SoCalHoops High School & Prep News

1998 Rim Rattler Camp Or Double Pump?
Hey, We Don't Know, We Just Report It--(July 8, 1998)

A lot of people already know that Rim Rattler, the apparel company seen around some of the local tournaments, is working with Dinos Trigonis and Etop-Udo-Ema to put on a camp, with the help of Redondo Union coach Jim Neilson, called, of all things, The 1998 Rim Rattler All-Star Camp, to be held at Redondo Union High from July 11-13, 1998. The interesting thing about this camp is its timing, because it comes smack in the middle of the second session of the Double Pump West Coast All-Star Camp, which is scheduled for July 11-14, at the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills, and which for years has enjoyed being the premiere West Coast event, and indeed, the only big-time SoCal event (well, if you don't count the San Diego Superstars Camp, which is held from July 11-14 on the campus of UC San Diego) following the two big shoe company camps, the Nike Camp in Indianapolis, and the adidas ABCD Camp in New Jersey. Well, now the Belmont Shore crowd has thrown down the gauntlet and is attempting to pull off a pretty impressive camp.

We've seen a list of the players who are "confirmed" at both Rim Rattler and at Double Pump's West Coast All-Star Camp second session, and frankly, we're wondering how some (but not all) of the players can be two places at once, and more importantly which college coaches will be attending which event. The Pump Camp has had the benefit of years and years of consistently attracting the top talent, and from the looks of their list of attendees, it seems that many of the best players will be there again this year from around the country; Rim Rattler also looks pretty impressive, and the chief difference would seem to be that (at least until we all see who arrives) Rim Rattler is more "SoCal" oriented, not attracting as many out of state attendees as the Pump event. But as Seinfeld and Elaine used to say, "Not that there's anything wrong with that. . . " We've also heard, and this is pretty much just unsubstantiated gossip, that Bob Gibbons, the most well-known and well-respected recruiting expert, who's name was originally linked to Rim Rattler in some of their early promotional materials, informed the Rim Rattler guys that he is not "sanctioning" or "sponsoring" their camp, and that he isn't connected with it in any way; and we've also heard (again through completely unsubstantiated gossip) that Gibbons was not too happy about his name being printed on that material. Maybe he was, or maybe he wasn't, or maybe somebody put some pressure on him, but in any event, we're not sure exactly why Gibbons name doesn't appear on the most recent Rim Rattler stuff, but hey, we just report "stuff"--sometimes it makes sense, sometimes its just a bunch of hot air.

For now though, we're happy to put up the list of players that Rim Rattler is saying are "confirmed." By "confirmed," they mean that either the player, his parent and/or his high school or AAU/Club coach has said the player is coming. We make no representations one way or the other, but we're pretty sure that some or all of the "Nike schools" will make their way over to the Rim Rattler camp (at least those who aren't out on the road headed back from Nike Camp, or on their way to the Five Star Camps in the east, or those leaving early for the Nike Peach Jam, but hey, what do we know). If even half of these guys show, it's a pretty impressive list of some of the best talent to play in SoCal this summer. Again, remember that some of these guys are also supposed to be at the Pump Camp, so whether you actually get to see a particular player at the Rim Rattler event is pretty much an open question at this point. Here's the list:

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