Advertisement - scroll for more content

Rumors

|Mater Dei High School

The above video, which comes from Ballervisions, was an exhibition game at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Ca. It features Spencer Freedman, a 2018 point guard commit to Harvard, and Dennis Rodman Jr. The younger Rodman was profiled by USA Today’s high school sports site last February, when he was a freshman.

The Big Lead

The sons of Shaquille O’Neal and Manute Bol are …

The sons of Shaquille O’Neal and Manute Bol are playing together on the AAU circuit with Cal Supreme in the EYBL. Shareef O’Neal, a 6-9 power forward from Crossroads School (Santa Monica, Calif.), and Bol Bol, a 7-footer from Mater Dei (Santa Ana) are already showing signs of what the teams on the circuit might have to deal with.

High School Sports

Yet true to his sunny personality, Brown, an Anaheim …

Yet true to his sunny personality, Brown, an Anaheim Hills resident, isn't resentful about what transpired. "I just look at it as it is what it is," he said an hour before Mater Dei took the court. "I appreciate the opportunity they gave me. I have no ill feelings toward any of them. I hope they win, I really do. They kept everybody (on the coaching staff), so I have an attachment to all the coaches and I loved working with the players. "I don't hold grudges against people, but it's the Busses' team and Mitch (Kupchak) is the GM and they have to make decisions and sometimes the decisions are tougher than others."

Orange County Register

Brown was known as a hard worker, so much so that …

Brown was known as a hard worker, so much so that Lakers players sometimes cynically referred to him as "All Day Every Day." His schedule these days still involves a lot of basketball. "I go to Mater Dei practices and Mater Dei games. I've literally gone to every practice. The first time I was there, an assistant coach presented me with my own bag of gear," he said. "I've got all the Lakers gear I wore every day and now I've got all the Mater Dei gear. Hooded sweat shirts, collared shirts, T-shirts. Everything."

Los Angeles Times

Advertisement

But some fans’ ire Wednesday was directed at Brown’s …

But some fans’ ire Wednesday was directed at Brown’s son, Elijah, who plays basketball at Mater Dei High. The Lakers coach, though, had no idea his son had received threats on Twitter despite having a friend monitor his son’s account. “That’s news to me,” Brown said after Thursday’s practice. “I will alert Lakers security. “That’s the tough part about this business. To go after somebody’s family or something like that is, in my opinion, just ridiculous. It’s stupid, crazy, whatever you want to call it. They (family members) have nothing to do with what’s going on right now.”

Orange County Register

As expected, it was a blowout. St. Benedict's, though, …

As expected, it was a blowout. St. Benedict's, though, lost by 26 points. They still flew to the West Coast afterward, and took on Mater Dei 72 hours later, but the stakes were not the same. The story was junked. I later learned how exactly it fell apart. St. Patrick unleashed a new point guard on St. Benedict's, who had only played in five games but scored 21 points against the juggernaut from Jersey. His name was Kyrie Irving. "Kyrie was a mystery man," said Thompson, for a profile of Irving in last week's issue of Sports Illustrated. "You heard about him, but you didn't know what he could do." Thompson flashed back to that high-school game nine months ago, when he sat next to Irving on a bus, headed to the Prudential Center in Newark for the NBA draft. The Cavaliers selected Irving first, with a pick acquired from the Clippers, and Thompson fourth, with a pick earned from their own 19-63 record. Now, Irving and Thompson both live in apartments in downtown Cleveland, carpooling to practice in the suburbs. On game days, they drive 25 minutes to Krispy Kreme, where they fetch doughnuts for their teammates.

SI.com

Not that money completely eased the pain of leaving …

Not that money completely eased the pain of leaving basketball. Years later, the former point guard dragged a friend to watch his alma mater, Rosemead's Don Bosco Tech, play on a rainy night. "This was his life, his history, and he wanted to see it again," says Pat Murphy, president of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, where Meruelo's three children attend. "You know he wanted that starting varsity job."

Los Angeles Times

Like Kobe Bryant, new Lakers coach Mike Brown is …

Like Kobe Bryant, new Lakers coach Mike Brown is establishing roots in Orange County. Brown’s sons are in the process of enrolling at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, as reported by the Register’s Steve Fryer two weeks ago. But Brown and wife Carolyn are also becoming guardians for Canadian national team standout Nirra Fields, whom the Register’s Carlos Arias is reporting will join the two-time defending national champion girls’ basketball team at Mater Dei. The relationship between the Brown family and Fields, who is from Quebec, grew out of meeting at amateur basketball programs; Brown’s elder son Elijah plays basketball and will be a junior. He started at shooting guard for St. Edward in the Cleveland area last season and endured some heckling after his father was fired as Cavaliers coach.

Orange County Register

Advertisement

Advertisement

 

Advertisement