July 2012 | Page 16 of 22 | Zagsblog
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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Saturday / November 23.

Kevin Jones’ NBA debut will have to wait.

An undrafted free agent out of West Virginia, Jones will not play with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2012 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas due to experiencing a bone bruise in his left heel recently.

The team said in a statement that Jones, a 6-foot-8, 260-pound forward from Mount Vernon, N.Y., is projected to make a full recovery from the injury and is expected to be ready for the start of Cavaliers training camp for the upcoming 2012-13 season.

Jones went undrafted but is expected to sign a multi-year, partially guaranteed deal with the Cavs, as first reported by SNY.tv.

Kentucky fans might want to go ahead and send a fruit basket to the Nigerian basketball team.

You know, because after Nigeria eliminated the Dominican Republic from the Olympic Qualifying Tournament on Sunday night, Kentucky coach John Calipari was freed up to hit the recruiting trail in July.

In the words of one of my followers, @UK_MJ, “Cue the ‘Jaws’ music.”

Sure, Coach Cal still has to coach the Dominicans in an exhibition game Thursday night in Las Vegas against LeBron, Kobe and Team USA, but then he’ll be free and clear to start assembling another Murderer’s Row recruiting class to come to Lexington in 2013.

This much is clear from the Knicks’ recent moves.

They are going for it.

Right now.

And they are getting older, much older, in an effort to do so.

On Monday the Knicks reportedly acquired 38-year-old backup center Marcus Camby from the Houston Rockets for a plethora of assets.

And that move followed the acquisition of 39-year-old point guard Jason Kidd from the Dallas Mavericks.

The Knicks announced their roster for the 2012 NBA Summer League, to be held in Las Vegas from Jul. 14-20. Third-year guard Toney Douglas and second-year centers Josh Harrellson and Jerome Jordan headline the 15-man roster.

Former Louisville guard Chris Smith, former Indiana guard Jeremiah Rivers and former Memphis forward Wesley Witherspoon are also on the roster.

New York will play five games at Cox Pavilion at UNLV beginning on Jul. 14. All games are scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. Pacific time and will be aired live on MSG Network at 4 p.m. Eastern time. MSG will repeat the games each evening at 8 p.m. Eastern (with the exception of Tuesday, Jul. 17) and this will mark the sixth consecutive NBA Summer League that MSG has aired all five games.

Andrew Wiggins is giving fans at North Carolina, Duke and Syracuse hope of landing arguably the best high school basketball player in North America.

But his high school coach said two other schools appear to have the inside track on the 6-foot-7 Wiggins, who may or may not reclassify to the Class of 2013 from 2014.

“Right now if I had to say the two that stick out more as far as just been there the longest, it’s Florida State and Kentucky,” Huntington (W.V.) coach Rob Fulford told SNY.tv Sunday night.

“Obviously, Florida State for family reasons [both his parents, former NBA player Mitchell Wiggins and former Canadian track star Marita Payne-Wiggins, went there]. Andrew’s comfortable with everything there. And Kentucky’s been around the longest and been the closest.”

Jahlil Okafor now has a gold medal and a FIBA MVP award to add to his collection.

The 6-foot-10 Chicago Whitney Young star scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds and was named the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship MVP after helping the USA Basketball Men’s U17 World Championship Team beat Australia, 95-62, to win the U17 World Championship title Sunday night in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Kansas-bound guard Conner Frankamp’s led the Americans with 22 points and uncommitted junior Jabari Parker scored 12 after missing the semifinals with a sore foot.

“Just walked down the streets of Lithuania with my gold medal around my neck! Received so much love,” Okafor Tweeted.

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