Press Release
Nike’s roster for the 2013 World Select Team that will compete in the 16th annual Nike Hoop Summit will celebrate the internationalism of the game with 10 players from 9 different countries across four continents. The 2013 Nike Hoop Summit, which will be played at 4 p.m. (PDT) on Saturday, April 20 at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore., features America’s top, senior high-school players versus a World Select Team featuring many of the world’s best players age 19-years-old or younger.
Heralded prep forward Andrew Wiggins (Canada/Huntington Prep, W.Va.) returns for his second Nike Hoop Summit appearance, having led the World Team with 20 points in an 84-75 victory in 2012. Sergey Karasev (Russia/Triumph Lyubertsy), who already has made a splash in international competition after earning a bronze medal with Russia at the 2012 Olympics, also will suit up for the World Team.
The World roster also includes: forwards Gabriel Deck (Argentina/Quimsa Athletic Association Santiago del Estero) and Livio Jean-Charles (France/ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne); guards Dante Exum(Australia/Australian Institute of Sport), Nikola Ivanovic (Montenegro/KK Buducnost), Dennis Schroder(Germany/New Yorker Phantoms) Marlo Hezonja (Croatia/Regal FC Barcelona); and centers Mouhammadou Jaiteh (France/Maritime Boulogne) and University of Kentucky signee Karl Towns, Jr.(Dominican Republic/St. Joseph H.S., N.J.).
For a third-straight year, Roy Rana will lead the World Team at the 2013 Nike Hoop Summit. Rana is a seven-year veteran of Canada Basketball who was appointed head coach of Canada’s Junior National Team in 2012 and led the team to a bronze medal in the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Brazil. The World Team assistant coach will be Serbia’s Marin Sedlacek, who is making his 13th Nike Hoop Summit appearance.
“So many former Hoop Summit players have gone on to become national and even global stars that the game is now firmly established as the most prestigious youth basketball event in the world,” said Lynn Merritt, VP Nike Global Basketball Sports Marketing. “Players such as Kevin Durant and Dirk Nowitzkileft their mark in the Nike Hoop Summit, and I’m excited to see who will be the next superstar. Nike is proud to partner with USA Basketball, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Rose Garden to again bring this year’s event to Portland.”
Wiggins will arrive in Portland as one of the most talked-about young players in basketball. Currently playing at Huntington Prep School in West Virginia, he is ranked by many sources as the top U.S. college basketball recruit for 2013. In February 2013, the Canadian forward was named the 2013 Naismith Prep Player of the Year. The son of former NBA player Mitchell Wiggins, Andrew has won bronze medals playing for Canada and World Team head coach Rana at the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship and the 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship. In addition, he was named MVP in 2011 and 2012 playing for Canada in the Nike Global Challenge.
Karasev played in two games at the London Olympics and three games as Russia took part in the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. A player with the Moscow-based Triumph Lyubertsy Club at the top level of Russian professional basketball, Karasev is logging significant minutes in domestic and European club basketball. His father Vasily, a former national team player, is currently head coach of Triumph.
From Argentina, Deck plays for Quimsa in Liga A, the top division in Argentina, and was a key member of the Argentina U18 National Team that advanced to the 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship bronze medal game. Deck also stood out at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship played in Lithuania last year, and led that tournament in scoring with 21.5 points per game.
French forward Jean-Charles is another player with experience at the top level of the professional game in his country with ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, the club of which Hoop Summit alumnus and NBA All-Star Tony Parker is part owner and vice-president. Jean-Charles was also a member of the silver medal winning French team at last year’s U20 European Championship in Slovenia. The latest in a long line of World Team players selected from the prestigious Australian Institute of Sport, Exum is coming off a strong performance at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship, a tournament in which he was the fourth-leading scorer (17.3 ppg.) to help Australia to the silver medal.
A guard from Montenegro, Ivanovic plays in his country’s top professional league for KK Buducnost and also has played for his club in the Adriatic League and EuroCup. He was named the Montenegro League’s Guard of the Year and Most Improved Player in 2011 before helping Buducnost win the 2012 league championship to earn a place on his national senior team
Schroder is from German BBL club the New York Phantoms Braunschweig , having developed through their junior program. Schröder appeared for both Germany’s senior and U20 national teams in 2012 and in 2013 was selected for the BBL All-Star Game. From famous European club Regal FC Barcelona, Hezonja started his career in his homeland Croatia with KK Dubrovnik and KK Zagreb before moving to Spain. Last summer, he also was part of the Croatia U17 team that won bronze at the FIBA U17 World Championship, finishing second in scoring at that tournament with 20.8 points per game. In 2011, Hezonja was also a key part of the U16 team that won gold at the U16 European Championship. At the center position, Jaiteh is a product of the national academy, the Centre Federal du Basket-Ball and in 2012-13 signed for SO Maritime Boulogne in ProB, the second tier of French basketball. In 2012, Jaiteh was the fourth-leading scorer at the U18 European Championship in Lithuania.
The final name on the World Team roster is Dominican Republic center Towns, who has committed verbally to play collegiately after next season at the University of Kentucky and currently is playing high school basketball at St. Joseph High School in New Jersey. Having played impressively for his U17 national team at the 2011 Centrobasket U17 Championship, Towns was called up to the senior national team that played at the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Venezuela.
The World Team seeks to repeat its 2012 success, when it defeated the USA 84-75 in front of a Rose Garden crowd of 10,666 and a national television audience. Overall, the United States holds an 11-4 advantage in the Nike Hoop Summit.
