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Tracy McGrady is bringing back a piece of basketball history.
The seven-time All-Star is reviving the legendary ABCD camp with Sonny Vaccaro, the sneaker executive and founder of the camp.
McGrady, who will own 80% of the camp, and Vaccaro, who will retain the rest, spoke to Front Office Sports about the revival in recent interviews.
“It was only because of Tracy McGrady that I’m doing this,” Vaccaro told FOS. “He had the most impact on what I did because he was probably the biggest underdog. He was so close to not being invited because of other people’s opinions of him.”
Vaccarro ran the camp with his wife, Pam, from 1984 to 2006 and helped coaches and NBA scouts first learn the names of dozens of future stars.
The Hall of Fame guard has discussed the return of the camp with Vaccaro “for a while,” but is finally making it a reality this July.
The camp will be sponsored by Adidas and feature 60 top boys and girls players; representatives for McGrady declined to comment on financial terms of the deal or where the camp will be held. (The camp moved around the country in its early years before moving to New Jersey from 1993 to 2006, its final summer before going dormant.)
“Looking at the landscape of summer basketball I felt like we were getting away from traditionally how camps need to be ran,” McGrady told FOS. “You had to earn your right to be at ABCD. And nowadays it’s a lot of relationship-based, a lot is just handed to these kids instead of making them work…This property is missed from what is going on in summer AAU basketball. Had some conversations with Sonny, he agreed to that and I was just like, ‘let me take it over.’”
The 47-year-old also said a documentary on the camp’s history is in the works with Carmelo Anthony’s Creative 7 Productions. Anthony was McGrady’s teammate on NBC this past season and another alumnus of the camp.
Before college basketball recruiting radically changed, the Hackensack, N.J. campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University was the epicenter of the sport every summer, with dozens of coaches and celebrities watching the camp.
Kobe Bryant was the camp’s MVP in 1995 and was only invited after his father, Joe, asked Vaccaro to let him in. His performance made coaches and scouts believe for the first time that the teenager could jump straight to the NBA.
In 2001, a 16-year-old LeBron James cemented himself as the premier high school prospect after he outplayed Lenny Cooke, the latter of whom was considered the far superior prospect at the time. (The “Chosen One” Sports Illustrated cover ran the next February.)
Before social media and NBA’s teams expansive front offices, it was also a place to set international prospects for the first time, such as China’s Yi Jianlian, who went on to play five seasons in the league.
And it was one of the biggest symbols of the era’s sneaker wars. Vaccaro first had the camp sponsored by Adidas before switching to Reebok in its later years. Kevin Love, one of the camp’s final MVPs, famously cheated on Nike to attend the camp and play against Greg Oden.
McGrady has his own place in the camp’s lore. In 1996 he attended as a relatively unknown prospect and dominated. A year later, he was the No. 9 overall pick out of high school in the NBA draft.
“My life changed overnight,” McGrady said of the camp’s impact.
Vaccaro tried to bring the camp back in 2011 with Chinese shoe company Li Ning sponsoring it, but it didn’t work out. He also said Nike founder Phil Knight tried to buy it over the years.
“We could have sold the name of ABCD to many people,” Vaccaro said. “And it would have been pretty smart from a financial point to do it.”
After ABCD ceased operations, it was replaced by Nike skills academies as the premier invite-only events, which were run by the Swoosh’s biggest endorsers. NBA stars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Chris Paul all held invite-only camps for players at their respective positions, with LeBron James’s being the most prestigious for the nation’s top players. Those camps haven’t existed for more than a decade—except for Paul’s—and he retired from the NBA earlier this year.
How a new-look camp fits in the modern recruiting scene is another factor. The ability of companies and colleges to legally pay players has meant that sneaker companies have less influence, and the portal has made high school prospects a lower priority if they’re not a top-50 player nationally.
“ABCD is just strictly a basketball skills camp,” McGrady told FOS. “We’re not transitioning to anything further than that. It’s this brand that Sonny started, you know, 30, 40 years ago is what we’re going to continue to live by.”
Media Free Agency for McGrady?
McGrady could have a new home as an analyst next season. He told FOS that his deal with NBC was only for one year and it’s currently unknown if he will return to the network next season. McGrady was part of NBC’s pre and post-game team with Maria Taylor, Vince Carter and Carmelo Anthony, which drew mixed reviews from critics.
Before joining NBC, McGrady worked as an analyst for ESPN. NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I give ourselves a B+,” McGrady said of the group’s performance. “And we have a lot of room to improve. I only did a one-year deal, so we’ll see how that goes moving forward. But I would love to be back with the camp.”
