AAU basketball is a huge organization that helps develop young kids into basketball players. Although some people criticized the AAU system, you can’t deny it has seen a lot of success.
Many great players have participated in the AAU circuit, and there have been numerous impressive AAU teams. One of the best AAU basketball teams ever assembled was the 1994 New Jersey Patterson team. This squad featured a roster filled with future NBA stars.
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In 1994, the AAU basketball circuit saw a team with incredible talent on its roster but at the time, people didn’t realize how good some of those players would become. The New Jersey Patterson team had four future NBA players on the team and they were starters, as well. They also had two future Hall of Famers.
The players were Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Rip Hamilton, and Tim Thomas. The team also had Kevin Freeman on the roster, who did not get drafted into the NBA, but he won an NCAA championship with UConn as a starter in 1999 and he played 11 years as a professional overseas.
The team was so dominant that they were not just beating their opponents, but destroying them. Patterson easily went on to win the national AAU championship, something they also achieved in the previous year.
Kobe played as the team’s point guard, which definitely put him in a different role compared to most of his NBA career. But this worked perfectly as Hamilton and Carter took turns at the shooting guard position, giving Kobe many options to pass to.
When asked about the New Jersey Patterson AAU team, Kobe Bryant had high praise for his team, believing no AAU team has ever been better.
“We played in the greatest AAU team of all time,” Kobe said. “We did. We played together. It was. It was the greatest AAU team ever. I mean, we were smashing people by 60, 70 points… Vince was a year ahead of me.
“I remember the height that this guy can elevate off the ground was just unbelievable. And he was the No. 1 shooting guard in that class. And I was coming up behind him.”
Kobe isn’t wrong with his opinion. This squad was certainly loaded with talent. You’d think that either Kobe or Carter would’ve been the best player on the team, but that wasn’t the case. The player who earned the title as the best on the roster was Tim Thomas.
Thomas led the charge and showed everyone that he would be a problem in the NBA when his time came. At the time these future NBA players were playing together, Thomas was the No. 1 ranked prep player. So, it’s no wonder he was the team’s best player.
But the fact Thomas was the No. 1 guy on the New Jersey Patterson AAU team actually served as a motivational factor for Kobe and helped the future Los Angeles Lakers star develop his famous Mamba Mentality.
After the New Jersey Patterson AAU team dominated the competition, Kobe, along with Carter, and Hamilton, left Patterson to play for a Philadelphia AAU team the following year.
Kobe’s “Kill list”
According to Hamilton, Kobe had Thomas on his famous “kill list” as he was ready to prove that he was the best player in the country. Kobe’s Philadelphia team would end up facing Thomas’ New Jersey team in the championship game and Kobe was ready for the challenge.
“‘Hey, man. Rip, tomorrow. They got Tim Thomas as the number-one player in the country,” Kobe told Hamilton. “I should be the No. 1 player in the country. I’m gonna go out there and show the world. ‘Watch this. Wait, wait and see.'”
Not only did Kobe outscore Thomas in the title game, but he led his Philadelphia team to victory, proving to all that he was the best player in the nation. This is a great early story of how Kobe would dominate his opponents, but if you asked Thomas about this story, he’d give you a different answer.
“I got there like a quarter late,” Thomas claimed. “Kobe already had 20 or something like that, 15 or 20. They were already up. So I walk in the gym, like Tom Shepard, you know, no stretch, no nothing. I just walk in the gym and get busy. I think I ended up with like maybe 28, or 30, and Kobe ended up like 40 something. They end up winning the game.”
At this point, Thomas had shifted his focus to baseball, rather than basketball. But did he really show up late and still almost outscore Kobe? That’s up for debate, but Thomas would continue to focus on basketball and get drafted by the New Jersey Nets as the seventh pick of the 1997 NBA Draft.
Thomas would play 13 years in the NBA for seven teams, and was a solid role player. Richard Hamilton went on to play 14 years in the NBA and had a very good career. Hamilton famously played alongside Michael Jordan during his Washington Wizards stint.
Hamilton won an NBA championship in 2004 as a member of the Detroit Pistons, defeating Kobe’s Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. He was also a three-time All-Star.
Vince Carter had a stellar career, one good enough to earn him a spot in the Hall of Fame. Carter is arguably the greatest slam dunker in NBA history and played an incredible 22 years.
Kobe Bryant, of course, would go on to become one of the greatest players the NBA has ever seen. Winning five championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, including a three-peat alongside Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe dominated like few have done before and after him.
Kobe famously dropped 81 points in a game and his Mamba Mentality continues to inspire players, young and old, to this day.
Even though Kobe would lead his Philadelphia AAU team to a championship over Thomas’ New Jersey team when Kobe, Carter, Hamilton, and Thomas all played for the New Jersey Patterson AAU team in 1994, no AAU truly could or would be able to compete with their level of talent.
That truly was the greatest AAU team ever assembled, and it will likely be for a long time.
