Parade All-America Boys Basketball Team

The Parade All-America Boys Basketball Team was an annual selection by Parade that nationally honored the top high school boys' basketball players in the United States.[1] It was part of the Parade All-American series that originated with boys basketball before branching to other sports.[2][3] Started by the Sunday magazine in 1957, it had been the longest ongoing selection of high school basketball All-Americans in the country at the time of its final selections in 2015.[4] Many of the honorees went on to star as college and professional basketball players.[5] As of March 2011, there were 162 Parade All-Americans that were playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA).[6]

At its onset, the selections were handled by a New York-based public relations firm, Publicity Enterprises, which was led by Haskell Cohen, who was a former sportswriter as well as the publicity director for the NBA at the time (1950–1969). The first All-America team in 1957 consisted of three five-player teams, and the first-team selections appeared on television on The Steve Allen Show.[2][7] The following year, 20 players were selected and participated in the first annual Parade All-American high school game.[8] The list later expanded to 40 of the nation's top players, divided into four teams of 10 each.[5] Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known then as Lew Alcindor, became the first sophomore in 1963 to be named a Parade All-American.[9] Fifteen years later, Earl Jones became the next sophomore to earn first-team honors,[10] and subsequently joined Abdul-Jabbar as the first two players to be named to the first team on three occasions.[11] "It was a real thrill for me to make it on the Parade list early, when I was just a sophomore. The recognition is a great thing for kids to shoot for," said Abdul-Jabbar as part of the announcement for the 2000 team.[12]

Starting in 2011, the selections were compiled in conjunction with Sporting News and their writer, Brian McLaughlin. Candidates also began to be limited to players in their senior year.[6][13][14] The selections went to a single-team format in 2012,[15] and the size was reduced from 40- to a 20-player first team in 2014.[16] McLaughlin described the selections as mostly Division I college-bound players that had a stellar senior year in high school. Additionally, Parade differentiated itself from most other All-American teams by not focusing solely on a player's standing among college recruiters. For example, some selectors might choose top recruits that had been injured much of their senior year.[14][17] Parade discontinued its boys' basketball All-America selections after 2015.[18]