Tracy McGrady just acquired one of the most iconic high school basketball camps of all-time on Thursday.
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For over two decades, one high school camp was considered the gold standard—hosting the best basketball players across the country until it was shuttered in 2006. Twenty years later, a former Houston Rockets legend is ready to bring it back.
On Thursday, it was announced that NBA Hall of Famer and current NBC Sports basketball analyst Tracy McGrady will revive the iconic ABCD camp in partnership with Sonny Vaccaro, the legendary former Nike executive and the camp’s founder. The story was first reported by Front Office Sport (FOS).
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According to FOS, the former Rockets superstar will own 80 percent of the camp, while Vaccaro will retain the remaining 20 percent.
“It was only because of Tracy McGrady that I’m doing this,” Vaccaro told FOS. “He had the most impact on what I did because he was probably the biggest underdog. He was so close to not being invited because of other people’s opinions of him.”
Longtime ESPN announcer Dick Vitale and ABCD Camp director Sonny Vaccaro speak to an audience of players in 1991.
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Vaccaro hosted the camp for 22 years, with its first edition kicking off in 1984. It was widely regarded as the best event for evaluating top prep prospects in the country. Part of Vaccaro’s legacy was the ability to link ABCD to Nike, which was the lead sponsor until 1992. Other sneaker brands like Converse, Adidas and Reebok were also lead sponsors for the camp, and notable high-profile coaches would routinely attend and recruit at the event.
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ABCD was known for attracting the top players from across the country and around the globe, including Stephon Marbury, Kobe Bryant, Lenny Cooke, LeBron James and Yi Jianlian. However, other less heralded players from Texas used the camp to either vault themselves to being drafted out of high school to the NBA—like Rashard Lewis (Alief Elsik) and Gerald Green (Houston Gulf Shores Academy)—or become big-time recruits, like TJ Ford (Houston Willowridge) and DeAndre Jordan (Kingwood Christian Life Center Academy).
“I went as a no name, nobody knew who I was,” Ford said to Gameup about his time at ABCD Camp. “I went to that thing as an unknown, and I left that camp ranked No. 46…I was dominating that much at ABCD camp that I was playing with (future Duke Blue Devils stars) Carlos Boozer, Mike Dunleavy.”
LeBron James starred in the 2001 edition of the ABCD Camp at Rothman Center in Teaneck, New Jersey.
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Green, who was drafted in the first round of the 2005 NBA Draft, was named the Most Valuable Player of the camp the year prior.
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“Gerald put himself in the top of the class,” Vaccaro said to InsideHoops. “Coming out and being an MVP against those guys, now he can be national name whereas he was a regional name before.”
McGrady, a longtime ambassador for Adidas, will bring the apparel giant back on as the lead sponsor, with 60 of the top boys and girls set to play in the camp’s return in July. For “T-Mac,” who played in the camp in 1996, the resurrection is a little personal, as he, too, took advantage of the event’s potential by launching himself from a fringe top prospect to a lottery pick out of high school in the 1997 NBA draft.
Former Houston Rockets stars Clyde Drexler, Dwight Howard and Josh Smith were among many who participated in the famous ABCD Camp over the years.
“I felt like we were getting away from traditionally how camps need to be ran,” McGrady told FOS. “This property is missed from what is going on in summer AAU basketball. Had some conversations with Sonny, he agreed to that and I was just like, ‘Let me take it over.’”
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McGrady stressed that the camp will focus strictly on basketball skill development, as sneaker brands and their influence on where players go after high school—to the pros or college—have waned due to the rise of name, image and likeness deals, now paid directly to athletes.
“It’s this brand that Sonny started, you know, 30, 40 years ago is what we’re going to continue to live by,” McGrady said.
With the camp’s return, one can now look forward to seeing the likes of Texas prep hoop stars Reese Alston, Ogechi Okeke, Marcus Spears Jr. and Jemini Mitchell potentially star in the beloved camp.
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