in seven events. Additionally, USA 3x3 teams posted a 58-15 win-loss record and won three gold medals in official FIBA and FIBA Americas 3x3 competitions. USA Basketball ranks No. 1 in all five of FIBA's world ranking categories, including combined, men's, women's, boys and girls. 

Phillips needs to remind her players that “they’re competing against players across their world and there’s a different style, it’s nuanced, right? [The] ‘stretch four’ came from overseas. A lot of these [international] gals have played professionally, or against professionals from a very young age. Their synergy is fantastic and they move really well without the basketball. We do a lot of dribble-drive here in the United States, whereas they do a lot more read-and-react.”

Wagner considers his experience playing in a FIBA competition and winning a gold medal as something very meaningful and an honor to succeed for his country. He averaged nine points and around three rebounds and three assists per game as USA won the FIBA U17 championship in Spain last July.

“It was a surreal feeling,” he said. “That was my first time going out of the country. Everything was like new to me, what they expect of me, stuff like that, but it was a lot of fun, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I enjoyed that a lot, just being able to go out there, win a gold medal. That’s an honor in itself, to win a gold medal, so just going out there was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. We definitely got a chance to go into the city, like downtown, the areas. We got to explore a little bit and it was really, really nice.”

Hidalgo couldn’t agree more, having won her championship that same month in Hungary, averaging 7.7 ppg, 2.9 apg and 2.1 rpg. “It’s an honor. When I say honor, I mean, it’s a girl’s dream to come out here and play in such a major event. Last summer in Hungary, honestly, it was a great experience. It was my first time, it was different, very different, so I had to get acclimated to a lot of things. I was put in a different situation but it really helped me learn a lot of things, learning different cultures and things like that, talking to different people. I mean, it was just a great experience.”

And there’s no denying that playing for USA Basketball is a life-changing experience. It builds character and spurs further maturity. It broadens the players horizons and exposes them to different cultures and values. The coaches they work with have decades of experience coaching various teams in their regular jobs and being involved in international competitions. Each player takes away something different from those kinds of opportunities, but all have become better players and persons because of it.

Hidalgo believes the most important thing she has learned is “how to overcome adversity. Being put in new situations like that, and not having my parents around to be there to help me through it so I had to get through it myself, me and God, talking with God everyday. Being able to go through that myself because obviously my parents aren’t going to be there when I go to college, so when I go through tough stuff like adversity and stuff like that, my parents aren’t going to be there…they’ll be on the phone but it’s going to be completely different so I’ll have to overcome adversity by myself because they won’t be there, and I’ve been with my parents all my life. 

“I’ve been competing with Team USA all my life and it’s a great experience, being able to represent my country. I’ll keep doing it.”

With the two games little more than 24 hours away, the men will be having a final full scrimmage today in preparation, and the women will have a final practice. Having observed the practices of their competition this week, it’s safe to say that both teams will have their hands full. Regardless of the outcome, though, every man or woman participating in this short week and event will come away changed in some way, having grown a little more, having added a bit more mastery of their stunning skill sets and court sense. They will leave Portland better than when they arrived earlier this week, thanks to USA Basketball.

Wagner probably sums it up best when asked if he’d do it again: “Most definitely.”