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Parade All-America Boys Basketball Team

The Parade All-America Boys Basketball Team was an annual selection by Parade that nationally honored the top high school boys' basketball players in the United States.[1] It was part of the Parade All-American series that originated with boys basketball before branching to other sports.[2][3] Started by the Sunday magazine in 1957, it had been the longest ongoing selection of high school basketball All-Americans in the country at the time of its final selections in 2015.[4] Many of the honorees went on to star as college and professional basketball players.[5] As of March 2011, there were 162 Parade All-Americans that were playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA).[6]

At its onset, the selections were handled by a New York–based public relations firm, Publicity Enterprises, which was led by Haskell Cohen, who was a former sportswriter as well as the publicity director for the NBA at the time (1950–1969). The first All-America team in 1957 consisted of three five-player teams, and the first-team selections appeared on television on The Steve Allen Show.[2][7] The following year, 20 players were selected and participated in the first annual Parade All-American high school game.[8] The list later expanded to 40 of the nation's top players, divided into four teams of 10 each.[5] Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known then as Lew Alcindor, became the first sophomore in 1963 to be named a Parade All-American.[9] Fifteen years later, Earl Jones became the next sophomore to earn first-team honors,[10] and subsequently joined Abdul-Jabbar as the first two players to be named to the first team on three occasions.[11] "It was a real thrill for me to make it on the Parade list early, when I was just a sophomore. The recognition is a great thing for kids to shoot for," said Abdul-Jabbar as part of the announcement for the 2000 team.[12]

Starting in 2011, the selections were compiled in conjunction with Sporting News and their writer, Brian McLaughlin. Candidates also began to be limited to players in their senior year.[6][13][14] The selections went to a single-team format in 2012,[15] and the size was reduced from 40- to a 20-player first team in 2014.[16] McLaughlin described the selections as mostly Division I college-bound players that had a stellar senior year in high school. Additionally, Parade differentiated itself from most other All-American teams by not focusing solely on a player's standing among college recruiters. For example, some selectors might choose top recruits that had been injured much of their senior year.[14][17] Parade discontinued its boys' basketball All-America selections after 2015.[18]

  1. ^ "Nominate a PARADE All-American". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. February 12, 2010. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Huff, Doug. "EA SPORTS Boys & Girls All-Americans". yahoo.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015.
  3. ^ "Named to the PARADE All-American team". milton.edu. June 2003. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  4. ^ "Melrose star and Memphis signee Adonis Thomas named PARADE All-American". The Commercial Appeal. March 28, 2011. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Zeller named Parade All-American". Washington Times Herald. April 4, 2008. Archived from the original on June 7, 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Tony Wroten Jr. named to Parade All-America second team". The Seattle Times. May 28, 2011. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  7. ^ Bell, Terry H. A. (2004). Sweet Charlie, Dike, Cazzie, and Bobby Joe: High School Basketball in Illinois. University of Illinois Press. p. 74. ISBN 9780252090486. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference 1958picks was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "The List: Best high school athletes ever". ESPN.com. May 5, 2003. Archived from the original on April 1, 2015.
  10. ^ Jenkins, Chris (June 21, 1978). "Prep Soph "Kareem" of the Crop". Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. p. 1-C. Retrieved April 15, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  11. ^ Cohen, Haskell (March 23, 1980). "Parade's All-America High School Boys' Basketball Team". Parade. p. 11. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  12. ^ Jordan Loveridge Named to PARADE's 56th Annual All-America Team. May 22, 2012. Archived from the original on April 20, 2015. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2011picks was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ a b "Brian McLaughlin". Parade. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2012picks was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Miller, Brian (March 17, 2014). "Escobar named Parade All-American in basketball". Tallahassee Democrat. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021.
  17. ^ Clark, Ernie (May 24, 2013). "Jonesport-Beals basketball standout Garet Beal named Parade All-American". Bangor Daily News. Archived from the original on August 30, 2015.
  18. ^ Brian McLaughlin [@BrianMacWriter] (June 18, 2016). "@bigbluehistory Apparently a decision was made to discontinue those teams I am sad to report" (Tweet). Archived from the original on July 9, 2016 – via Twitter.

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