City of Palms Classic author David Dorsey on his new book about the nation's premier high school basketball tournament

The News-Press sat down with a familiar face, former News-Press sports reporter David Dorsey, to talk about his new book Dunks, Threes, and Palm Trees: How the City of Palms Classic became High School Basketball's Best Tournament ahead of the tournament's 50th anniversary.

You can buy the book on Amazon, and Dorsey will be at the tournament selling in-person as well.

Here's our discussion with Dorsey, who has been covering the City of Palms since 1994.

More: City of Palms at 50: How the Classic morphed into the best high school hoops tourney in America

How long did it take to write the book?

Dorsey: It's really hard to quantify because I mean, it was years of work. But it was really about five years where I really like 'All right, I need to start writing this.' And I wanted to write it with the 50th anniversary in mind. And then I wasn't sure I was going to meet that deadline. And then COVID happened. And with a pandemic, and canceling the tournament for a year, It bought me another year. And then since we were sitting around doing nothing during that time, that gave me the time to really intensify my efforts to track down a lot of the people that I interviewed.

What has been the reaction so far?

Dorsey: It's been really positive. And the people that have read it have been telling me they enjoy reminiscing. They're able to reminisce about all the past tournaments and all the memories that came from them. And it's also getting them excited about this year's tournament.

Who was your favorite person to interview for the book?

Dorsey: You know, I don't want to pick favorites. But obviously, I had to interview Teddy Dupay because he's been so much for the tournament. You know, he was in the right place at the right time to really move that tournament forward. His freshman year coincided with the tournament's first year at Bishop Verot. So it was a new era for the tournament and then you get this local kid who really captured people's imaginations. It really helped grow that tournament.

Austin Rivers is another player that I really wanted to get in there. And Glen Davis is another guy, Big Baby. With Austin, it was purely an on-court reason, where he just dominated in the years he played here. And he was just a super player, kind of quiet. You're not gonna find him in the slam dunk contest or the 3-point Shootout. But he just loves playing the game. He's spent 15 years or so in the NBA. And then Big Baby, the real reason why I wanted to interview him was his outsized personality. I have a chapter called 'Winning the Crowd'. Austin's a big part of that chapter and so is Big Baby. These were guys that the people remember 20 years after they played.

What's it been like watching the tournament grow?

Dorsey: I've been at every tournament since 1994 which coincided with Teddy Dupay's freshman year and the first year at Bishop Verot. It's been interesting to watch it grow because in the mid-90s and the late 90s, it was such a hot ticket that they had to turn people away at the door because of the fire codes. And then they started to raise the ticket prices because the budget grew and that ended up eliminating some of that problem because people started getting priced out of going. All of a sudden a line that used to be there started to disappear. It wasn't because people didn't want to go to the tournament anymore, it was because they couldn't afford to. That's one aspect of the tournaments that has changed a lot is the budget, how much it costs to get inside, but also how much it costs to get all these players here. Back in the mid-80s, before I showed up during 1985 and 1986, there were guys sleeping on mattresses underneath a football stadium at Fort Myers. Now they've got about 1,000 hotel rooms that they fill all week long.

More: City of Palms Players to Watch: See 20 blue-chip prospects making the trip to Fort Myers

Who are some players you feel lucky to have seen play?

Dorsey: It's got to be Teddy. He's just this little 5-foot-10 guy and did he really just close 56 points? Yes, he did. Besides Teddy, Lonzo Ball was amazing. Like I thought he was gonna be the next Jason Kidd. He's proven to be a pretty good NBA point guard when he's not hurt. Ben Simmons, could he be the next Magic Johnson? No. But he was the No. 1 pick in the NBA. Gerald Wallace. I have a chapter called 'Dunks' that began with Gerald Wallace trying to replicate Michael Jordan's dunk from the free throw line. And when he did that, there were all these kids on the other half of the court that cleared a path for him. Then he ran down it and he took off like, like five inches before the free throw line. And he missed the dunk but it was the best missed slam dunk in the history of slam dunks.

What was the most memorable game you covered?

Dorsey: When St. Patrick finally won the championship, that was in I want to say 2010. They had finished second four times, I think it was. And it was Kevin Boyle's 10th appearance in the tournament. He was kind of like the Marv Levy of the tournament. Levy made four Super Bowls but never won one, and that was kind of like where Kevin Boyle was with St. Patrick. And they're playing Milton, a really good team and St. Patrick had Michael Kidd Gilchrist who had a pretty good NBA career. They won 69-67. I went to the hotel after St. Patrick won that night, and they were celebrating like you would not believe. It was just a neat moment where you're trying to accomplish something for so long and you finally get to do it.

What's one thing that makes the City of Palms so special?

Dorsey: I think what sets it apart is the community, the community engagement with the tournament. Because when they get here, they have the liaison program. And that's when they have a local, kind of like a big brother who shepherds a team like here's a good place for you guys to eat, here's a good place for you guys to hang out when you're not playing. If problems happen, someone always finds a way to step up and solve any kind of surprises.

The opening chapter of my book is called 'One game, Two courts.' The championship game began at Bishop Verot, and finished at Fort Myers High because the court was too slippery. The entire tournament was relocated so that they could finish playing the game. None of that could have happened if they didn't have a close-knit community engagement, there are too many moving parts. You're talking about the scoreboard operators, the stat keepers, the referees, the teams, the coaches, the announcers. They all had to pack up from Bishop Verot, move five miles north to a completely different high school to finish that game. And then they did, they pulled it off.

What do you see for the future of the tournament?

Dorsey: I think it'll continue to be the consensus No. 1 high school basketball tournament. I think it will continue to be their way until they decide not to do it anymore. For teams in Southwest Florida, they have that goal to strive to try to be good enough to be in the field. It's almost like a reward for the best local team. And that's what sets it apart. I said this before, I'll say it again, take the locals out of the equation, you could put the tournament anywhere. It's the City of Palms Classic, right?

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: City of Palms Classic author David Dorsey answers questions about book