Source was in the building for the illustrious event and it was filled with the stars of tomorrow
Brooklyn, NY – Last night, the Barclays Center featured the superstars of tomorrow in a high-flying, intense and overall good game in the Jordan Brand Classic. Showcasing both the best boys and girls in the country, the game featured some of the most highly recruited players battling and showcasing their talents in front of thousands but more importantly, in front of the man himself Michael Jordan. There were 4 games last night which featured the best 16 and under international players, best regional players in the Tri-state area, girls players and the main event, the best boys players in the country.
Featuring some of the headline names in boys basketball such as: Allonzo Trier (Arizona), Ivan Rabb (California), Antonio Blakeney (LSU), Eric Davis (Texas) and Skal Labissiere (Kentucky), it also featured the hometown favorite and University of Kentucky commit Isaiah Briscoe. Keeping up with theme of an all-star game, the game started off a bit rusty seeing that players were trying to get acclimated with the big lights, but as soon as the second half began, the players turned it up another notch.
As the second half of the game began, players slashed and battled their way to the basket for tough buckets and dunks which wow’ed the crowd endless times. The East team which featured, Isaiah Briscoe trailed for much of the game until he hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 103-103. But it didn’t stop there, once the 5 min mark hit, LSU commit Antonio Blakeney had a tough basket on Briscoe and the game quickly went from a simple high school All-Star game to a summer day at the Rucker. Getting every single person off their feet and chanting words like “Get Em Briscoe” and “Yeah”, Isaiah matched the intensity and delivered a crossover to Blakeney that had the arena in a frenzy and even managed New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz to get out his seat and salsa a bit.
Despite the crossover and the fight, the East team fell to the West due to Malik Beasley (FSU) having a bucket with less than 2 minutes on the clock. Even though all the players in the game showed promise of stardom years to come, no player shined brighter than Cheick Diallo. Gaining an MVP at the McDonalds All-American Game just under 3 weeks ago, he repeats as the Jordan Brand Classic MVP with 26 points and 11 rebounds. The night was capped off by a performance by Nicki Minaj in which, she performed a bunch of her favorites like “Truffle Butter”, “Moment 4 Life” and her verse off of the Pinkprint single “Feeling Myself”.
Talk sports, hip hop and why Cheick Diallo will be the best player next year with Drew on twitter @AndrewSomuah
