nike portland profiles

SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Nike Summer National Championship:
Portland Legends Results & Profiles--(July 31, 1999)

The Portland Legends were the "Nike" version, in many respects, of the adidas sponsored Pump N Run Gold team, and both teams featured many teammates and former club teammates from the Portland area, and at least one school in particular in Portland, Jefferson High School was well represented on both teams, with two guys on the Pump team ( Brandon Brooks (6'-0" Sr. PG) and Antone Jerrell (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) from Jefferson, not to mention Salim Stoudamire (6'-3" Jr. SG) from Lake Oswego, and Heath Bailey (6'-11" Sr. PF/C, all from the Portland area), while the Portland Legends, sometimes known as "Oregon Nike" (at least that's what we've been told by those who know, although we always thought they were two different teams) featured at least four players from the same Portland Jefferson team. With so many fine point guards at one school, our only question is are there enough basketballs to go around? And with two or three point guards already on the Portland squad, why in the world did they need to throw in a ringer like Maurice Murphy (who's from Seattle)?

As a team, the Portland Legends' performances and results were mixed at the Nike Summer National Championship, and they finished in 7th place. Game results over the three day event:

Pool Play (2-1), finished 2nd in Pool 2A

Game 1: Portland 56, Alabama Lasers 43
Game 2: Portland 42, NYC Riverside 60
Game 3: Portland 65, Sports Express 63

Bracket Play

Game 1: Portland 55, Howard Pulley 61
Game 2: Portland 47, Georgia Stars 64
Game 3: Portland 55, High Five 53 (7th/8th Place Game)

Boomer Brazzle (6'-6" Prep. F) St. Thomas More

Boomer is technically no longer a Portlander, having left the Rose City for St. Thomas More prep, but he played with the Legends throughout the summer and he's still an Oregon native. He's a big-time scorer, very athletic, dunks, runs the floor and he can play on the blocks or slash in from the wings. A very long arm-span makes him an effective shot blocker. Brazzle was the leading scorer in the game against Sports Express with 10 points for Portland. Boomer was at Benson Tech in Portland for his high school career, and many would say that he probably shouldn't have been playing with high school prospects, but then it's becoming more and more prevalent these days to see "prep school" players at tournaments like this. Besides there were very few guys who can dunk the ball as hard as he could, so that was kind of fun to watch.

Maurice Murphy (6'-2" Sr. SG) O'Dea, Seattle

This guy has been one of the busiest Seattle-based players of the summer. Funny, we didn't know Seattle was in Oregon. . . Maurice first attended Five-Star, then had plans to go to Rim Rattler, then played in Vegas with the Seattle Rotary Team, then planned to attend Five Star Pitt IV, and oh yeah, he played with the Portland team at the Nike National Championship. Maurice is a very tough point guard, with great passing skills who had some trouble with his shot in the two games we tracked him in. A tenacious defender, this guy has been everywhere the coaches have been but as with many on this team, we have no real idea about his recruiting. Oh yeah, Maurice also has his own webpage and he also keeps a diary on WestCoastHoops.com, so if you really want to know about his recruiting, just check his diary out.

John Lee (5'-9" Sr. PG) Portland Jefferson--

Another great point guard at Portland Jefferson?? Again, as with Aaron Miles, who can shoot too, so can John and he had some great games, including 12 points against Riverside and he also defended well in that game. We didn't see the first game against the Lasers on day one, but we heard that John, Michael Lee and Maurice Murphy were very effective against the ball pressure that Alabama was throwing their way.

Aaron Miles (5'-11" Jr. PG) Portland Jefferson

We only saw Aaron play a limited amount of time, which is not to say that he didn't play a lot, just that we didn't see him for more than a limited amount of time. He's an excellent ballhandler, and we were actually surprised to learn that at the beginning of last season (the last year's high school season) he was thought to be a better player than Brandon Brooks, but then what do we know . . obviously not much. All we know is that it must be pretty crowded at Jefferson with so many good guards on the floor. Aaron could also play at the two spot because he's a pretty good shooter. Good handle, strong, penetrates, makes good decisions generally,and can defend. We liked what we saw and he's got potential to be a mid to high D-I player. Many actually consider him to be the best junior in the State of Oregon next to Salim Stoudamire. Played well and impressed a lot of coaches.

Kenny Dolaau (6'-6" Sr. F) Central Catholic

Kenny wasn't on the roster which we originally received, but he was listed on the roster printed up for Thursday's games. Or maybe it was vice-versa. We only caught limited glimpses of him so we can offer nothing really meaningful, and likewise know nothing about his recruiting either. Still, we know what he looks like, and now so do you. . . That's him at the left.

Michael Lee (6'-2" Jr. SG) Portland Jefferson

No picture, but sometimes a thousand words will suffice: Very athletic, a great shooter, and he even led the team in scoring in a couple of the games along with the other Mr. Lee. Not sure just how high we'd "rank" him, but then fortunately we don't do "rankings," because those are pretty meaningless. Hey, he was here playing and wasn't out skateboarding, so all the college coaches in attendance know who he is, and that's what's important. Scored 18 points to lead the team in the 7th place game. An excellent shooter with a great release and deadly accuracy.

Robert Day (6'-5" Sr. F) Benson Tech, Portland

Teammate of Heath Bailey's at Benson Tech (who played on the adidas Pump Gold team), Robert was one of the better shooters on the Portland Legends team, and he has good size and can run the floor well, and loves to pop it in on the run. Had an effective game against Pulley on Thursday, even if the team did lose scoring well and often. No idea about his recruiting at all.

Jesse Hope (6'-9" Sr. F/C) Aoha, Aloha, OR

Jesse was a decent shot-blocker with tons of potential. Since we only saw him in one game, it's really hard for us to say anything meaningful. We'll ask Bill Nance who watches these guys from the Northwest on a somewhat regular basis, but in the meantime, we understand that he had a good junior year for Portland Aloha. Like a couple of the others, we have no idea at all about his recruiting.

Jon Tinnon (6'-6" Sr. F) Portland Jefferson--

He was the leading scorer with 14 points against the Howard Pulley Panthers in the afternoon game on Thursday and played very effectively. Nice post moves, developing a pretty good shot too. Much has been written about Tinnon and his abilities as a scorer. Most of it is true.

ZachSchaefer (6'-7" Sr. F) Battle Ground, Vancouver, WA

A big guy from Washington (what's he doing on this team anyway??) who got inside and did some effective rebounding, good boxouts, and in short, a lot of the stuff that most guys hate to do. We heard that he was pretty thin last year but he seems to be filling out and was a lot stronger than we had been led to believe.

Chris Rogers (6'-02" So. SG) Wilson, Portland

Sadly, we absolutely didn't get to see him on Thursday, which simply means we weren't focusing on him but on others on the team when we watched them against Howard Pulley, so we can't really say anything other than what others told us about him from the first day, which was that Chris is a very young and very promising player, with a nice, developing shot, who hits his free throws.

Eli Ware (5'-9" Sr. PG) Portland Jefferson

Give me a break, ok? Another point guard from Jefferson? Here's another very tough defender, very fast, with a great handle. Eli is super quick. Have heard various rumors about schools interested in him, but mostly they are D-2 schools, which is probably not a bad idea because he could play a lot, but some low D-1's will recruit him.

Larry Deweese (6'-7" Sr. F) Lincoln

We didn't see him on Thursday, and maybe that's because we had two different rosters, one with him on it, and the other without him (and a few other guys too. . . like Eli Ware, Jesse Hope, and a guy named Jay Evans for whom there was absolutely no information listed). We understand that Larry was playing tired on Wednesday, and actually, from what we saw on Thursday, this was a team of guys who were all mostly tired, since they've been playing every day since June.