This Trip Is No Gift From Santa

It was somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when reality took hold. . . .

Something about chasing the beast east can cause a lot of fear and loathing. Mater Dei’s basketball team does Las Vegas this week for the Holiday Prep Classic. That would be the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic.

It’s more than just a tournament. It’s a marketing bonanza. No fewer than 50 teams, many reputed to be the best in the nation (with a few tomato cans tossed in) are gathered to perpetuate the myth that a national high school sports forum is a good thing.

Now there’s nothing wrong with the Monarchs picking on some people their own shoe size for a change. But why are they here? Why is any team here?

Did I mention this is the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic?

Teams from Washington (D.C. and the state), the South (three Alabama schools alone) and Canada are here to try their luck. There’s even a group from some Northern Exposure tundra (East Anchorage). Why? See previous paragraph.

Of course, what will USA Today do if a Vancouver team wins? No. 1 in the continent?

Certainly this illustrious field will produce a consensus No. 1. Again, is that a good thing?

Hardly. The winner here is on Planet Reebok.

Again that corporate wallet has been opened and everyone stuck out their hand. But nothing comes for free.

Now it can be said that a little corporate involvement is a good thing. It may be, as long as it remains on a small, give-back-to-the-community scale. But these brutes want their pound of flesh.

Anybody out there remember “Fab 40” tournament put on by Nike a year ago? Nice idea getting 40 of the “top” high school players together for some fun and games.

It would have been a nicer idea if Nike officials had checked with a few state athletic federations to see if it was OK for players to participate. Seems many states had problems with a shoe-company tournament in September, not to mention the airfare, meals, lodging, $500 worth of equipment and $100 gift certificates for the company store--all on the house. Some players were even suspended.

Rules schmules, Nike was looking to get in on the ground floor for tomorrow’s shoe salesmen. Why, what if Shaquille O’Neal had been better groomed as a 15-year-old? Not as a player, but as a pitchman?

Now Reebok wasn’t about to be left standing agape while Nike just did it. They came here in full force. Gobs of goodies were stacked on tables waiting, and credit card machines were humming.

It’s safe to say shoe company officials are not high on the food chain. But they have the cash to create a national high school sports arena. They’ve sucked professional and college basketball dry. They’ve already bored from below with somewhat seedy traveling teams.

And they are already at work on the high school level. Wasn’t that Nike (Mater Dei) beating Adidas (Tustin) in the Tournament of Champions final? At least according to those spiffy clothes the players were wearing when they arrived for the game.

Now come the mega-tournaments. The next couple weeks will be filled with them. Why? Well everyone wants to be No. 1, don’t they?

Heck, just last week in a Sports Illustrated story about the highly subjective USA Today poll, Rialto Eisenhower football Coach Tom Hoak said: “In high school sports, you really haven’t accomplished anything unless you’re the best.”

Did Tom miss a few education classes?

Well the quest for No. 1 is under way in Las Vegas. Can the Monarchs grab that brass ring? It doesn’t matter. They’ll get another crack.

Tune in next week for the Reebok Above the Rim Tournament in San Diego. Just the next stop for this medicine show.