The 1990 McDonald's Capital Classic basketball game was nearly all that was wanted by Washington, D.C., basketball fans - those self-proclaimed critics of high-flying, high-octane, high-wire hoops.
Here's what was happening Tuesday night in the Capital Centre as the District of Columbia's own Capital All-Stars made its annual homestand against an all-comers U.S. All-Star team:- a highly publicized first look at Utah's 7-foot-5 Shawn Bradley, who was listed all week by the D.C. media as 7-6.
- a Classic-best 33-point performance by the Capitals' Michael Smith.
- a Capital turnaround from a 16-point deficit early in the game to a 13-point victory - their second win in a row after a five loss slump.
Final score: Capital All-Stars 116, U.S. All-Stars 103.
Emery County High's Bradley and Bingham High's Kenneth Roberts finished with 12 and 4 points, respectively.
About the only thing that the crowd of 10,314 didn't see was what was billed in the newspaper ads as "See Seven-Six Shawn Stuff Standing." In fact, they didn't see Shawn Stuff at all, except in the pregame warmups - a two-rim circus-like high-wire act between the two teams.
Yes, Shawn was left Standing, as the U.S. All-Stars forsook their intentions of going forcefully and frequently inside to their taller players and using team-defense and rebounding to neutralize the quicker Capital All-Stars.
"Once we got out of our game, it was like a dam breaking and I couldn't stop it," said Judge Memorial High Coach Jim Yerkovich, who coached the U.S. team.
Bradley had been the focus of all pregame coverage from the D.C. newspapers and TV stations. Even the press packet included a 16-page makeshift magazine - entitled "What they're saying about Shawn Bradley" - of photocopied articles from newspapers such as The National and the New York Post and magazines such as People and High School Sports.
But Bradley was essentially kept at least an arm's length away from the hoop, scoring his 12 points primarily on soft jumpers.
The U.S. team started out by embarrassing the hosts - Bradley opened the game with a bookend pair of baseline jumpshots from either side as his team went up 8-0 before the game was even a minute old. Two minutes later, it was 15-2. With seven-plus minutes gone, the U.S. team posted its largest lead at 26-10, and just seconds shy of the midway point in the first half, it was 30-16.
"I thought we were going to lose," said the 6-8 Smith of the Capital team's quick disadvantage. "But we were told to work hard and we'd come back."
True to the promise, the Capital All-Stars answered by outscoring their opponents 29-15 through the next six minutes to knot the score at 45-all.
The Capital team eventually settled into a 61-58 lead at halftime, then widened the margin to six points early in the second half. The U.S. team caught up at 78-all and posted a last-gasp 82-78 lead before falling behind 91-85 in the next few minutes.
A 5-1 mini run by the U.S. brought the score to 92-90, with the visitors looking for a game-tying shot with 7:00 left to play. Both Bradley and Roberts were open on the possession - Bradley under the basket and Roberts on the baseline - and both thought the other was more likely to score, with Roberts rifling a pass to Bradley and catching him in the face with the ball.
"He hit me right on the nose - a 92-mph fastball right in my face," said Bradley.
While Bradley staggered from the blow, the Capitals ran away with the ball and hit a 3-pointer that started a 14-4 spurt and essentially put the game out of reach.
Smith's 33 points topped the previous game-high record shared by Darrell Griffith and J.R. Reid. His final two came after a drive between Roberts and Bradley, followed by a two-fisted jam.