The New Face Of Summer Basketball

When Sonny Vaccaro stepped down as head of Reebok Grassroots basketball earlier this year, many people saw it as the end of summer basketball. Instead, it signals a major restructuring and Reebok's efforts, in particular have expanded under the leadership of Chris Rivers, Vacarro's replacement.

Rivers, a bay area native from Oakland and former player and coach, has been involved with grassroots basketball for over 15 years. I was able to catch up with the long-time Reebok rep about his new role and future plans for grassroots basketball.

How long have you been involved in grassroots basketball?
I have been involved with grassroots basketball since 1992, when I took a team to the Las Vegas Easter Classic. I was coaching a team of Northern California kids. It was a 14 and under team that placed 5th in the tournament. A young point guard from Arizona by the name of Mike Bibby ousted us. Since that day, I made a commitment to myself that I would go to Las Vegas at least once a year for a basketball tournament and I have not missed one yet.

How did you get deeper into basketball?
In the fall of 1992, Coach Frank Laporte hired me as a freshman coach at St. Joe's even though I was a Bishop O' Dowd graduate. I came to St. Joe's the fall after Jason Kidd left for Cal . I got deeper into club basketball in 1996, as Calvin Andrews brought me into the Slam N Jam organization. At the time, players such as Circus King had just left Slam N Jam for San Diego State . Ray Young was the feature guy in the program. He was my first introduction into national level basketball, as he was an All-Star.

I took a team, California Pride that went to the BET DC summer classic, which featured only eight top teams. We had Ray Young, Darrell Tucker, Jules Milestead, Brandon Armstrong, Adrian McCulloch and a host of others. That was the first time I saw like 15 future pros playing in a national level tournament. Riverside Church had Elton Brand, Ron Artest, and Kenny Satterfield on the court at the time. Team Kansas City had Jaron Rush, Korleone Young, Ryan Humphries and Earl Watson. Shane Battier was on a Michigan team with Dana Fife, who played at Indiana . That is when I realized basketball was huge nationally and how competitive it was.

Why did Sonny Vacarro retire?
Sonny felt that after doing this for 43 years, he wanted to step back and carve out his next endeavor. By no way is this a true retirement. What people do not understand about Sonny is that he has always been an advocate for the high school player and he will continue to be. There is no one today who is or will be closer to it. I have not seen one yet.

What is Sonny doing now?
He is going to go on a speaking tour, compiling his notes and probably getting ready to write a book and a possible movie deal. I also know several different people with money, who do not have the basketball know how, but want to start a basketball academy, who are approaching him. My understanding is that he is patiently thinking it through, but he is looking for the right partner. He is still in the mix in regards to the basketball scene.

How was it working with Sonny?
I got with Sonny Vacarro in 1999. Daren Kalish, the current head of adidas grassroots basketball, hired me to work with Sonny. Working with Sonny each year was an evolution. I went from doing what he told me, to presenting ideas, to following my lead on a few things. It has been the best professional and personal experience in my life.

Two other people helped me along the way. Darren Matsubara and Calvin Andrews also helped me get started and helped me in grassroots basketball. Calvin was the ultimate executive, and Matsubara was the ultimate showman. They made it cool to be from Northern California as it relates to grassroots basketball.

So now you are head of Reebok basketball. What does that mean?
That means that all function of basketball, from grassroots to college basketball, to the NBA fall in my department. They touch me someway.

What is Reebok doing with grassroots now since Sonny has left?
We are taking the traditional events that people love about summer basketball and making them more modern.

How are you doing this?
First off, our premiere individual camp, which was ABCD, is now being called RBK U. This will be July 6 through the 10th in Philadelphia at Philadelphia University . It is the only true traditional invitational camp being held this year. It will feature 120 players from the 2008, 2009 and 2010 classes.

What we are doing with RBK U is that we are putting together a national selection committee that will select the first 65 players, regardless of shoe affiliation, high school, state and or region. Then the next 50 players will be selected in the "Headliner try-out" camps. These camps will take place in 18 different regions starting May 13-14th in Florida and ending June 9-10th in New Jersey and Los Angeles . (Northern California has its camp in Sacramento June 2-3). If you are a kid that fills that you have national talent, but do not have a national rep, you can come to these camps and blow up.

Also at these headliner camps, five kids from each site will earn invites to the RBK Breakout underclass camp, formerly known as Camp Next , which is for rising sophomores and juniors. This camp will take place June 22-24th in Chicago . Five kids from the Headliner camp will be chosen for another camp, which will be the Proving Ground regional combine, which will include the top 80-100 players in each region. This will take place during the first NCAA evaluation live period in July.

The Proving Ground camp will be held in nine regions across the country. These regions include Northern California, Seattle , Jackson (MS), Chicago , Akron (OH), Tampa (FL), Atlanta , North Carolina and Boston . At this camp, this will be a straight exposure camp in front of college coaches. This will give kids a chance to increase scholarship opportunities and improve regional and or national status. And it will give regional college coaches a chance to look at and recruit kids that they need to be spending time on within their region. For more information on the Regional Tryout camp, you can go to www.ballercircuit.com.

What about some of the summer tournaments that Reebok has hosted such as the Big Time?
We have renamed our Las Vegas event, which will be called the Reebok summer championship. We expect for the fourth straight year, that the country's No. 1 travel team will be crowned July 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Foothill High School in Henderson , Nevada . In 2004 and 2005 it was Spiece Indy Heat, in 2006 it was the So Cal All Stars and 2007 will be? For more info go to www.reebokchampions.com.

What is the direction of Reebok basketball?
We want to continue to provide a stage for the players that practice everyday and committed to be the best they can be to display their talents. Our slogan for this summer is "anytime, anywhere." We believe that kids that have passion for the game, will want to play ball anytime, anywhere. This is what Reebok basketball is all about.