The World According to Garf
Howie Garfinkel was the godfather of the modern player scouting.
What did you do on your summer vacation? For roughly the last 40 years, the D. C. area's top high school basketball players have mumbled the same five words: Went to the Five Star. That would be the Five-Star Basketball Camp, originally based in rural New York and Pennsylvania, and the nation's unquestioned proving grounds for future college and pro stars. As Michael Jordan puts it, the Five Star was "the turning point in my life."
Jordan isn't alone in his sentiments. According to Howie Garfinkel, a cofounder of the camp in 1966 and whose name for decades was synonymous with the Five Star, alumni still pop up in his native New York City when he least expects it to offer an enthusiastic two thumbs up. "Yeah, it's crazy," said 81-year-old Garfinkel, who sold his stake in the camp five years ago. "I'm standing on Fifty-fifth Street waiting for a bus two weeks ago, and one of those big tour buses breezes to a halt near me. The driver strides off the bus to help his riders on their way. Well, he sees me standing there and shouts out, "Five Star! I went to your camp." It happens all of the time. I see cops, rabbis, Indian chiefs, you name it. I can't walk down the street without seeing someone that was at Five Star somewhere."
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