
DATE: Friday, June 27, 1997                 TAG: 9706270863

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   62 lines

MCDONALD'S ALL-AMERICAN GAME COMING TO NORFOLK IT'S CONSIDERED THE PREMIER BASKETBALL ALL-STAR GAME.

It appears Norfolk officials have struck a deal to bring the 21st annual McDonald's All-American High School basketball game to Scope next March.

Kim Durk, a spokeswoman for McDonald's, said a press conference has tentatively been called for 1 p.m. Tuesday in Norfolk. She declined to say what will be announced and referred further questions to the Norfolk city public information office.

Norfolk officials declined comment, including Mayor Paul D. Fraim, who helped fete McDonald's officials when they visited Scope last month. However, sources say Fraim and other city officials met with McDonald's officials Wednesday at Scope to finalize plans.

The McDonald's game, to be broadcast nationally on CBS-TV the weekend of the NCAA men's basketball Final Four, may be the most prestigious event to come to Scope since the 1983 NCAA women's basketball Final Four. The game is expected to attract more than 100 journalists and thousands of out-of-town fans to Hampton Roads.

It will be preceded by a week of events, including slam-dunk and 3-point shooting contests. The game will be played March 28 or 29.

The McDonald's contest generally is considered the most highly sought of high school All-American games and has featured players such as Michael Jordan, Ralph Sampson, Isiah Thomas, Shaquille O'Neal and Grant Hill as well as Virginia Beach's J.R. Reid and Chesapeake's Alonzo Mourning. It has played in such storied locales as UCLA's Pauley Pavilion and the Philadelphia Spectrum.

The game is coming to Norfolk in part because of the expected presence of two local players - Jason Capel, the son of Old Dominion coach Jeff Capel, and Hampton High's Ronald Curry. Capel is a former Indian River star now playing at St. John's at Prospect Hall in Frederick, Md.

Norfolk apparently bested Kansas City and New Orleans for the game in part because McDonald's officials were convinced the local players would guarantee a sellout at the 10,258-seat Scope.

Billy Mann, a sales representative for the Norfolk Convention and Visitors Bureau, led Norfolk's effort. The former ODU and Lake Taylor High star represented the city at the McDonald's game this March in Colorado Springs, Colo., and continued to lobby McDonald's officials with the help of Boo Williams, who runs a widely acclaimed AAU summer basketball program on the Peninsula.

Mann also helped land the Group AAA state football and basketball championship games, which will be played in Norfolk the next two seasons. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

McDONALD'S GAME

What: An all-star game matching the nation's top 22 high school

basketball seniors.

When: It is expected to be played March 28 or 29 at Scope. New

Orleans and Kansas City also bid for the game.

Significance for Hampton Roads: Perhaps the most prestigious

sports event to come to Scope since the 1983 NCAA women's basketball

Final Four. It will be televised nationally by CBS-TV.

Game history: McDonald's selected its first 10-player

All-American team in 1977, including Magic Johnson, and pitted it

against a Virginia-Maryland-Washington team. In 1978, McDonald's

held the first of its 20 consecutive games.