Here's where I have to offer a historical correction to yesterdays story and set the record straight with the media and basketball historians. The first two All America camps at Princeton were done under the leadership of Athletes for Better Education (AFBE) and the National Basketball Players Association. The idea for the camp came from AFBE's founders Forrest Harris and the late Arthur "Chick" Sherrer out of Chicago. since 1978 AFBE had been a Chicago based program and expanded to Los Angeles in 1980 & New York/New Jersey in 1981. The "local" camps held in those cities were the precursors to the All America Camp and what would become ABCD.

They were the ones who made the proposal of an All America camp to Sonny, who at that time was a Nike VP & basketball guru (signing colleges to Nike sponsorship & responsible for Michael Jordan coming to Nike) and grass roots originator. Sonny liked the idea and Nike became the camps primary sponsor in 1982.

The All America Camp included eight consecutive days of academics and basketball. The student-athletes went to classes from 8 a.m. till 12 noon.( A total of 32 hours!! More hours then a full summer of a summer school class!) In addition there daily counseling/Guest speaker ( Muhammad Ali, Sen. Bill Bradley, George Steinbrenner, Spike Lee, Wynton Marsallis, etc.) sessions each day at 1 p.m. & basketball drills and games were conducted each day at 2:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Compared to what became ABCD/Nike-then for two summers Converse/ABCD, then adidas/ABCD and finally ABCD/Reebok and it's length being cut to four days of basketball and guest speakers with only one day of academics last summer-2006.

Some more facts are, AFBE lost it's Federal funding (Reagonomics) in 1982 and some missteps in continuing funding and falling out amongst it's administrators led to AFBE's collapse. Sonny & Nike saw the impact those first two camps had within the world of basketball in America and decided to continue the program each summer at Princeton and it became known as ABCD. I suggested that name to Sonny as a compromise when rival proposals from Chicago & New York offered their camp names. The letters originally stood for Academics, Basketball & Career Development. Chris Wallace, then the founder, editor of Blue Ribbon Basketball magazine (now assistant GM with NBA Celtics) somehow persuaded Sonny to change Basketball to Betterment. I'm still shaking my head over that one! The ABCD/Nike camp moved to Indiana in I believe 1991 and Nike has kept int there. Sonny parted ways with Nike and being the visionary he's always been, he had registered the name ABCD and in 1992 held the camp in California and Michigan in 1993, (The Converse years) before moving ABCD back to New Jersey in 1994 where it was sponsored by Adidas though 2003. Another move within the turbulent world of the "sneaker world" (I'm old school New York-they'll always be sneakers!) for Sonny resulted in a three year run with Reebok.

If anyone wanted to know the secret to Sonny's success, you have to look beyond his wisdom & ability to anticipate the shifts within the hoops world. If there are warmer, more caring people then Sonny & his great wife Pam I haven't met them yet. Their genuine concern for every student who has come through ABCD and their personal warmth that embraced player parents/families at ABCD and at his Roundball Classic was the secret weapon that always seemed to have Sonny come out on top. I know that Sonny has many critics within the media who questioned his motives and moves within the world of high school and college hoops. I also know from experience that many media folks (both print and TV-) came to ABCD with their own agenda. From a 60 minutes piece that mentioned not one sentence about the academic classes at ABCD, after raving about the classes they visited and filmed for an entire morning, I'm still waiting of Leslie Stahl to answer my letter!) to the annual stories from reporters that claimed Sonny was steering students to colleges affiliated with whatever shoe company he was with. Anyone that took the time to look where players signed would see it was a fallacy. All you have to know is that after one major negative story about Sonny that was more innuendo then fact, Sonny was quoted as saying "if you can find one kid who I've ever hurt in anyway, I'll walk away from this business now." Well, that writer can wait until hell freezes over, because no one ever stepped forward.

What will the future hold for Sonny? I'm not sure, but I can assure you he'll continue to be about making a positive difference for young people in the world of basketball and beyond. If there is a camp this summer at FDU, I'm sure the talent will be great, but it will never be the same. Sonny and Pam you will be missed-God bless!'