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The history of basketball is deeply embedded in New York state, from the Catskill Mountains to Niagara Falls to the asphalt playgrounds in the city's five boroughs. With nearly 20 million inhabitants, the talent pools are deep.

That is particularly true in New York City. The five boroughs -- Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island -- historically are responsible for a bulk of the players. The "golden age of high school" in New York City was the late 1950s to the early 1970s, said noted high school basketball analyst Tom Konchalski.

"You had great players in both the public and Catholic leagues," said Konchalski, who began following the game in the 1950s as a teenager in Queens. "Basketball is a true Eastern game. It thrived in the big cities like New York where there were courts outside of each [apartment] project and in all the playgrounds."

College coaches covet New York players for their tremendous work ethic; they are known for always looking to better their games.

The game planted its roots in neighborhoods such as Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Coney Island, Ozone Park, Parkchester and Flushing; and in the gymnasiums of public schools, Jewish community centers, YMCAs and CYO halls beginning in the 1930s.

A watershed moment for New York came at the expense of a loss to an all-male Catholic school in Maryland. It might have changed high school basketball forever.

Entering the 1964-65 season, Power Memorial, a Christian Brothers school from Manhattan, boasted promising senior center Lew Alcindor. A year earlier, Power had won the first of two meetings, but on Jan. 30, 1965, DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) prevailed 46-43 before more than 13,000 people at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House.

"That game turned the high school game into a national game," Konchalski said. "Teams rarely traveled out of the five boroughs for games, but this showed the high school game has appeal."

Further lifting the game was New Yorker Howard Garfinkel, who founded the Five Star Camp. No other camp had a bigger impact on the game, giving exposure to players and coaches, especially those from New York. Five Star laid the foundation for later camps such as ABCD and Nike Skills Academy.

Long Island's signature player, Julius "Dr. J" Erving became an airborne icon before Michael Jordan (who was born in Brooklyn but raised in Wilmington, N.C.) threw down his first dunk.

Western New York, including Rochester and Buffalo, has produced several top players, but Bob Lanier is the lone member of the Naismith Hall of Fame from the region. Lanier, who attended Bennett High in Buffalo, was a three-time All-American at St. Bonaventure and the first pick of the 1970 NBA draft, by the Detroit Pistons.

"There's a lot of state pride upstate," Mount Vernon coach Bob Cimino said. "All throughout the state, there's a keen sense of the game that goes for small towns and the suburbs."

In 1988, Christian Laettner (Nichols School in Buffalo) dominated the hardwood before heading off to Duke, where he won two national championships with the Blue Devils, playing on the Dream Team in the '92 Barcelona Games and enjoying a long NBA career.

John Wallace of Greece Athena High (suburban Rochester) played in the NBA after helping Syracuse reach the Final Four in 1996.

"Once you get north of the city; there's not much talent," said Elmer Anderson, an assistant with Boys and Girls High in Brooklyn who played professionally in Europe. "Everyone I met over the years, no matter where they're from, recognize New York City is the cream of the crop; the best place for basketball. There's great talent and players all over these days, but New York seems to produce the most."

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Julius Irving is just one of the legends who played honed his skills on New York's high school basketball courts.

Anderson should know about prep talent.

In 1983, he played in the backcourt with legendary Dwayne "Pearl" Washington, and the two combined to score nearly 70 points per game as they led Boys and Girls to the Public Schools Athletic League city and New York State Federation titles. Washington went on to to star at Syracuse and had an injury-riddled NBA career; Anderson starred at St. Bonaventure.

Legends: New York state is a who's who for basketball. Nearly 30 players, coaches and players from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame hail from New York. The best of the best includes: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lenny Wilkens, Billy Cunningham, Connie Hawkins, Julius Erving, Bob Wanzer, Bob Lanier, Dolph Schayes, Chuck Hyatt, Bob Cousy and Red Holzman.

Other notables are: Kenny Anderson, Ben Gordon, Dean Meminger, Mike Dunleavy, Walter Berry, Rod Strickland, Chris Mullin, Sam Perkins, Pearl Washington, Tom and Sam Stith, Fred Crawford, Malik Sealy, Vern Fleming, Ron Artest, Brian Winters, Gus Williams, Felipe Lopez, Stephon Marbury, Sebastian Telfair, Julius Hodge and Elton Brand.

Leaders: Coaching plays a huge role. Hall of Famers Larry Brown, Red Holzman, Red Auerbach, Honey Russell, Al McGuire, Frank McGuire. Legends like Joe Lapchick, Nat Holman and Lou Carnesecca cut their teeth on the grassroots level.

The all-time prep leader is Jack Curran, who is in his 51st year at Archbishop Molloy in Briarwood, Queens. Curran has more than 900 wins and a record five City Catholic titles.

Teams: Traditionally, the balance of power resides in New York City, but many feel the best program resides just north of the Bronx. Mount Vernon has won 25 sectional and eight state championships since 1966. Twelve players from the school have reached the NBA, including Ben Gordon, who plays for the Chicago Bulls.

The combination of community support and thirsty youngsters fueled the Knights.

"There are a lot of concerned people that give of themselves to the program," Mount Vernon coach Bob Cimino said. "The kids realize it and respect the program.

"From the time boys are in the fourth or fifth grade, they want to be a Knight; we're like a family here."

The state's other top programs include Christ the King, St. Raymond, Rice, Molloy, Lincoln (Brooklyn), Boys and Girls, Jefferson, Jamesville-Dewitt and Niagara Falls.

Rising stars: The five top seniors are: Lance Stephenson of Lincoln (Brooklyn), Durand Scott of Rice (Manhattan), Brandon Triche of Jamesville-Dewitt, Sherrod Wright of Mount Vernon and Dane Miller of Rush-Henrietta. The top junior is Tobias Harris of Long Island Lutheran.

Christopher Lawlor has covered high school sports for more than 20 years, most recently with USA Today, where he was the head preps writer responsible for national high school rankings in football, baseball, and boys' and girls' basketball. He also has worked for Scholastic Coach magazine, where he ran the Gatorade national player of the year program for nine years. Lawlor, a New Jersey resident, grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University.