Viral photo depicting entire ‘AAU team’-turned-pro is fake news, but here’s the real story behind the squad in it

Ever heard the one about the entire AAU team that made it to the NBA? Of course you haven’t, because this isn’t the beginning of some corny joke.

An imagepopped up online recently of an AAU basketball team in which every member of this team has gone on to play in the NBA. While the Photoshop job performed there to get them all in their current NBA unis is impressive, the context is not quite right.

Now here’s the real deal.

That picture, taken in 2015, is of Nike’s EYBL Elite Select Team. Nike selected five of the top players from the graduating class of 2016 and seven from the 2017 class. The group came together for a weekend tournament in the Bahamas back in August of 2015.

So, the original story behind this picture was not entirely accurate. These players did not play on the “same AAU team.” The real story behind the photo is they were brought together as an All-Star squad, of sorts. It all started on the a Bahamian beach six years ago… Keep reading for the stories behind their diverging career paths that eventually brought them all back together in “The League.”