The McDonald's high school All-American game will be played this year in Milwaukee, on March 26th. Tonight, a Ft. Worth McDonald's is hosting a send-off for the three Texas basketball players who will go: North Crowley's Willie Warren, Dunbar's Brooklyn Pope, and Kennedale's Destini Hughes. We'll have a story on those three tomorrow during our 6:00 sportscast.

I watched Warren in North Crowley's state championship win over Fort Bend Dulles this past Saturday on TV. Prior to that game, I had only seen him in highlights and at practice last week, so my opinion of him is based soley on a couple of sightings. But from what little I've seen, he is awesome. When I tell other people about him, I compare him to Ken Griffey Jr. in his prime, just because of how effortless and graceful he looks while playing the game. He's so good that it looks like he's giving only 60-70% effort.

What really impressed me was the way Warren seized the moment at the end of the 5A championship game. As the best high school player in Texas, you knew he would score and have a good game, but it's always revealing to see how a player of his calibur produces in a game like that -- a championship game that is back and forth in the final minutes. In a 2 minute span, from about the 5 minute mark to the 3 minute mark, Warren tied the game with a jumper, gave his team a 1-point lead with a 3-pointer, and then later broke a tie game with another jumper. He scored 15 points in the 4th quarter (his team scored 23), and they won by 6 points.

Four years ago, Paul Melton (producer of High School Sports Special) and I went to the McDonald's All-American game. That year, the lineups included several guys who jumped straight to the NBA, or who are there now: Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, JR Smith, Glen "Big Baby" Davis, LaMarcus Aldridge, and on the girls' side, Candice Parker (just do a search for the "2004 McDonald's All-American Game" and see how many names you recognize from the roster). It was an entertaining game to cover, but there was a lot of me-first, one-on-one play, which was to be expected. But the one guy that really impressed me was Big Baby Davis. He didn't try to do too much, he rebounded, and he passed the ball to his more-selfish teammates. I think Willie Warren will play like that -- he's a point guard to begin with, but I just get a sense that he is so confident in his abilities, that he won't feel the need to show off as much as the other players will. I'm looking forward to seeing him play, both on March 26th, and then in college at Oklahoma.

1 Comments

Muri Calhoun said:

Good luck to all DFW players.

Thanks,
Muri Calhoun

March 13, 2008 12:56 PM

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