McDonald's All-American nominees announced

The McDonald’s All-American nominees have been announced and several familiar names are included, headlined by Anton Brookshire.

One of the most prestigious accolades that high school basketball players can garner is the title of McDonald’s All-American. Specifically, North American, as the players selected can come from the United States or Canada. Held since the late 1970s, the game has included names from Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan to LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

For the second straight year, the actual game will not be played, but players can be recognized regardless. Via social media, the lists of boy and girl nominees have been released:

Several names from our neck of the woods appear on the list: Makaiya Brooks (Central, committed to Memphis), Aminu Mohammed (Greenwood Laboratory, committed to Georgetown), and our own Anton Brookshire (Kickapoo, committed to Mizzou).

Brookshire is from Milwaukee, WI originally, but has been a Springfield, MO resident for a while now. His impact on his school and his teammates has been tremendous, but it has come through work in the trenches that we at The Basketball Movement have been very fortunate to witness.

Congratulations, Anton on this nomination! Mizzou will be fortunate to have a driven young player that has not reached this level by accident. As he continues to work, we are excited to witness the heights he can achieve.

Joining Anton in the Midwest nominations are some other players we were fortunate to host during The Invitational last year: Tyrese Hunter (Iowa State commit), Kobe Johnson (USC commit), and David Joplin (Texas commit). All pure hoopers.

We are proud of the above players and will be watching to see the final selections! For more high school, NCAA, and professional hoops, keep it locked to The Basketball Movement.

High school: McDonald's All-American 2018 recap

The nation's top high school talent was on display this week, with the McDonald's All-Americans in action last night.

Basketball at the high school level gets more and more impressive each year. The 2018 McDonald's All-American selections still have (literally) huge shoes to fill, as they follow in the path of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Skylar Diggins, DeMar DeRozan, Brittney Griner, Vince Carter; the list is ridiculous.

Below is the full list of 2018 participants:

One of the first things that stands out on the list would be the four Duke commits on the boy's side. Three of them (Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett, and Cameron Reddish) are predicted by ESPN to go 1-2-3 in the 2019 NBA draft. We see you, Blue Devils. Kansas had three commits itself, with Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, and Vanderbilt all having two commits from this squad.

Last night's games in Philips Arena (home of the Atlanta Hawks) were predictably fun on the girl's and guy's side of things. Though they get a couple practices in, the teams are typically a little disjointed to start. They begin to find their groove as the game goes on, which is what happened in these games. Once they are in the flow, they are some of the nation's finest after all.

Nassir Little (UNC commit) showed out in this one, winning MVP. Unfortunately, Zion Williamson appeared to tweak his leg a bit, so we hope that he comes away unscathed. Overall, there were plenty of high-flying dunks to make up for some suspect shooting much of the night.

The girls seemed to have an easier time finding rhythm, as ball movement and shot-making were more prominent than in the boy's game. Both were competitive, yet playful; ideal for this All-Star style of game. Christyn Williams took home MVP honors. Guess where she has committed to playing college ball. Yes of course: UConn.

The announcers of the boys game seemed to think that this was a little too remniscient of previous NBA All-Star games, with too much dunking and not enough competition. Opinion: there was so much dunking because these are athletic, long, young men that were wanting to show out against each other. These guys have been competing all year, that is how they got here. Let them bounce!

Speaking of bounce, you have to check out the dunk contest below. It includes a nice shake-up, which you just have to see to believe.

Not every one of these players will go on to achieve greatness, but you can count on several from this group busting out and making splashes on basketball's largest stages.

For more high school basketball as well as college and the pros, keep it locked to The Basketball Movement.