The Stars and Stripes basketball team from Luzerne County will be playing in Philadelphia this weekend as part of the ESPN $2,000,000 basketball tournament. Isiah Walker, the former GAR star is the GM and Head Coach of the Stars and Stripes Squad. Former Meyers and Wilkes University guard Dave Jannuzzi is one of the key players on the roster. The event is in it's 4th season, and nine man squads go Mano y Mano with some good prize money at stake.
Said GM and Head Coach Isiah Walker, "Oh man, it's been a long time coming ever since I was playing college basketball, i was coaching basketball right away and i felt the opportunity to play very, very high competitive basketball almost came and gone for me but when the TBT was announced by ESPN I thought it was a great avenue for me as experience and as time has gone by to go back out there and test my skills. Vince Canter is a little over 40 years old, and he is still playing in the NBA. I'm a player, Coach, Trainer, so I feel that i still have the ability to play at a high rate.
"Who are some of the guys on your team?"
"Oh, we have, well everybody knows Dave Januzzi, a local star. Edward Flippen, Chad Marlowe, Justin Escobar, I have Ionce Riggs. Fabian Duvall from Stroudsburg, Chris Tatum from the Philadelphia area. Plus, my guy, AL Clocker who will be hooking me up with two bigs, that's a surprise for all the teams out there scouting us, like we are scouting them.
Jannuzzi, who starred with the Wilkes Colonels echoed Isiah's theme of representing the area on the court with these thoughts: "Yeah,I 'm looking forward to it. Isiah gave me a call a month and a half ago and told me about the opportunity to go down to Philadelphia and go down and compete against really good players, guys that played professionally overseas, some in the NBA. Dave concluded, "I think it's a great opportunity to kind of showcase the kid of talent that we have here, you know, in Luzerne County."