SLAM on Wednesday announced the initial group of players for its first- annual SLAM Summer Classic, to be held on Saturday, Aug. 18 at 8 p.m. at the iconic Dyckman Park in Upper Manhattan.
In a “The City vs. The States” format, The City team will feature top local talent, including New Jersey guard, Noah Farrakhan, while The States team will be led by top-ranked incoming senior, James Wiseman. Combined, the two teams are expected to feature more than a dozen players ranked in the top 10 of their respective classes.
Confirmed players include:
- Noah Farrakhan – IMG Academy / Newark, N.J. (Class of 2020)
- Jalen Green – San Joaquin Memorial High School / Fresno, Calif. (Class of 2020)
- RJ Hampton – Little Elm High School / Little Elm, Texas (Class of 2020)
- Tyrese Maxey – South Garland High School / Garland, Texas (Class of 2019)
- Jaden McDaniels – Federal Way High School / Federal Way, Wash. (Class of 2019)
- Cassius Stanley – Sierra Canyon High School / Chatsworth, Calif. (Class of 2019)
- Isaiah Stewart – La Lumiere School / Rochester, N.Y. (Class of 2019)
- James Wiseman – East High School / Memphis, Tenn. (Class of 2019) “All of us at SLAM are excited to bring the SLAM Summer Classic to Dyckman Park, the mecca of NYC streetball,” said Dennis Page, CEO of SLAM Media Inc. “We’ve always prided ourselves on knowing who the top high school players were before anyone else did, from Stephon Marbury and Kevin Garnett in the mid-’90s to LeBron in the early ’00s to guys like James Wiseman today.
There’s nothing like playing in the park in the summer and August 18th is going to be a night to remember.”
Leading up to the SLAM Summer Classic, Dyckman Park also plays host to the SLAM Summer Showdown, a series of high school basketball games which began Monday night, highlighting “drop-in” athlete Julian Newman of Downey Christian High School (Orlando, Fla.). Additional athletes expected to be featured in the five remaining SLAM Summer Showdown games include: Emoni Bates of Lincoln High School (Ypsilanti, Mich.), Joe Girard III of Glens Falls High School (Glens Falls, N.Y.), Zion Harmon of Marshall County High School (Benton, Ky.) and more.
Bringing the game to the masses, SLAM has partnered with Facebook to broadcast the SLAM Summer Classic and its preceding Showdown events on Facebook Watch. The 20th and final roster spot in the Classic will be reserved for the MVP of the SLAM Summer Showdown, which will be decided by the Facebook community through interactive polling on the platform. Fans can stay up-to-date on all of the action by following the SLAM Summer Hoops at Dyckman Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SLAMTV/.
Sponsors of the first-annual SLAM Summer Classic include Spalding and Body Armor. For more information about the 2018 SLAM Summer Classic, follow @slam_hs and @slamonline on social and join the conversation using #SLAMSummerClassic.
