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By Mitchell Forde | Photos by Taylor Balkom 

PORTLAND, Ore. — As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Garwey Dual drove down the left side of the lane, scooping the ball toward the backboard.

The gym tensed. 

When Dual’s layup banked in as the officials whistled a foul, the coaches and players on his World Team sideline jumped off the bench, cheering and pumping their fists. Dual’s and-one was worthy of celebration, having broken a 76-76 tie with 11.1 seconds left in overtime. 

The dramatic scene unfolded not during Saturday’s Nike Hoop Summit, when the World Team faced Team USA at the Moda Center in front of a star-studded crowd that included LeBron James. This was two nights earlier, in front of 100 or so credentialed viewers watching from folding chairs in the Trail Blazers Practice Facility in Tualatin.

The team that took the group of international high school all-stars to overtime: a makeshift opponent called the Portland Generals.

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Once a year, Reggie Walker, the director of the Prime Time Sports grassroots organization, assembles the Generals to scrimmage against Team USA and the international team in the days leading up to the Hoop Summit. The tradition started about 10 years ago, when Team USA asked Walker to put together a scout team so that its roster of players from across the country could get reps with one another.

When Walker showed up with a team called the Generals, some media members assumed the nickname was an homage to the Washington Generals, the laughable losers who play every game against the Harlem Globetrotters. Walker went with it, and that’s become an accepted part of the Generals’ story. 

Walker says now that was never his intention. He played at Grant High School in Portland, he explained, nicknamed the Generals. He figured he could score some old practice jerseys from the school, so he adopted Grant’s mascot.

But for the early iterations of the Portland Generals, which consisted largely of Walker’s pickup friends, the tie to the Globetrotters’ perpetually futile opponent was apt. Even now, there are similarities.

The Portland Generals exist as a foil for the teams people show up to see. The deck is stacked against them, as they never practice with one another before their annual week of scrimmages. Several of their players didn’t realize beforehand that Thursday’s contest was being played under FIBA’s international rules, resulting in a handful of eight-second and over-and-back violations.

But that’s where the similarities end. The Portland Generals don’t take the court expecting to lose. And as word about the team has spread, they’ve landed the talent to compete with their all-star opponents.

“We’re not like a gimmick or anything,” Walker said. “We want to win.”

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This year, like most, the Generals’ roster represented a blend of high school and college players. It’s not just local guys anymore, either. Weber State leading scorer Dillon Jones traveled from Utah to be part of the team. Three high school prospects from outside of Oregon or Washington decided to make the trip, including Southern California native Carter Bryant, 247Sports’ No. 11 prospect in the class of 2024.

Walker said the roster has become a mix of players who ask to play on the team and a few he recruits.

“If we just took kids that reached out to us, we could definitely field a team and a really strong one,” he explained, “but we try to pinpoint certain players that we think maybe would do well.”

Players have to pay their way to Portland and find lodging if they stay overnight between the two scrimmages. But the chance to play against elite competition in front of NBA scouts makes it worthwhile.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Bryant said. “To come out here and play against these guys that are top-ranked in their class, guys that played in the G League Ignite, all these teams — this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss.” 

The high-schoolers get to measure themselves against the best players in their class — and in some cases, show they belong on the Hoop Summit roster. There have been a few former Generals who have gone on to earn invitations to play for Team USA, including West Linn point guard Jackson Shelstad, who scored eight points in Saturday’s game. Bryant should have a good chance to follow in Shelstad’s footsteps next season.

“That’s definitely a goal,” Bryant said.

For college players such as Jones, it’s a valuable opportunity for exposure. Jones has declared for the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility. After spending the past three seasons playing in the Big Sky Conference, he wanted to make sure NBA scouts had a chance to see him in person before finalizing his decision about next season.

If scouts didn’t know about Jones before, they do now. Statistics from the scrimmages weren’t available, but the 6-foot-6 wing stood out as a scorer and passer as the Generals went toe to toe with the international stars Thursday and then faced Bronny James and Team USA on Friday.

Ron Holland (No. 11), Bronny James (No. 6), Jackson Shelstad (No. 8), Ja'Kobe Walter (No. 9).

“Coming from a small school, any opportunity is precious,” Jones said. “You’re just grateful for every opportunity like this to get exposure.” 

There’s precedent for Generals players boosting their draft stock in the scrimmages. The name Walker immediately points to as proof is former USC guard Kevin Porter Jr.

In 2018, Porter, then a senior at Seattle’s Rainier Beach High School, took an Amtrak to Portland during his spring break to play for the Generals. In Walker’s words, he was “unequivocally, undebatably the best player on the court.”

Porter spent the next season at USC, starting just four games and averaging a modest 9.5 points per game. It didn’t matter. The following summer, the Milwaukee Bucks picked him in the first round of the NBA Draft. He averaged 19.2 points per game this season for the Houston Rockets.

“He ultimately got himself drafted because of his performance in the Nike Hoop Summit scrimmage,” Walker said. “He kind of just took the game over. Damian Lillard was here watching, and, I mean, yeah, he just put on a show.”

Other Generals simply relish the chance to play basketball in a unique environment. Oregon Ducks center Nate Bittle, who drove the two hours to and from Eugene on Thursday and Friday so that he wouldn’t miss class, said sure, he wanted to demonstrate his skillset for the dozens of NBA personnel on hand. But he also was excited to get a taste of the Hoop Summit. Bittle was named to the Team USA roster for the 2021 event, but the game was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Perhaps the most surprising, and the most well-known, Generals alumnus: former Portland Trail Blazers guard Steve Blake. For a few years after he retired, the 13-year NBA veteran would suit up for the scrimmages.

According to Walker, Blake would not take it easy on his high school opponents. Or his teammates.

“He was retired but still really good,” Walker said. “And Steve Blake is … He was taking it really seriously. He would mean mug his own teammates if they weren’t playing the game the right way in a scrimmage. He was all serious business.” 

While there wasn’t any mean mugging Thursday, the Generals took the floor with plenty of intensity. They wanted to win, and they weren’t afraid to say so.

At one point during the second half, with the Generals trailing by a few points, Jones asked his teammates and coaches — just about all of whom he was meeting for the first time — whether the Generals had ever tasted victory. The answer, as far as anyone on the bench could tell, was no.

“I was like, ‘Well, let’s go win it,’” Jones said.

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“We were all in there like, ‘Bro, we’re down by like five right now,’” Bittle said. “‘We could win this game. Like, come on!’ So, we were all in the huddle telling each other we got this.” 

That’s another bit of Generals lore Walker would like to clear up. Technically, the team has never won a scrimmage. But this year marked the first time the two sides actually kept score through the entire matchups. In the past, the score would reset at the end of each period. And the Generals have won periods. 

In fact, in recent years, it’s been common to see them push the elite rosters like they did Thursday. That might come as a surprise, but it shouldn’t. The list of recent Generals is almost as impressive as the alumni of the actual Hoop Summit. In 2019, the year after Porter’s breakthrough performance, four future NBA first-round picks suited up for the Generals in Paolo Banchero, Tari Eason, MarJon Beauchamp and Jaden McDaniels — not to mention current Gonzaga teammates Anton Watson and Ben Gregg.

This year, with the Hoop Summit adding a girls game for the first time, the Generals fielded a women's roster, as well. They landed several big names on that side, too, including Clackamas guard Jazzy Davidson, the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2025.

Ultimately, the Generals fell short of their goal of winning Thursday’s scrimmage. But they provided an entertaining game. 

After falling behind by double digits in the second period, they battled back and carried a lead to the third and final 10-minute segment thanks to a halfcourt buzzer-beater from Washington Huskies guard Koren Johnson.

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The two sides traded baskets in the final frame, with Jones hitting three three-pointers for the Generals, including one that tied the score at 71-71. When what was supposed to be the final buzzer sounded with the score still knotted, the two coaches decided to play a two-minute overtime. After all, the contest might have featured international rules, but this is America. No ties allowed.

The drama reached a crescendo when, following Dual’s and-one, Johnson drew a foul while attempting a three-pointer with 1.1 seconds on the clock. He made the first free throw but missed the second and third, sealing a 79-77 victory for Team World. One onlooker remarked to the person sitting next to him that the scrimmage would be a tough act for the actual Hoop Summit to follow.

Even though his assembled team didn’t win, Walker said it served its purpose by pushing the international team and giving it reps in late-game situations.

“That’s exactly what this is designed for, is to put them in a situation where now they’re like, ‘OK, yeah, we need the film to be able to go see when we want to foul, or how to teach these guys how to FIBA foul,’” Walker said. “Like, all these intricacies of putting together a group to play as a cohesive unit in a week, this is like a strategic tool to be able to put them in a situation to be able to put their best foot forward on Saturday.” 

The Generals have come a long way from a group of Walker’s pickup buddies. They have their own logo and uniforms now, men’s and women’s rosters and an impressive list of alumni that keeps getting longer. 

The next step could be fans. As the team continues to grow in popularity, Walker is hoping to open at least one of its future scrimmages to the public and sell tickets, potentially as soon as next year. 

Future spectators be warned: The team might share a nickname with the Washington Generals, but the Portland Generals are not afraid to try to steal the show. 

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