{"id":273701,"date":"2023-11-21T13:38:51","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T21:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ballislife.com\/?p=273701"},"modified":"2023-12-05T14:38:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T22:38:41","slug":"preseason-poy-tracker-boozers-crown-flaggs-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballislife.com\/preseason-poy-tracker-boozers-crown-flaggs-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Preseason POY Tracker: Boozer's Crown, Flagg's World!"},"content":{"rendered":"
Duke-bound Cooper Flagg of FAB 50 No. 1 Montverde Academy (Fla.) leads a two-horse race in the 2023-24 Mr. Basketball USA Tracker powered by Ballislife.com. The 6-foot-9 forward edges last year's Mr. Basketball USA honoree, Cam Boozer of Columbus (Fla.), in a close race between the two elite prospects among 20 candidates. The Mr. Basketball USA Tracker is now in its seventeenth season.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n RELATED: All-Time Mr. Basketball USA Winners<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>| Final 2022-23 Mr. Basketball USA Tracker<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Let's rewind back to the 2007 USA Basketball Training Camp<\/em> in Las Vegas as Team USA was preparing to restore its dominance of international basketball. The late Kobe Bryant<\/strong> had requested a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers a few months before the camp and the media was going to get a chance to talk to him for the first time since as camp opened. Bryant would eventually emerge as the leader of the \"Redeem Team\" that won the Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympics in China, but at that time in 2007 he wasn't particularly close to his future Olympic teammates.<\/p>\n With the help of J.J. Redick<\/strong>, Bryant was getting up his shots without any dribbling, without any wasted motion and with little communication with his teammates. He knew there was going to be a media onslaught and it was consistent once practice was over all the way until the players left together from the gymnasium. Other Team USA players, such as Carmelo Anthony,<\/strong> gave Bryant a hard time about the media onslaught and enjoyed their precious time away from the spotlight.<\/p>\n After leaving the practice and heading to the next grassroots basketball event on our schedule that day, we ran into Chris Rivers<\/strong>, then Reebok Basketball's Sports Marketing Director, about the practice. We told him about the jovial practice session everyone had, expect for Bryant in how serious he took it. Rivers uttered this statement: \"It's LeBron's league, but it's Kobe's world.\"<\/p>\n Rivers' statement echoes our sentiment about high school basketball and this year's race for the nation's most prestigious individual honor: Mr. Basketball USA<\/em>. For the first time since LeBron James<\/strong> in 2002-03, high school basketball has a returning Mr. Basketball USA. That would be 6-foot-9 Cameron Boozer<\/strong> of FAB 50 No. 3 Columbus (Miami, Fla.)<\/a>, the nation's top player in 2022-23. He was the first sophomore to ever earn national player honors. In terms of accomplishment over a career, Boozer has a chance to dominate the high school game like no player since James did in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n If the preseason voting results by the 10-man Mr. Basketball USA Tracker panel, plus comments from one of its senior members, are any indication, it's actually someone else who might be the most skilled American-born high school player with positional NBA size since the former St. Vincent-St. Mary (Akron, Ohio) wunderkind.<\/p>\n