Franz Beard’s Basketball Confidential

After leading his team to the championship of the big Reebok tournament in Las Vegas last week, there is very little doubt that the best player in the country for 2009 is Kenny Boynton (6-2, 180, Plantation, FL American Heritage, #3 ESPN Top 100). It seems just a matter of time before ESPN has to re-evaluate it’s Top 100 and when that happens, Boynton should step to the head of the class.

Xavier Henry (6-6, 220, Putnam City, OK, #2 ESPN Top 100) and Derrick Favors (6-9, 220, Atlanta, GA South Atlanta, #1 ESPN) have their supporters among the nation’s services that rank recruits, but the way Boynton has taken Team Breakdown to championships at Chapel Hill and Las Vegas, it’s hard to doubt that he has everything it takes to be the very best. Throw in incredible performances at camps like Reebok U and Boynton has proven everything he needs to prove.

One of the top questions about Boynton coming into the summer was could he blend in with the team. As if last year’s performance in the AAU Nationals wasnt’ enough to dispel the thought that he’s not a team first guy, Boynton has come back with a vengeance this summer. He can get 30 points any time he wants but he’s saved his big scoring efforts for those games when nobody else on Team Breakdown could hit the ocean from the end of the pier.

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Franz Beard
Back in January of 1969, the late, great Jack Hairston, then the sports editor of the Jacksonville Journal, called me on the phone one night and asked me if I wanted to work for him. I said yes. The entire interview took 30 seconds. It's my experience that whenever the interview lasts 30 seconds or less, I get the job. In the 48 years that I've been writing and getting paid for it, I've covered Super Bowls, World Series, NCAA basketball championships, BCS championship games, heavyweight title fights and what seems like thousands of college football, baseball and basketball games. I'm a columnist and special assignments editor for Gator Country once again, writing about the only team that ever mattered to me, the Florida Gators.