Atlanta Summer League Champs

Posted on August 19, 2009 10:18 AM

As the BJ League season and the start the Kings first practice grow near everyday the Summer League Basketball Season ends in the USA and other countries.

Congrats to Jeff, Mac, Wallace and their team for winning the Championship of the 2009 Wallace Prather Jr. Pro-Am Summer League.

For more on the Atlanta Summer League read the article below:

In Atlanta league, NBA stars rattle rims with hoops dreamers

ATLANTA -- Violence and noise came to the Adamsville Recreation Center the other night when Mario West drove hard to the hole --- does he know any other way? --- elevated and threw down a dunk so vicious that he was inclined to yell.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"

As the rattling backboard quieted, a chorus of "Ooooooooh!" came from the fans (all 34 of them), Josh Smith fist-bumped his teammate and the West-Smith Celtics took a 47-44 lead.

The Wallace Prather Jr. Pro-Am League, whose home is a City of Atlanta Parks & Recreation gym of cinder block along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, resonates these days. There are NBA players like West and Smith all around, to be sure, but this is a place far more alive with ballers who have a simple dream. Much of this league consists of former college stars and ex-NBA players trying to win contracts, chiefly overseas. For many, it may be their last shot.

All of them go hard in this league, which explains the seven stitches that 76ers forward Thaddeus Young took in the head after a game last week, and how rising freshman Kammeon Holsey of Georgia Tech tore his anterior cruciate ligament a few weeks ago.

"All these marks on my face are from here, man," said Wizards guard Javaris Crittenton, an Atlanta native who like Young played one season at Tech. "War wounds."

Nobody is playing for money. Not here. But that's what many of them are after.

"They really don't come to take the night off," said Tony Brown, one of eight NBA officials here. "These guys that aren't in the NBA are trying to take it to them."

As Brown's presence shows, this is not a place only for players. Saturday's noon championship game will be officiated by the NBA's Ed Rush and Tom Washington (who've both worked the NBA Finals) and Anthony Jordan (who works many ACC and SEC games). It should be a good workout for them, if not a financial windfall. League coordinator Charles Ridley said he has paid officials as much as $40 per game, though.

The championship will pit the Celtics -- formed loosely around players like Smith, West, former Indiana star Jeff Newton (now playing in Japan) and former Atlanta player Donta Smith (under contract in Australia) -- against YMB and its all-NBA backcourt of Crittenton and 76ers starting point guard Louis Williams. Young is not expected to play.

In this week's playoffs, several non-NBA players stood --- or jumped -- out.

Jimmy Baxter, a 6-foot-5 guard who played at South Florida, didn't like an opponent shooting at his team's goal during warmups and jumped to swat the shot away as it arced toward the rim, his hand elevating at least a foot above the goal. "That $&% ain't going in!" he yelled. "Get outta here!"

Jumaine Jones, a former University of Georgia small forward who spent eight seasons in the NBA with the 76ers, Cavs, Celtics, Lakers, Bobcats and Suns, scored 24 points in a quarterfinals win the other night, including the game-winner, a 20-foot, buzzer-beating turnaround jumper. He'll leave any day to play for Juvecaserta Basket in Italy after playing last season in Russia, and in Italy the season before that.

"This helps you get in shape, and if you're competitive like I am you're going to come out here and be tested by guys trying to get jobs," Jones said. "If I was in the NBA right now, I probably wouldn't be playing much."

Still, the current NBA players are front and center here. Smith paced himself the other day in the Celtics' quarterfinal win, waiting until the last five minutes of each half (games include 10-minute quarters) to let loose. According to Ridley, Young scored 50 points the other day, the high mark for the summer.

Williams nearly matched that in his team's quarterfinal win Wednesday, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter and 45 overall, half the time with his jersey clamped between his teeth.

"The major thing is getting myself in shape so when I go to training camp it won't be culture shock," said Williams, a former metro Atlanta prep star. "Tonight, I wanted to work on being aggressive, post work. Fortunately, we had a smaller guard that I was able to try some things out on. In past games I worked on screen-and-roll defense."

Teams play $1,200 to enter, though members of an all-college team paid just $45 each. Proceeds --- and there may be none in this, the second year of the league --- benefit the Wallace Prather Jr. Educational Foundation (www.pratherfoundation.com). Prather, who died in 2006, co-founded the Celtics AAU organization. Roughly a dozen alumni have moved onto the NBA.

"I wanted to do something in honor of my husband," said Prather's widow, league director Jennifer Prather. "Some of the stars from the Celtics summer program, I thought it would be nice for them to come back and play. Last year, I think I deposited about $1,700 in the foundation, to help kids in college who need a little extra.

"This year, I went into my pocket. I haven't added it up, but I think it's a couple grand. Next year, we're going to ask for donations [from fans]."

Jennifer's son, Wallace Prather III, is an NBA agent with several clients in this league.

The majority of players here played high school and/or college ball in Georgia, including Smith, West, Williams, Crittenton and the Knicks' Morris Almond. Anthony McHenry, a member of the 2005 Georgia Tech team that lost in the national championship game to Connecticut, played a couple years overseas, decided to get into coaching (he was on the staff of Tech coach Paul Hewitt as a graduate assistant a couple of years ago) and then returned to playing. Soon, he'll leave for his second season in Japan.

"My agent called and said a team in Japan needed a power forward," McHenry said. "I had a couple of things popping for me on the coaching side, but I thought it was more lucrative going over to Japan. This league ... you've got a lot of guys getting ready to go play basketball for money, so guys take this stuff seriously."

In the quarterfinals, a coach for the team facing the Williams-Crittenton squad was so serious he grew despondent as Williams torched his men down the stretch. And he didn't like the way Crittenton brought the ball upcourt, finally drawing a technical for his outbursts.

"You don't call a carry. You don't call double-dribble. You don't need to help them," the coach said. "Damn, they're already in the NBA!"