Despite being one of the most important and decorated players in Apex High's history, Weston Murphy will have to earn a walk-on spot to continue playing basketball.

First team:

Weston Murphy, Apex (SWakeSports' boys basketball player of the year)

Mike Fogg, Apex

Connor Belicic, Apex 

Lindsey Johnson, Cary Christian

Dominique Byrd, Fuquay-Varina

Second team:

LaCurtis Latimore, Holly Springs

Stephen McAllister, Middle Creek

Rahim Jenkins, Athens Drive

Javonte Rankin, Panther Creek

Isaiah Johnson, Panther Creek

Third team:

Anthony Shelton, Cary

Ray Hubbard, Panther Creek 

Cameron Walton, Cary Academy

Jimmy Joyner, Cary Academy

Quintin Underwood, Holly Springs

Honorable mention: Chris Thomas, Cary Christian; Calvin Winfrey, Cary Christian; Hurley Cannady, Athens Drive; Austin Brannen, Cary; Leon Hargrove, Middle Creek; Karim Sako, Panther Creek

It took a few days for the All-GlaxoSmithKline Invitational teams to come out, so at the time of our Jan. 3 Cary News edition, we didn't know exactly how many Apex players were on the squad.

Weston Murphy, with 69 points in three games, was a lock. We learned on Monday that Connor Belicic (pictured left) with 41 GSK points, joined Murphy on the All-Tournament team for the Summitt Hospitality bracket.

Apex finished third in the bracket with wins over Wilson Greenfield and Flora MacDonald and a four-point loss to Word of God.  

I had the pleasure of attending the 2009 Triangle All-Stars Slam Dunk Challege on April 29 along with my good friend (and TCN correspondent) Langdon Morris. Langdon filmed while I sat back, wrote down the scores, and for once got to enjoy watching the likes of Josh Davis, Earnest Ross and Garrius Adams as a fan and not a reporter.

The contest, which also featured Apex's Weston Murphy, Cary's Parker Stephenson and Leesville Road's Harrison George, was an excellent one and you can watch it in its entirety by clicking here (big thanks to Josh Harrell for editing the film yet again).

A learned a few things from this event. 1- Josh Davis is very creative in his dunks. 2- Earnest Ross can throw it down much, much harder than I saw him this year when he always went for the two-hand flush. 3- Parker Stephenson can flat-out leap for a... you know the rest. 4- Harrison George may be able to throw down great dunks, but he did the same one twice in the first two rounds and that cost him. 5- Garrius Adams had been sick all week, Wednesday was his first day back in school, and it was clear he wasn't 100%. 6- Weston Murphy, while still a great player who has matched the likes of Davis and Melvin Tabb rebound-for-rebound and point-for-point during the year, is simply not cut out for a dunk contest. He missed so many, we cut his "dunk" sessions out of the video.

Before you watch, here's how the scoring evened out.

First Round: George 42, Stephenson 40, Adams 41, Murphy 35, Ross 49, Davis 45

Second Round: George 40, Stephenson 47, Adams 49, Murphy 39, Ross 48, Davis 48

Third Round: Stephenson 50, Adams 44, Ross 45, Davis 45

Fourth Round: Stephenson 0, Ross 50, Davis 50

Final Round: Ross defeated Davis 47-42 

I don't have much of a say in who makes the two GSK all-tournament teams
(there's one from each the three brackets; Girls, Holiday Summit Group and Randolph
Foundation Group), but I know those who do. And from all indications, it
appears we'll have four local players on the two teams.