A former camper stops by
The first thing that every one of the 120 prospects who descended upon Reebok's ABCD Camp in Teaneck, New Jersey sees upon entering the Rothman Center is a large banner that reads “You've Arrived.”
It's flanked on both sides by the Reebok ABCD logo and past MVP's of the camp such as Sebastian Telfair, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. One of those players, Charlie Villanueva (he was an MVP in 2002), a Queens native who attended Newtown High School in East Elmhurst for two years, turned success at the national showcase into a scholarship at the University of Connecticut and a professional basketball career.
He was selected seventh overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2005 NBA Draft, and was recently traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.
It was the first time Villanueva had returned to the camp. “It was just a good environment to be in,” he said, recalling his prep days at ABCD. “It's crazy; it doesn't seem like a long time ago.”
Villanueva, a 6-foot-11 power forward coming off an impressive rookie year in which he scored 13 points-a-game and averaged 6.4 rebounds, is working out every day with the Chicago Bulls' Ben Gordon, a fellow UConn teammate and Mount Vernon graduate. “I had the time off, I really wasn't doing much. Why not come out and see the new talent? They just ask me how it is, what it's like,” he said of the campers.
Villanueva was impressed by the high-flying Bill Walker of Cincinnati, Ohio, a top 10 talent who scored 24 points in the Senior All-Star game with a variety of windmill, double pumps and tomahawk slam dunks. “He's unbelievable,” Villanueva marveled. “That kid has hops.”
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Two Queens point guards, Malik Boothe of Christ the King and Darius Gabriel of Rockaway Park, who goes to prep school at the Winchendon School in Massachusetts, had vastly different camps.
Boothe, the undersized defensive specialist, cemented his status as a prototypical pass-first floor general, finishing third overall in assists with 4.4 a game and also logging 1.9 steals-a-game. But his inconsistent shot - he averaged just 3.6 points-per-game on 34 percent shooting - cost him a spot in the Senior All-Star game. Gabriel, who was outstanding last year, never got going this time, scoring just 2 points-a-game with 2.3 assists.
– Zachary Braziller
