The ABCD Basketball Camp was a youth basketball camp founded by

Sonny Vaccaro John Paul Vincent "Sonny" Vaccaro (born September 23, 1939 in Trafford, Pennsylvania) is an American former sports marketing executive, and lives in Santa Monica, California. Vaccaro is best known for his tenure with Nike, Inc., where he signed ...

that was held from 1984 to 2006. The camp gathered the highest ranked

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

players of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, and was considered one of the top events of high school basketball. ABCD stood for Academic Betterment and Career Development.

History

The ABCD Camp was founded in 1984 by Sonny Vaccaro and was sponsored by Nike. The camp took place every year in the month of July usually lasting 4–5 days, and was held in different locations in the initial years, among which the Bren Events Center at

UC Irvine UC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' University Challenge'', a popular British quiz programme airing on BBC Two ** ''University Challenge (New Zealand)'', the New Zealand version of the British programme * Universal Century, one of the t ...

in 1992 and at

Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern), is a public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School, the school was the fourth normal school established in the United St ...

in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1993 before moving to the Rothman Center, at

Fairleigh Dickinson University Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.New Jer ...

, where the camp was held from 1994 until its final edition in 2006. The camp was sponsored by the corporations Vaccaro was signed to: from 1984 to 1992 Nike was the sponsor; in 1993 the camp was under the Converse brand, while from 1994 to 2003 Adidas was the sponsor. After 2003, Vaccaro had a deal with Reebok that lasted until the last edition of the camp in 2006. Several college coaches attended ABCD Camp during their recruitment process of high school players: among them

Bob Bender Robert Michael Bender (born April 28, 1957) is an American professional basketball coach, who last served an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association. Born in Quantico, Virginia, He attended Bloomington H ...

, Jim Boeheim, P. J. Carlesimo, Joe Harrington and Mike Krzyzewski. NBA scouts also participated and in some cases, camp participants were drafted out of high school, for instance Kevin Garnett,

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely ...

, Jermaine O'Neal, Tracy McGrady, Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry, Sebastian Telfair and Gerald Green.

Sponsorships

* 1984–1992: Nike * 1993: Converse * 1994–2003: Adidas * 2004–2006:

Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...

Camp MVPs

Notable players

''The players mentioned have at least 1 All-Star selection in the NBA or were lottery picks in the NBA Draft.'' * Shareef Abdur-Rahim *

Cole Aldrich Cole David Aldrich (born October 31, 1988) is an American former professional basketball player. He previously played for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, and Minnesota Timberwol ...

* Carmelo Anthony * Gilbert Arenas * Chauncey Billups *

Carlos Boozer Carlos Austin Boozer Jr. (born November 20, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player. The two-time NBA All-Star played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Utah Jazz, Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers, and then spent his last season ...

* Chris Bosh * Kwame Brown *

* Marcus Camby * Sam Cassell *

Derrick Coleman Derrick Demetrius Coleman (born June 21, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player. Coleman was born in Mobile, Alabama, but grew up and attended high school in Detroit, and attended college at Syracuse University. He was select ...

* Mike Conley * Eddy Curry * Mike Dunleavy Jr. * Jonny Flynn * Randy Foye * Kevin Garnett * Ben Gordon * Eddie Griffin * Penny Hardaway * Tim Hardaway * James Harden *

Allan Houston Allan Wade Houston (born April 20, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1993 to 2005. A shooting guard, Houston played nine seasons for the New York Knicks; he w ...

* Dwight Howard *

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...

* Brandon Jennings * DerMarr Johnson * Joe Johnson * DeAndre Jordan * Christian Laettner * Shaun Livingston * Rashard Lewis *

Kevin Love Kevin Wesley Love (born September 7, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a five-time All-Star, a two-time member of the All-NBA Second Team and ...

Stephon Marbury Stephon Xavier Marbury (born February 20, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach in the Chinese Basketball Association. After his freshman year with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, he was selected as t ...

* Kenyon Martin * Jamal Mashburn * O. J. Mayo *

Antonio McDyess Antonio Keithflen McDyess (born September 7, 1974) is an American former professional basketball player. Listed at 6'9" (2.06 m) and 245 lb (111 kg), McDyess played as a power forward. Early life McDyess was born in Quitman, Mississ ...

* Tracy McGrady *

Alonzo Mourning Alonzo Harding Mourning Jr. (born February 8, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player who has served as vice president of player programs and development for the Miami Heat since June 2009. Mourning played most of his 15-yea ...

* Jameer Nelson * Joakim Noah * Jermaine O'Neal *

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), known commonly as "Shaq" ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program '' Inside the NBA''. O'Neal is regarded as one of the great ...

* Greg Oden * Lamar Odom * Tony Parker *

Paul Pierce Paul Anthony Pierce (born October 13, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player. He played 19 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), predominantly with the Boston Celtics. He was most recently an analyst on ESPN ...

* Jason Richardson * Glenn Robinson * Derrick Rose *

Stromile Swift Stromile Emanuel Swift ( ; born November 21, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. At 6'10" and 220 lbs, he played the power forward and center positions. He is now the varsity boys' basketball head coach at Word of God A ...

* Wally Szczerbiak * Sebastian Telfair * Isaiah Thomas * Tim Thomas *

Robert Traylor Robert DeShaun "Tractor" Traylor (February 1, 1977 – May 11, 2011) was an American professional basketball player. He got his nickname because of his hulking frame. Traylor was the sixth pick in the 1998 NBA draft and played seven seasons in t ...

* Antoine Walker * Gerald Wallace * Chris Webber * Chris Wilcox * Yi Jianlian

References

{{Reflist Basketball organizations Basketball in New Jersey High school basketball in the United States