Grassroots basketball has changed dramatically in the 18 years since “The Last Shot” was published. Summer league teams and All-Star camps, in their infancy in 1994, are now the main avenue for even low and mid-major players to be identified by college coaches. That, in turn, has marginalized the traditional high school season depicted in the book.

However, the social factors that author Darcy Frey highlights -- the crumbling infrastructure of inner-city schools, the abject poverty in many star player’s backgrounds and the ugly underbelly of the recruiting process -- are the same as they ever were. For basketball fans who want a glimpse of players lives beyond the hardwood, “The Last Shot” is as eye-opening, heartbreaking and relevant as it was when it first came out.

The book tells the story of four high school basketball stars, teammates at Lincoln High. Located at the very end of a New York City subway line, the Coney Island school is also the last stop in the education of most of its students. Three of the book’s protagonists -- Tchaka Chipp, Corey Johnson and Russell Thomas -- are rising seniors, hoping to catch the eyes of D1 coaches. A 14-year-old Stephon Marbury is the fourth.

On the court, their games fit together perfectly. Chipp is the big man, a 6’8 jumping jack who dominates the smaller centers in the Public School Athletic League. Johnson is the athletic slasher, Thomas the pure shooter and Marbury the floor general, with an advanced feel for running a team honed from countless hours on the Coney Island playgrounds.

Nothing comes as easy off the court, where Lincoln’s history of talented washouts loom over every decision they make. Marbury’s three older brothers had all been high school superstars, yet none had a degree or a pro career to show for it. Johnson and Thomas, for all their talent, are pursued mainly by junior colleges after failing to get the minimum necessary score on their SAT’s.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Chipp, the only one not from Coney Island, is also the only one who doesn’t struggle with standardized tests. He draws the attention of coaches like PJ Carlesimo, Rick Barnes and Jim Boeheim, giving the reader a rare inside glimpse into the high-stakes world of recruiting. It’s a world where the odds are heavily stacked against the players. The coaches pursue them as if their jobs depended on it, but they aren’t the ones moving back to the projects if it doesn’t work out.

To survive, the players need a level of maturity far beyond their years. Johnson’s family worries that the time he spends chasing girls will cost him his best chance to go to college while Thomas is wrecked by anxiety over his future. He hones his jumper by lofting thousands and thousands of shots from a chair, haunted by an incident the previous year where he almost took his own life.

As the book progresses, it’s almost impossible not to root for Thomas, Johnson and Chipp as they let Frey into their lives. It’s a testament to his skill as an author that he blends into the background of the book, more reporter than participant. Yet there’s clearly a Schrodinger Cat’s effect occurring: his presence as an observer is changing, at least on some level, what is actually happening.

Marbury is the one who notices first. More of a closed book than the other three, he is a charismatic cipher who never lets Frey get too close. With a swagger that belies his age, the roots of the troubled image he would acquire in the NBA are easy to see. At one point, his father tells Frey that the family will no longer participate in the book without financial compensation.

For fans who use sports to escape the financial stress in their own lives, there’s no greater villain than the player obsessed with money, either taking it in college or chasing it in free agency. Indeed, years after the events of “The Last Shot”, the New York Daily News was shocked by the “extravagance” of Marbury’s recruitment to Georgia Tech. In the NBA, he made waves when he opted out of a potential dynasty with Kevin Garnett on the Minnesota Timberwolves to be the “alpha dog” with the New Jersey Nets.

But after watching his three older brothers lavished with affection before being used and discarded, Marbury’s view of the game’s economic superstructure was quite different than that of the average fan’s. When coaches came to his house, there wasn’t enough furniture for them to make their pitch sitting down. And even though his signature on a letter of intent was worth millions of dollars, he was supposed to give it away for free.

Since its publication, the magazine article that formed the heart of “The Last Shot” won a National Magazine Award as well as a Livingston Award. Any mention of those honors, however, is tucked away on the back cover of the newest paperback edition. Instead, a bright orange sticker on the front proclaims that the book “features an in-depth look at the making of superstar Stephon Marbury”.

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I live in Washington DC and recently visited rural South Dakota. The culture shock between the two places is pretty extreme. In Washington DC, I don’t even know my next-store neighbors. In South Dakota, my wife can’t get her hair cut without running into the mom of one of her grade school classmates.

One of my favorite things is how different chain restaurants are in rural and urban areas. You may remember the Olive Garden controversy from March. Here is the recap if you missed it. A writer in North Dakota wrote a rave review of the Olive Garden restaurant, claiming it was long overdue addition in Grand Forks. Then a bunch of urban foodies mocked the article. The funny thing is that both viewpoints were probably right.

In urban areas, talent is compensated at a high level so executive chefs are able to open signature restaurants, and chains like the Olive Garden are relatively lower quality. But in rural areas labor is cheaper and it is easier to retain quality staff. Thus a chain restaurant in a rural area will often have some of the most courteous staff and some of the most experienced cooks employed by the chain. The Olive Garden in Grand Forks isn’t a five-star dining experience, but it can be a quality experience.

So how does this relate to basketball? Well another thing I’ve been thinking about lately is how we underestimate the transition in going to college. We underestimate the culture shock when urban and rural kids meet for the first time. When a shared experience (like eating at the Olive Garden) can be so different, I think it is fair to say that learning to work with a new set of teammates can be a huge challenge.

AAU basketball has a negative reputation, and there is no question that there are some bad seeds who try to ride kids coattails. But AAU ball is extremely valuable experience. Besides the higher level of competition, and the opportunity to improve one’s skills, the chance to interact with players with different backgrounds is incredibly important. It gives many of the AAU players a huge advantage when they do leave for college.

For me, the most important part of moving to college was that I no longer had to deal with people who didn’t want to be there. Instead of working on a high school group project with someone who could not care less about the outcome, when you are forking over tens of thousands of dollars, you tend to be somewhat invested in the experience.

The elite prep schools tend to have that feature as well. An average varsity athletic program will include some kids who hate the sport (but who play because of their parents), and some kids who like the sport (but don’t see a future in it). But at most of the elite basketball prep schools, you have an environment where almost everyone is focused on training to play at the next level.

Continuing my theme from my last column, let’s create two more All-Star teams for two of the elite prep schools in the country. Again, I’m going to focus on players that would have been eligible to play college basketball in the last decade:

Notes: Brewster Academy will probably have a number of players in the NBA in the future, but that isn’t true today. But this would still be a very fun college level team. Craig Brackins was a prolific post scorer at Iowa St. (even after Wesley Johnson abandoned the team for Syracuse). And Jeff Adrien and Thomas Robinson are two of the most incredible rebounders to play college basketball. Efejuku gets forgotten as part of the Tim Welsh-era at Providence, but he was an incredible scoring guard in college.

The only real question is point guard. Anthony Crater would have been a natural choice but he failed at Ohio St. and South Florida, and I wouldn’t want to put him on an all-star team. Mark Lyons doesn’t have great assist numbers in his career, but I think a lot of that may have occurred because he deferred to Tu Holloway at Xavier. I’m going to tentatively give him the ball while hoping that he doesn’t call his own number too often. Another alternative would be Rutgers guard Eli Carter, but he isn’t much of a point guard either.

Bench: There would be some serious non-BCS talent on the bench of this team with North Texas guard Tristan Thompson, Blake Shlib of Loyola Chicago, and Charles Abouo of BYU rounding out the squad. And if you need a defensive stopper, don’t look past former Texas guard Dogus Balbay.

Keep an eye on: The real beauty of this Brewster team is the future. Michigan recruit Mitch McGary, Xavier recruit Semaj Christon, and Florida St. recruit Aaron Thomas all made the RSCI Top 100 this year. Eli Carter showed flashes of brilliance for Rutgers and looks like a future star. And once St. John’s Jakarr Sampson and Kansas’ Naadir Tharpe finally get to play major minutes, many expect great things from them at the college level. Iowa St.’s Melvin Ejim, Syracuse’s CJ Fair, and Minnesota’s Mo Walker are also players to keep an eye on.

Notes: A few mediocre seasons in the NBA and already we are forgetting how dominant Michael Beasley was in college. Beasley scored 866 points in his one season in Manhattan, Kansas. That’s more than double the 380 points scored by Derrick Caracter in his final year at UTEP, and Caracter had a dominant season. There have been a handful of player to score more points than Beasley in the last decade. Jimmer Fredette, Stephen Curry, Kemba Walker, JJ Reddick, Adam Morrison, Kevin Durant and Tyler Hansbrough did it, along with a few others who played for small schools. But there haven’t been many.

Kim English just had one of the best seasons in Missouri history, shooting 46% from three point range, so he is an easy choice for the team. And former Pitt Panther Carl Krauser had the passing skills to guide this team to victory.

If I was solely going off of stats, Jamine “Greedy” Peterson might get a spot ahead of Derrick Caracter. Peterson was a prolific and efficient scorer for Keno Davis in the “no defense” era at Providence. But sometimes great stats don’t always mean everything. With Peterson leaving Providence too early and struggling in the NBA D-league, I just couldn’t put him on the first team. This may also be the first time in the world that intangibles worked in Caracter’s favor. If you do want to go small with Peterson over Caracter, Lazar Hayward is used to defending bigger players, and at 6’6” so he could step up at one of the forward spots.

Bench: Whatever you want to say about Caracter and Peterson’s intangibles, at least they haven’t been arrested for armed robbery. Does that disqualify Seton Hall’s Robert Mitchell as a bench sub on the team? Journeyman guard Will Blalock had a nice career at Iowa St. But the player I most wish I had found room for in the starting lineup is Cincinnati’s Sean Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick wasn’t ranked out of high school, but he was a prolific and efficient scorer as a sophomore last season, and expectations are sky high for him this season. Arkansas’s Gary Ervin, Auburn’s Brandon Robinson, and Louisville’s Terrence Jennings also all had solid college careers.

Keep an eye on: Providence recruit Ricardo Ledo is going to be asked to help turn the Friars program around and the Top 20 recruit just might have the skill set to do it. And former Top 20 recruit Khem Birch is headed to UNLV after not fitting in at Pittsburgh. Buzz Williams almost never plays freshmen at Marquette, but Todd Mayo broke that trend which speaks to his potential. Finally, James Southerland of Syracuse got some additional playing time after Fab Melo was suspended this year, and he could be in for a strong senior season.

Who Wins?

Right now, I’m going to go with Notre Dame Prep as they would have substantially more depth. But give Brewster Academy time. The pipeline of young Brewster players in BCS programs is very strong. 

The US Olympic team played its first exhibition game on Thursday night.

There has been a lot of discussion about how this Dream Team would have compared to the original Dream Team. And I love constructing all-star rosters and arguing about the merits of those rosters as much as the next basketball fan.

One of my favorite time-wasters is to compile all-college teams based on current NBA rosters. For example, I love to ask whether Kentucky’s NBA stars are better than the Kansas NBA stars. I love to ask whether Duke has finally eclipsed North Carolina with more NBA-caliber players.

But RealGM.com also has a fabulous database of high schools. And today I decided to see if I could construct an elite team based on any of the high schools the current Olympians have attended.

Let’s start with players who attended Kevin Durant’s Montrose Christian School. Here would be my starting five based on players who played in college (or would have been eligible to play in college) in the last decade.

Notes: Grevis Vasquez was a sensational passer in college and would be quite capable of running the show. Marvin Lewis wasn’t quite NBA material, but he was a solid three point shooter at Georgia Tech. Yarou has been a bit of a disappointment in college, but he would be a solid anchor in the middle.

Key Bench Sub: Nick George had a couple of fabulous years at VCU and probably deserves to start, but his dominance came before VCU became an NCAA power. While his team made the NCAA tournament in 2004 and took Wake Forest to the wire, his success mostly came under the radar. Florida St.’s Uche Echefu and Maryland’s Adrian Bowie also deserve recognition.

College fans keep an eye on: Isaiah Armwood is transferring from Villanova to George Washington and still has a chance to be a dominant college player in the A10. Paul Hewitt has shown an ability to feature star players and Armwood could be the next player featured in his system. Josh Hairston was a highly ranked recruit for Duke out of high school but has struggled to make a name for himself in two seasons as a backup forward.

I can’t quite put together a high school all-star team for LeBron James because St. Vincent – St. Mary’s is more of a traditional high school than a prep-to-pro factory. But even playing alongside Dayton’s Marcus Johnson and Akron’s Romeo Travis, I’m sure LeBron could hold his own in any pick-up game. The same could be said for Chris Paul’s West Forsyth High School, Anthony Davis’ Perspectives Charter School and Kobe Bryant’s Lower Merion High School Team (although Temple’s Ryan Brooks had a nice college career for a graduate of Kobe’s alma mater.)

Picking an all-star team for Carmelo Anthony’s is difficult for another reason. As I discussed a couple of weeks ago, no one churns out star college players like Oak Hill Academy. Of course the difficulty is that while there have been many college stars, there have been fewer NBA players to come out of the school.

Notes: Let the criticism begin. My first dilemma with the All-Oak Hill squad was that the team lacks size beyond Josh Smith. While Oak Hill has been great at generating elite guards, the school hasn’t developed nearly as many dominant forwards. I gave serious consideration to former Mississippi St. guard Jamont Gordon because his college stat-line was so unbelievable. Gordon's 17 PPG, 5 APG, and 6 RPG showed why he had the athleticism to dominate at the college level. A 6’4” rebounding guard could be good enough in a pick-up game.

But Gordon’s poor decision to declare for the draft left a terrible taste in my mouth and I couldn’t put him in the starting lineup. Also, if you’d rather go back a few more years and take Tennessee’s Ron Slay, I wouldn’t argue with that either. If you want DeSagana Diop on the team, I think you just hate basketball. How has he played 11 years in the NBA?

The guard situation on the other hand is an embarrassment of riches. Do you prefer Kentucky’s Doron Lamb, Syracuse’s Eric Devendorf, or Connecticut’s Marcus Williams to the players I have listed? If you do, I won’t argue with you. But I gave the final slot to Nolan Smith because his senior season at Duke was historically prolific. He averaged 21 PPG and 5 APG. He had a 31% usage rate combined with a 114 ORtg. Even at Duke, that was historically special.

I don’t think North Carolina fans really appreciated how special Ty Lawson was until he was gone. Poor play and injuries at the point guard slot have hurt the team for the last three seasons. And while Rondo’s college stats were mediocre, his NBA career easily earns him a spot on this team.

Key Bench Sub: I haven’t mentioned Maryland’s Steve Blake yet. This team would have a plethora of options for the bench.

College fans keep an eye on: Scott Machado’s partner in the back-court LaMont Jones is back for his senior year at Iona. Duke’s Quinn Cook struggled with injuries last season, but many expect him to have a Nolan Smith-like career path for the Blue Devils.

Some schools tend to be known for only a pair of elite players. Deron Williams came out of the Colony Texas along with Indiana’s Bracey Wright, but if you remember the third best player to come out of that school in recent history, Baylor’s Matt Sayman, you deserve a gold star.

The same could be said of Kevin Love of Lake Oswego High School. Arizona’s Salim Stoudamire is the second big name to graduate from his high school, but the third name is less well known. Portland’s Ben Sullivan was a great college player, but only west coast fans got to see him tear it up in the WCC.

The same could be said of Andre Iguodala of Lanphier High School. Lanphier produced Illinois guard Rich McBride, but the third best player to come out of that high school in recent memory was Tennessee Tech’s Alfred Jones, Jr.

Finally, Russell Westbrook rounds out the schools that would depend on two big names. Leuzinger High School produced Westbrook and put Dorell Wright in the NBA out of high school. But Leuzinger has seen other players like Connecticut’s Donnell Beverly fail to deliver at the college level.

Tyson Chandler’s Dominquez High School hasn’t produced a huge number of elite players, but they could at least put together a dangerous looking starting lineup:

Notes:  Technically, Tayshaun Prince wouldn’t have been in college in the last decade, but I’m breaking that rule to keep this team relevant.

The biggest issue with this team is finding a point guard. Iowa’s Bryce Cartwright might be your choice, but he was never an efficient player in college. Washington St.’s Marcus Moore did rack up some assists from the wing, but his efficiency stats were even worse. So maybe you want to stick Austin Peay’s Derek Wright on the team and call it good, but he would clearly be the weak link. Louisville’s Ellis Myles was a pretty nice passer, one of Rick Pitino’s many point forwards who could set up at the free throw line and distribute, so I’m going to assume this team runs an unorthodox offense in order to keep its best players on the floor.

Key Bench Sub: Arizona St.’s Steve Moore would be the first guard off the bench.

Finally, James Harden’s high school has produced some solid players, but not enough to build a team competitive with those listed above. Artesia High School produced his college teammate at Arizona St. Derek Glasser and Nevada’s Malik Story. But Artesia was more well known for producing UCLA’s O’Bannon’s brothers in the 1990s and Jason Kapono.