The World Series of Basketball: Day 1, New England & Mid-Atlantic

Do Kemba Walker and the star-studded team from the Empire State have what it takes to bring home the 2013 World Series of Basketball title? Associated Press/PHOTO CREDITS

                Today is the first installment in a string of posts titled “The World Series of Basketball.” This idea came to me when a friend asked me to write about all the high school talent from Indiana that is now in the NBA. I thought that would be a pretty cool idea, but I wanted to put my own twist on the concept and make it a more interesting piece. I started thinking about the Little League World Series held every year in Williamsport, Virginia. How cool would it be if someone organized a grand tournament between the states where players return home and play for the states where they grew up in? That is exactly what I set out to do with these posts.

                To begin, the United States was geographical divided into eight different regions: New England, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Great Lakes, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest, West (These grouping came straight from the LLWS). Each region is given the specific states corresponding with that geographical location, ranging from five teams in the West to eight teams in the Southeast. Additionally, to add to the World Series, four international countries were added to the tournament, Argentina, Canada, France, and Spain. From then on, I went about setting a starting five for each state and/or country. Only players currently in the NBA (2013 NBA draftees included), or those having played in the NBA last season, were considered for team rosters. Players must play for states in which they grew up in, for example, Virginia did not receive credit for players transferring to the prestigious Oak Hill Academy. As for international players, they were assigned to whichever team they compete with internationally. Any players born in the United States but who currently represent international teams (Joakim Noah, Ben Gordon), were considered only for their international rosters.

                After each team is assembled, each state and country will be assigned a random draw in a large tournament bracket, comprising the 2013 World Series of Basketball. Some states, such as Deleware and New Hampshire (sorry Matt Bonner), have failed to produce enough NBA talent and have been stricken from the list of tournament invitees. To start off, here is a look at the teams that made it from the New England and Mid-Atlantic regional divisions.

New England (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT)

 

Massachusetts – Michael Carter-Williams, Lazar Hayward, Jeff Adrien, Alex Oriakhi, Nerlens Noel

Left out: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut

Mid-Atlantic (PA, NY, NJ, MD, DC, DE)

 

Pennsylvania – Dion Waiters, Kobe Bryant, Tyreke Evans, Markieff Morris, Dejaun Blair

New York – Kemba Walker, Lance Stephenson, Carmelo Anthony, Andre Drummond, Roy Hibbert

New Jersey – J.R. Smith, Michael Kidd-Ghilchrist, Kenneth Faried, David West, Andrew Bynum

Maryland – Ty Lawson, Jarrett Jack, Victor Oladipo, Michael Beasley, Jeff Green

District of Columbia – Greivis Vasquez, Delonte West, Sam Young, Rudy Gay, Kevin Durant

Left out: Deleware