McDonald’s All-American Game: Future Arizona Men’s Basketball players snubbed

Arizona Basketball commits Shareef O’Neal, and Brandon Williams did not make the final roster to play on either the East or West teams in the McDonald’s All-American game. But why?

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Arizona Basketball two star commits Shareef O’Neal (The No. 31 player in the 2018 class), and Brandon Williams (The No. 33 player in the 2018 class) both made the McDonald’s All-American nominee list last week. Both Reef and B-Will have played for the Cal Supreme AAU team, and Shareef stole the show in Vegas at the tournaments where he and his dad Shaq O’Neal coached his team to the championship. They did not make the final roster to play on either the East or West teams in the McDonald’s All-American game.

The coveted McDonald’s All-American Game, which will take place on March 28 at Atlanta’s Philips Arena, includes slots for the top 24 girls and top 24 boys are filled by votes from experts in high school basketball and players get to play in the nationally televised and promoted game. The game is filled with “Tomorrow’s stars” which is why it means so much to these young ballers. It doesn’t always end up that way, there are more than just 24 players that end up being stars. You have to qualify for playing in the game as well and both our future Wildcats qualified.

Neither Williams or O’Neal were selected by the voting committee (more to come on that), and an outpouring of support ensued for O’Neal. Both of these high school players train very hard. They play hard too. Opponents triple team these players just to have a chance to beat the team. So O’Neal is usually guarded by three players as well as Williams.

LeBron James, former teammates of Shareef’s dad Shaquille, spoke out about the snubbing, his superstar young son and the rest of his children will undoubtedly suffer if it will become a trend. Will committee members weigh into their voting whether a player is the son of an elite NBA Player? This is why I feel there was a snub, son’s of NBA players are held to a different standard.

Bleacher report and numerous other folks are also calling it a “snub” by the committee. O’Neal, son of Shaq and Shaunie O’Neal, is getting a ton of attention. But the attention is warranted. If he weren’t enjoyable and exciting to cheer for, no one would care.

https://twitter.com/SSJreef/status/953650861489627136

Gilbert Arenas has a bunch of children playing basketball, and I am sure he hopes his kids will be selected for the McDonald’s All-American game. There are also four players on the Sierra Canyon high school team who are sons of former NBA Stars including Scottie Pippen Jr and Kenyon Martin Jr. Arizona target Cassius Stanley plays with them, and he is a star in his own right.

Do you think that the McDonald’s All-American selection committee will shut them out as well? Shaq came out and supported his son as well. The legendary Los Angeles Lakers center will be featured in Beyond the Paint tonight talking about his approach to raising his son, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Not only did Lebron speak out but Matt Barnes, with his twin boys balling in Los Angeles, he is not going to McDonald’s anymore.

I have seen worse things happen to other stars kids. Metta World Peace’s son Ron Artest III is a great high school player but received no offers. Now there may have been other circumstances, but none that Peace and his son weren’t willing to fix. His brother Jeron Artest, who also played with dad and Ron in the Drew League, is currently playing for Hillcrest Prep in Arizona (Ayton’s high school). So hopefully he will have better success in being recruited.

On the down-low, the general feeling was that it is very hard for the son of an NBA star to get recognition. That they have to be better than their dad’s or it feels like a failure. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a kid, even if their parents have money, that should not be factored in. They should be judged on their own merits.

But Shareef is saying all the right things. He tweeted out, “Everything can’t go perfect!cI just gotta move on..this hurt me but it ain’t stopping me #SAIYANMOVEMENTACTIVATED which has19 replies196 retweets and1,038 likes so far. He also thanked everyone, “Shoutout to everyone who has sent me messages and thank you all for the kind words. Thank you guys for everything, the support, the motivation, and the love … a lotta love got shown today.”

Arizona Basketball power forward, a former teammate and best friend of O’Neal, gave his friend some advice.

https://twitter.com/iramandoesit/status/953388481086025728

Shareef just played last Friday against his rival Brentwood Eagles High School in front of a standing-only crowd. This is nothing new for O’Neal. He is used to garnering so much attention. His little brother Shaqir also played in an earlier game as did his sister Amirah. Shaq and Shaunie sat courtside with the family cheering on the players.

Brandon Williams keeps lighting up the scoreboard for Crespi High School. We were there and had a chance to catch him at work and after the game where he scored 37 points against an excellent Bishop Alemany team in his division.

Williams Club team had a great point to make. Williams is killing it this season. If he didn’t get hurt and had to sit out a year and for some of this season, he should have been voted in as well.

https://twitter.com/CalSupremeBball/status/953169396461023232

Now Arizona’s future players were not all shut out of the game, the Arizona Women’s team commit Cate Reese made the girls team, and we are all so proud of her. Even Williams came out in support of Reef.

Founded in 1978, there has been at least one player from the Wildcat who have been voted onto the team such as Aaron Gordon, Stanley Johnson, and Deandre Ayton. This will be the 41st annual game for the boys and the 17th annual game for the girls. There is usually a dunk contest as well as a three-point contest.

We bet you are wondering how it all works, how do the players get voted in? Last year, there were four Kentucky-bound players selected. Just saying.

Morgan Wootten, Hall-of-Fame basketball coach, and McDonald’s All American Games Selection Committee Chairman runs the whole show. The committee consists of high school basketball experts from around the country. These voters get three ballots, the first one they vote for their top 50 players off of the 100 player Consensus List, each vote is worth one point. After the votes are tallied, there is a second ballot with the Top 50 candidates.

All of the voters, their votes and information the voters on the committee gather to vote is all kept confidential.

The committee members then vote for their top 30 candidates out of the 50 on the list, each vote is worth one point. Then comes the final ballot. On the final ballot, the voters have a weighted vote by position:

"The Committee is to vote five (5) players per position"

"First choice vote is worth five (5) points"

"Second choice vote is worth four (4) points"

"Third choice vote is worth three (3) points"

"Fourth choice vote is worth two (2) points"

"Fifth choice vote is worth one (1) point"

The top 24 vote-getters make the McDonald’s All-American teams, East and West.

Must Read: More on Shareef O'Neal from ZZ....

Who knows if there are checks and balances. There is a ton of politics in sports. There are other showcases for these two fun players to play in as well and more pop up each year with the advent of social media and channels like In The Front Row and Overtime, I cannot wait to interview them at this years Ballislife All-American game where both have promised me they will enter the Dunk Contest. Bear Down guys, you are loved!