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High School Sneak Peek: Zion Williamson vs. LaMelo Ball in the biggest AAU game ever

Krysten Peek has been covering high school and grassroots basketball for the past seven years for Rivals.com. In this series, she takes us back to when some of the NBA’s biggest stars were just getting started in high school.

Previous Peeks: Zion Williamson

Zion Williamson and LaMelo Ball, two players who garnered immense pre-NBA hype, faced off in an AAU blockbuster that is perhaps the greatest grassroots basketball game of all time.

It was July 2017 and near the end of the AAU season. Adidas held its final tournament at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas, and Zion vs. LaMelo was scheduled on the main court on the evening of July 27.

Fans started to line up outside the arena more than two hours before the game’s 9 p.m. tipoff. The court was over capacity 70 minutes before the game with standing room only.

NBA players who showed up and requested courtside seats were left sitting on the floor due to the crazy amount of star power and Adidas VIPs who were in attendance.

Lonzo Ball, Damian Lillard, Andrew Wiggins, Jamal Murray, Jaylen Brown and Thon Maker were in attendance.

LeBron James showed up with his son, Bronny, but were told not to come inside because the venue was over capacity. That’s right: It was an AAU game so big even LeBron couldn’t get in. The contest was in jeopardy of being canceled due to fire-code violations.

Fans were climbing the backside of the bleachers to view the action, and the Ball family was filming its Facebook reality show, “Ball in the Family.”

The atmosphere was electric when the two teams took the court for warmups. Zion put on a dunk show that had fans erupting.

This game had everything. LaVar was coaching LaMelo’s team and was in fine form before the game, telling a reporter that he and LaMelo could take on LeBron and Michael Jordan. Sure, LaVar.

One of the best aspects of the game didn’t even happen on the court. It occurred on the sidelines of Zion’s team, SC Supreme. Williamson’s father was the head coach and he coached the entire game with Williamson’s younger brother sleeping in his arms.

The game delivered on every level. Williamson finished with 28 points in a 104-92 win. There were flashy dunks, and-one finishes and he even showed off his ball-handling skills to trip up players in transition. Ball had 31 points and let a few of his threes fly from deep.

At the time, Ball was still a five-star prospect committed to UCLA, and Williamson was undecided with the coaches from Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Clemson, South Carolina and Duke in attendance. “This is unreal. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kansas coach Bill Self said after the game.

There likely will never be another game like this: the star power, the crazy dad who was also the head coach, thousands of fans and NBA players and Hall of Fame college coaches, all watching a pair of young basketball phenoms.

“That was the craziest game I’ve ever played in,” Williamson told Yahoo Sports after the game. “It was great to play against Melo, and that’s my guy. I know I’ll be seeing him in the league one day.”

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