One of the top bigs of the class of 2010 writes from the NBPA Top 100 Camp.
Dwight Powell, a rising senior at the IMG Basketball Academy, is one of the top recruits in the country. He plays AAU with Grassroots Canada. Schools in the ACC, PAC-10 and SEC have expressed interest such as Vanderbilt, California, UCLA, Stanford, Virginia and even Harvard. The 6-9, 220-pound forward is spending a few days this summer participating in basketball camps, including the NBPA Top 100, Amar’e Stoudemire Skills Academy and LeBron James Skills Academy. Powell, also a 4.0 student, will give SLAM a first-hand account of the camps throughout the summer.—Franklyn Calle
Day 3 at the NBPA Top 100 Camp
The third day, also known as “hump day” because of its place in the middle of the week, had some challenges and was full of information being passed down about life from coaches and pros to us players. After the 7 a.m. voluntary “Breakfast Club” practice, which saw numbers drop to 32 players from 52 the previous morning, we ate and attended a special presentation on drugs and alcohol from former NBA players Dr. Stephen Taylor, Cliff Robinson, and Dirk Minniefield. It was an interactive presentation, which led us into discussion groups focused on steps players can take to deal with situations involving friends using drugs and peer pressure. The main message we walked away with was friends who force you into making decisions you don’t feel comfortable with or know are wrong, aren’t really your friends. Immediately after that, we were on the court with the clock counting down to game time. Everyone seemed pumped up and the games turned out to be pretty competitive, which was good. Once the first round of games were over, we were asked to confidentially write down who we each thought were the three best players in camp so far. Once the names were tallied, we were surprised to hear that we had just voted for the 20 players who would be playing in the All Star game – the first All Star game NBPA Top 100 Camp history. The leader in votes was Brandon Knight, a point guard from Fort Lauderdale.
Following the All Star break, we went into skill development with some of the pros, as well as team practice. Surprisingly, right in the transition from skill work to team practice, the entire camp – players, coaches and pros – were pulled away from all the parents and media. The camp director, Tim McCormick explained that we weren’t competing hard enough in the drills and that some people were taking off, which was true. McCormick, with current NBA player Lindsey Hunter, demanded more out of us. They know what it takes to make it, and they also can recognize the habits of someone who’s not going to make it, so they were adamant about competing and working hard, while remaining humble.
The second round of games went a bit better after the talk. One of our coaches, Donyell Marshall, who plays for the 76ers, asked us to simply run and compete. We called very few plays, worked hard on defense and came out with the victory.
To finish out the rest of the night, we were given another set of gear and went back to our dorms. The amount of gear we received so far, by the way, is amazing. I’ll compose a list of the stuff we’ve received at the end of camp on day four. The camp makes sure everyone has more than enough clothes on their back when they leave!
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