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NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Parker Jackson-Cartwright couldn’t have had a more discerning audience sitting along one of the baselines for his opening game of the LeBron James Skills Academy Sunday afternoon in Rancho High’s main gymnasium.

The cozy gathering was made up of NBA standouts/2012 Olympians Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers, Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks and the man himself.

And the diminutive (5-foot-8ish and maybe 140 pounds) junior-to-be from Loyola High in Los Angeles dominated things much in the fashion that the man the camp is named for did during many of the 2012 NBA playoff games for Miami – minus a foot and 120 pounds or so, of course.

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NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Saturday’s Day II of the LeBron James Skills Academy was made up of two more sessions of drills, with the 80 or so players broken up into groups of posts, wings and point guards.

After zeroing in on the posts on Friday, I parked my posterior on a folding chair facing the courts on which the point guards and wings got after it on Saturday morning and late afternoon, respectively.

First off, my thoughts on the PGs . . .

*As a collective, they seemed a lot more focused and attentive on the task at hand – getting better – than were some of the “bigs” I watched Friday night.

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NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The first day of the LeBron James Skills Academy – relocated from James’ hometown of Akron, Ohio – didn’t feature an appearance from the NBA’s three-time Most Valuable Player.

That’s because James, less than a month removed from leading the Miami Heat to a championship, was about five miles south in UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, workout out with other “candidates” for the team that will be heavily favored to bring home gold from the London Olympics.

But the bulk of the best prep players in the country – including a couple who call Canada home – made up a group of about 80 hoopsters in a bit more than 90 minutes of drills in both gymnasiums at Rancho High.

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BELLFLOWER, Ca. – What shapes up as one of the elite Southern California hoops events of the summer will get under way Monday afternoon, with St. John Bosco High serving as the event’s headquarters.

The 32-team, Braves Varsity Summer Classic will be played in four prep gyms over the course of five days (no games will be played on July 4), with the championship game set for Saturday afternoon, 3 o’clock, at SJB.

Besides the host school, games will also be played at Compton Dominguez, Lakewood St.

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By FRANK BURLISON

VARIOUS LOCALES, Southern California – The final day of June offers a lot of high school hoops-viewing options in the sunny Southland for the hard-core among the prep followers.

Three terrific tournaments wrap up this evening with championship games:

*Los Angeles Price takes on Lawndale Leuzinger at 6 p.m. in the Compton Dominguez finale.

Price is led by 6-foot-2 guard Chance Murray while Leuzinger also has a gifted backcourt, led by another senior-to-be in Eric Childress.

*Long Beach Poly and Pasadena tip off in the title game at L.A.

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