The Throne high school basketball tournament is coming to New Jersey
Dylan Harper Jr. and Ace Bailey will be playing home games in Piscataway, NJ next season.
If you want an early look at the Rutgers commits, you’ll find them in East Rutherford, NJ next month.
Harper and Bailey are two of more than a dozen top high school prospects who will play in The Throne, a single-elimination national high school tournament at the American Dream in East Rutherford.
The tournament is the product of a partnership between the National Basketball Players Association and Gold Level Sports and Entertainment. American Dream -- a three million square foot entertainment/retail/dining space in East Rutherford – was instrumental in getting the high-level tournament to the tri-state area.
There will be a 16-team boys tournament and an eight-team girls tournament during the four-day event (March 27-30).
Harper's Don Bosco team and Bailey aren’t the only local attractions. The New York State Federation champs will also compete in both the boys and girls tournaments.
Top recruits on the boys side include: Harper, Bailey, Jase Richardson (Michigan State commit, son of Jason Richardson), Cameron and Cayden Boozer (sons of Carlos Boozer) and Sir Mohammed, a Notre Dame commit and the son of Nazr Mohammed.
Top recruits on the girls side include: Mia Pauldo of Morris Catholic, South Carolina commit Madisen McDaniel, Ridgeline’s Emilee Skinner and Stanford commit Kennedy Ume.
This is the second iteration of the tournament. Last year’s tournament took place in Atlanta at Morehouse College.
The tournament has the backing of several current and former NBA players. The GLSE player advisory board includes Danny Green, Harrison Barnes, Fred VanVleet, Rudy Gay, and Dwight Howard.
"The Throne is truly an innovative platform for these high school athletes to compete on an elite level," Long Island’s Green said in a statement. "We have structured The Throne to be an all-encompassing experience for high school athletes to develop their professional skills on and off the court."
That skill development includes financial literacy workshops led by JPMorgan Chase and health and wellness workshops led by the Hospital for Special Surgery.
The tournament, which is open to NBA scouts and open to the public (tickets will be available here), was brought back to the tri-state area by a group that included American Dream communications exec Gregg Schwartz, former head of Knicks Public Relations, the National Basketball Players Association leadership and GLSE.
The last time New York/New Jersey hosted a postseason tournament of this magnitude was when the Jordan Classic and Elite 24 tournaments took place in New York City.
