PHILADELPHIA — They all call him looking for input, his thoughts on a particular player. Coaches from Kentucky, Syracuse, Miami and Florida. And many, many more.
They all want to know what he thinks — so they call Alex Kline, the wunderkind who's on the cutting edge and knows which player is going where and what makes that player so good.
Alex Kline set up the Mary Kline Classic
to honor the memory of his mother.
Courtesy photo
On Sunday, Kline took the third-annual Mary Kline Classic to even greater heights, bringing it to Philadelphia with a stunning array of talent, all for an amazing cause: to benefit cancer in the memory of Mary Kline, Alex's mother who died of a brain tumor.
Philadelphia University was packed, and parking was outrageous around the tiny facility as hoops mavens filled the place.
What they saw was great basketball for a great cause, inspired by a rising basketball powerbroker who, get this, just turned 19 on June 1 and is a sophomore at Syracuse University.
Mary died of a cancer when Alex was just 10. But she always supported everything he did — including his passion for basketball.
"We love it here and love how Philly has embraced the event; it's been amazing," Kline said. "Philly fans are tough to win over with everything, but cancer research is important and that's the main reason we held the event. These players are using basketball to beat cancer — simple as that.
"My mom was passionate about anything that I was passionate about. Our first year of this, we had a smorgasbord of kids from various levels. A lot of times all-star games are games of politics, but we wanted to make this game fun and make it exciting for the fans to watch. That's the big thing — to make it exciting and get the hype going. We did."
At the eye of the event was Kline, who was originally viewed with skepticism when he branched out into college recruiting.
"Oh, I was looked as a joke when I first started out, because of my age and sometimes, I'll admit, I messed up," said Kline, a graduate of
Pennington School, a prestigious private school in New Jersey. It's taken some time to build a reputation and get respect.
"It's great to be able to establish relationships and I stuck through it. I walked through the fire. People now respect what I do, and the media has helped, starting with the Sports Illustrated article. For me, though, at the end of the day, it's all about helping the kids. I'm in it for the kids and talking to college coaches about them and promoting them. They're really cool kids and connecting with them — their personalities are infectious. Whenever I go to an event, it's like big family."
Kline's
Recruitscoop.com, which merged with another major national recruiting site, is a necessary bookmark for those interested in high school recruiting news.
Kline has emerged as the Jay Glazer of hoops recruiting. With one glaring difference, "I probably look better than Jay," Kline said, laughing.
Checking In On Cheick DialloHe's tough to miss, at 6-foot-9 with a wingspan that flies out to 7-foot-4. What's more is
Cheick Diallo's stature is growing.
Cheick Diallo, Our Savior New American
Photo by Jann Hendry
The youngest of five, the rising junior from
Our Savior New American (Centereach, N.Y.) has only been playing basketball for three years. He was discovered by a coach in his native country, in Bamako, Mali.
"I love playing; I stopped playing soccer to play basketball and I grew up playing soccer, because everyone plays soccer in my country," said Diallo, with some translation help from Our Savior assistant coach Eric Jaklitsch. "I was very good at soccer. In my country, basketball is not important like it is in the America. I wanted to come to [America] to play basketball and get an education."
Diallo is learning about the United States and its physical level of play. He's also absorbed the cultural difference, from food to weather. He saw snow for the first time last year. He's used to snow. And used to physical brand of American basketball.
"I like playing close to the basket," said Diallo, who played for Our Savior toward the end of last year. "I'm using this summer to gain more experience and get me ready for playing for [Our Savior's national] high school schedule."
Diallo was tremendous in the junior game, showing a great amount of energy and strength inside. He's not committed anywhere, but Diallo has certainly kicked off the summer strong helping himself thanks to the Mary Kline Classic.
