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Introducing the Deron Williams Skills Academy

Posted by: Paul Klee

Thursday, April 30, 2009 7:49 PM

That Demetri McCamey wants to be a counselor at Deron Williams' point guard camp isn't a surprise. He's a Deron Williams fan, watches the Jazz often, and they've spent time together in the past.

That Deron Williams is the name on a point guard camp is a bigger deal. You've heard of the Nike-sponsored Steve Nash point guard camp in the past. Now, in lieu of Nash, Nike now is using Deron Williams as the headliner: the Deron Williams Skills Academy.

Deron's camp an invitation-only deal, run by Nike and hosted on the SMU campus in the Dallas area, that involves the top point guard prospects in the country. Amare Stoudemire, Vince Carter, Paul Pierce and LeBron James are the other guys with Nike skills academies in late June.

This development won't change Illinois' recruiting reach or anything like that, but it's a definite plus for the Illini. For example, I'm sure they'd like to get 2011 recruit Tracy Abrams involved, and there will be others down the road. And if a guy like Demetri McCamey is a counselor — McCamey said today he'd like to be counselor at Deron's camp or at the LeBron James camp — that's a plus, too.

pklee@news-gazette.com