John Walder photo.

Yes, if you missed the Boost Mobile Elite 24 HS All-American Classic at Rucker Park this past Friday that aired live on ESPNU, ESPN2 is re-broadcasting it tonight, Monday Aug. 25th, at midnight. After announcing for the third year in a row since it’s inception, it’s hard for me to gauge how much I enjoyed this one compared to the first two, but what I can say was that this one will always remain crazy memorable. It was the first time I’ve ever announced a game that was broadcast live on national TV! EBC master of ceremonies EJ Da Mayor and I shared play-by-play duties in the second half, and wow did we have a lot of highlights to get amped off of! My play of the game was John Wall, who I nicknamed “Ammo,” dribbling low through three then skatin’ down cherry lane for a lefty toma (he’s righty which made it that much more impressive).

The fun all started with the Dunk Contest . . .

Me, Kenny A., and Chauncey at the judges table. John Walder photo.

Me, former HS Nat’l Player of the Year and 14-year NBA vet Kenny Anderson, ‘04 NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups, and ESPN/Rise Mag’s Jay Corbin all judged the Dunk contest together. Dexter Strickland a.k.a. “The Illustrator” took it, which made the New Jeruselum heads in the crowd real happy.

Cool Nate Robinson and me. John Walder photo.

In the beginning of the game, Nate Robinson kept buggin’ out about Dexter Strickland’s Lebron Soldiers in white/orange/blue, obviously cuz he wanted to dip them up with his Knicks uni this winter. Nate asked me, no lie, five times how he could get a pair! Mad funny, yo.

I rocked my Jordan I Puerto Rico lows. John Walder photo.

As always, one of most fun things to do on the mic is give out nicknames. Here’s a list of the ones I came up this year:

Dominic Cheek aka “Peek A Boo”

Kenny Boynton aka “60 Seconds”

Derrick Favors aka “Sure Thing”

John Wall “Make’em Fall” aka “Ammo”

Laquinton Ross aka “Bag of Ice”

Jordan Hamilton aka “Lock & Load”

Lance “Born Ready” Stephenson aka “Reborn”

Brandon Knight aka “Good Night”

Maalik Wayns aka “Lik Lik So Unique” aka “Hard For The Money”

Dexter Strickland aka “the Illustrator”

“The Jeremy Tyler Show”

Dion Waiters aka “Fresh Pepper”

Erik Murphy aka “Iraq”

I had others but the players didn’t do well enough in the game for me to break them out. You only get one if you deserve it, nah’mean?

For individual stats and game recap, peep here
or www.risemag.com/elite24