News and Events : News 05-06 Press Release

Nike Battlegrounds Star Joins NMH Basketball Team

GILL, Mass.—Standing tall at 6’8 1/2”, Northfield Mount Hermon postgraduate Adam Walker ’06 is a basketball force to be reckoned with. This fall he appeared on the seven-episode MTV2 reality show Nike Battlegrounds, in which he was one of ten young New York City basketball players chosen to play against a hand-picked Chicago team. Walker beat out hundreds of wannabes to earn his spot on the team.

During the two-week shoot, the New York team traveled to Akron, Ohio (hometown of NBA great LeBron James, who hosted the event), where they trained, met with the press, and played an edge-of-the-seat game against Chicago in front of about 20,000 spectators. Walker’s team won by a handful points—and he netted what he calls “the best time of my life.”

Now he’s a member of the NMH varsity basketball team, which will play its first match of the season against Brewster Academy on Nov. 30 (@ Brewster, 5:30 pm). He’ll be competing against his closest childhood friend, Brewster postgraduate Niko Scott, who also played on the New York team in Nike Battlegrounds.

Walker grew up in Queens and attended Christ the King High School, known for its powerhouse basketball players. His grandparents raised him, his brother, and three cousins—all boys—in a two-bedroom apartment. “My father’s deceased and my mother’s another story,” says Walker, who is on a full scholarship to NMH through the school’s Transition-Year Program. He’s applying to several colleges, with Georgetown University topmost in his sights. He’d like to become a lawyer or a politician, but if pro basketball beckons in the meanwhile, he’d be thrilled with the opportunity.

Walker came to the game relatively late, at 14, after a growth spurt shot him up to 6’5”. Before that he’d been into football. “In New York, basketball is a big thing, so if you’re tall, you’ve got to play basketball,” he says. A neighborhood mentor took Walker under his wing and taught him the game. Shooting is Walker’s strong point, but he says, “I’ll do anything that will get a victory.”

For him the high point of Nike Battlegrounds was meeting his favorite NBA player, LeBron James. Another honor: being the cover boy on the show’s poster. Walker felt a bit let down after the show ended. “It was like I was living in a fantasy world, and then when it was all over we came home. Nobody understood how much fun we had, how many stars were there, all the knowledge I picked up. I’ve got stories to tell.”

November 18, 2005
CONTACT: Mary Seymour (413) 498-3247 or mseymour@nmhschool.org

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