Jadakiss with Jeffrey Jordan

A couple days before the Jordan Brand All-American Classic, we got to hang with the best of the high school Class of ‘07 for Media Day, the the JBAAC three-point contest, dunk contest and celebrity game … At any Media Day, it’s always interesting to see who draws the biggest crowd of reporters and photogs. When we were at All-Star in Vegas, it was the usual suspects: Kobe, LeBron, Iverson, Shaq, KG, etc. The day before last year’s Draft, it was Adam Morrison and Andrea Bargnani. For the JBAAC, Mr. Popular was none other than Jeffrey Jordan (you know, Mike’s kid), a 6-0 guard from Loyola (Ill.) Academy who is still undecided on a college. Jeffrey basically had his own press secretary, who had to come over and save him so the kid could get a breather … Someone asked Jeffrey if he and Dad ever play 1-on-1. “We play 1-on-1-on-1,” Jeffrey said, including his younger bro Marcus, a sophomore forward at Loyola. “[Mike] never takes it easy on us.” He added that the G.O.A.T. doesn’t always win, though. But we think it’s safe to say Mike never loses twice in a row … A couple issues ago we had NYC basketball mainstay Ron Naclerio share some of his drills in our training section. Naclerio has coached at Cardozo H.S. in Queens forever, and works out a number of NBA guys in the offseason. During Media Day, Coach told us a story about two of his NBA products, Ben Gordon and Royal Ivey. Apparently Ivey hit BG off with a double in-and-out and blew past him in a game this season. The next time down the court, BG said “You hit me with some Naclerio s***, didn’t you?” … After Media Day it was on to the famous Gauchos Gym in the Bronx for the three-point, dunk and celebrity events. Corey Fisher (Villanova), 7-foot Kosta Koufos (Ohio State), Jai Lucas (Undecided; John Lucas’ kid), Nick Calathes (Florida), Eric Gordon (Indiana), Chandler Parsons (Florida), Kyle Singler (Duke) and Little Chris Wright (Georgetown) were in the three-point contest. Gordon wore sweats and a t-shirt (guess that’s the 2K7 version of Larry Bird wearing his warm-up jacket) and still did his thing — the kid has an effortless stroke — but the finals came down to Singler and Calathes. After tying at 19 in the final round and then tying at 11 in “overtime,” Calathes beat Singler, 14-10, the third time around … The celebrity game featured DMC, Jadakiss, actor Rick Gonzalez (”Coach Carter”), actor Pooch Hall (he plays Derwin on “The Game,” says Austin), the girls from Nina Sky, BET’s Julissa, DJ Absolut, Trey Songz, DJ Clue, Fabolous and Sheek Louch from The L.O.X. Ray J was in the building, too, but he didn’t play … It wasn’t the most organized game in the world, but it was fun. At one point they were playing 6-on-4, with the White team’s three girls on the court along with Fab, Clue and some guy we never did identify, while the Black team rolled with four. Not that it mattered, because the guys on the White team were completely freezing out the girls all night, anyway. The only time any of the ladies got the rock was either by accident or by offensive rebound … Fabolous actually isn’t bad on the court; he’s got a little handle. And Jada can shoot, even if he did look exhausted about three minutes in. Derwin was the best athlete on the floor, only he couldn’t make a shot to save his life. DMC was the resident diesel cat, but he couldn’t score, either — one time he airballed a finger roll. And DJ Clue is alright, but no lie, dude NEVER PASSES. The game only lasted 20 minutes (with a running clock), and Clue took at least 20 shots … Then it was time for the dunk contest, featuring Parsons, Jerryd Bayless (Arizona), Big Chris Wright (Dayton), Durrell Summers (Michigan State), Blake Griffin (Oklahoma) and Donte Greene (Syracuse). Griffin, who won the McDonald’s All-American dunk contest a few weeks back, made it past the first round at the JBAAC, but lost when he couldn’t put down an off-the-back-wall windmill that would’ve been sick … Parsons had the most creative attempt, getting his boy Calathes to stand with the fans in the upper level and toss a bounce pass all the way down to him. Only Parsons couldn’t convert, either, and got bounced in the first round … Greene stole the show, pulling off the Andre Iguodala off-the-back-of-the-glass dunk with two hands, the Gerald Green off-the-side-of-the-backboard dunk with two hands and full-extension, and beat Summers in the finals by jumping over 6-foot-5 Jeff Robinson (Memphis) for a one-hander … Ed Lover played MC for the night, but we couldn’t get him to do the Ed Lover Dance. Maybe next time …