ĂŰŃż´ŤĂ˝

“I have a picture somewhere of me and Garnett and Paul Pierce going up in the Arch together — and the Arch had those little eggs, little pods,” recalled ĂŰŃż´ŤĂ˝an Ryan Robertson, a local hoops legend who played in the 1995 McDonald’s High School All-American Game. “So I was stuck in there with, you know, two Hall of Famers. And Garnett was scrunched up like a rag doll.”

Thirty years ago this week, the famed All-American Game was played at Enterprise Center (then called Kiel Center). That game, that gathering, serves as a touchpoint in the sport’s history. In some ways, the ĂŰŃż´ŤĂ˝ game helped change the game. If anything, it’s a time capsule of historic basketball “befores.” Shortly after his MVP performance, Garnett would be the first high-schooler to go straight to the NBA since 1975 (he was the fifth pick in the draft). In total, there were four future Hall of Fame players (Garnett, Pierce, Chauncey Billups and Vince Carter) and seven NBA All-Stars (Stephon Marbury, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Antawn Jamison).

Two other players (Ron Mercer and Wayne Turner) won college national titles at Kentucky.

And the St. Charles West graduate Robertson was fresh off a state title against Vashon. That week and weekend, the stars came to his town. The 6-foot-5 guard roomed with Pierce, who would be his teammate at Kansas. At KU, Robertson played four years, averaging 12.8 points and 4.0 rebounds as a senior. And his first two years, along with the Celtics legend Pierce, was on, arguably, the greatest team to never make a Final Four.

As for the ’95 McDonald’s Game, “I think, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t prepared for the level,” said Robertson, 48, who works in the financial services industry. “I mean, I had played at the highest levels of AAU, but when you pull the best 24 people in the country at that age together, the level was just so high — and I wasn’t quite mentally and physically prepared for Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury and Vince Carter. Like, that was a different level of athleticism and skill that I hadn’t seen. It also really, really woke me up and prepared me for where I needed to go and what I needed to do. So although that week was very eye-opening and I was behind the curve, relative to them, it did prepare me for my freshman year of college, and then even later on in some of the other games I played.”

The ’95 game also featured notable names from hoops history. Locally, there was Albert White, who transferred to Mizzou from Michigan — in 1998-99, White averaged 16.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists for the Tigers. Another Michigan signee was Robert “Tractor” Traylor, who in high school was already 6-feet-7 and 270 pounds. And there was a fellow named Shammgod Wells, a New York City point guard straight out of the famed 145th Street playground where Kenny Anderson and Pearl Washington previously played. In college at Providence, he began going by his unusual birth name — God Shammgod. While he only played briefly in the NBA, “the Shammgod” lives on — it’s a tricky crossover dribble made famous by the former McDonald’s All-American.

That week in ĂŰŃż´ŤĂ˝, Garnett was, as his nickname states, “The Big Ticket.” A total of 16,201 fans came to the McDonald’s Game — a record at the time for the game, in its 18th year. Leading up to the game, Garnett was in flux. Garnett didn’t made his official decision until after the game.

“I was going through a bunch of (stuff),” Garnett said recently on his KG Certified podcast, along with his close friend Pierce. “I was in the middle of trying to pass the (standardized) test, figure out a school. Lot of guys already made a decision. … (In ĂŰŃż´ŤĂ˝) we were all sitting there one night and guys are going, ‘You’re going to the league?’ ‘Daaaaaamn!’ ‘I didn’t know you could do that!’ There was Sham, Pierce, Chauncey, Vince. I remember that (stuff), man. It was dope, because it was all our peers, bro, Class of 95.”

But during practice that week, Garnett actually faced some adversity.

“Ticket was getting killed by Shareef,” Pierce said on the podcast.

“Reef was saying: ‘How are you (ranked) No. 1’ …” Garnett said. “They kicked our (backside) so bad, we were like — we can’t come out looking like that. They were talking and they kind of went off (on us). I’ll never forget that — no way I get on TV looking like that.”

And so, Garnett rose to the moment. On a nationally televised CBS game, Garnett won the MVP as his West team defeated the East, 126-115. He unleashed a soaring dunk through the middle of the lane. He splashed his only 3-point attempt. He dribbled the ball up court as if he were a foot shorter.

Pierce actually led all scorers with 28 points and did so in someone else’s jersey. Before the game, his uniform was stolen, along with two others. So he wore a different jersey, previously autographed by all the players in the game.

But Garnett won the MVP with 18 points, 11 boards, four assists and three blocks. After the game, the legendary coach John Wooden presented Garnett his hardware.

“I still tell people to this day — he’s the most talented, freakish player I’d ever been around,” said Robertson, who played 21 minutes in the game, providing one point with one rebound. “Like, I didn’t know that existed. He was 7-1, could shoot it, pass it, athletic, intense, And so it was really amazing to kind of share the court with him.”