For some, basketball is just a fun sport to play. But for others, it’s a ticket to a better future. 

Several Michigan high school athletes have already signed up to play college basketball next year. But before that time comes, a few of them will get the chance to play against each other. 

Dreamz Two Reality, an independent recruiting platform for student athletes in Michigan, will host its first All-American basketball game at 4 p.m. this Saturday, May 4, at Detroit Catholic Central High School in Novi. Dreamz Two Reality owner and founder Roy Jackson joined The Metro on Thursday to discuss the game and what it could mean for the students.

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Jackson says he played basketball professionally overseas for seven years and is thinking about the next generation of hoopers. 

“I always want to give back to the kids because I know how hard it is nowadays,” Jackson said. “And I got a lot of kids hitting me up all over the Midwest. And I’m just like, let me just create a platform that had been missing for a while, that would give kids the opportunity to display their talent.”

For players, Jackson says, it can be hard to get the attention of basketball programs.

“Michigan, we got talent, and I feel like it needs to be displayed,” he said. “We got 14 Division One Signees that didn’t make it to the Jordan Brand [Classic] or the McDonald’s All American, but they still are all Americans. And I’m like, I’m from Michigan, so let me bring this platform here. Two, three, four years from now you never know how big you might get.” 

Use the media player above to hear the full interview with Dreamz Two Reality Basketball owner and founder Roy Jackson.

More headlines from The Metro on May 2, 2024: 

• If you’re not a fan of trillions of flying bugs, you’ll probably want to avoid parts of Michigan this year. A wave of cicadas are expected to emerge this spring across Illinois, Missouri and southern parts of Michigan. To teach us more about the emerging cicada broods, we were joined by Hannah Burrack, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University. 
• A new version of the popular board game Settlers of Catan, “Catan: New Energies,” introduces energy production and pollution into the gameplay. NPR’s Nate Rott spoke with journalist Emily Kwong about the new board game, which hits shelves this summer.
• This Saturday at Hamtramck’s Book Suey, urban planner and commentator Idrees Mutahr will be giving a talk on how the Detroit economy influenced the thinking and writing of celebrated journalist and urbanist Jane Jacobs. Mutahr joined the show to talk about the event.
• Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently announced a new initiative aimed at training 5,000 new infrastructure workers by 2030, using a portion of federal funding coming to the state. To help us understand the goals of the new initiative, Brookings Metro Fellow Joe Kane joined the show.
• From 2008 to 2015, Michigan had tax incentives for commercials, television, and movie production. Major studio pictures like the Transformers films and “Batman v Superman” were shot here. But Republicans – with the help of then-governor Rick Snyder – stopped providing the incentives, citing a lack of return on the investment. Now, with Democrats in control in Lansing, the Michigan Film Industry Association (MFIA) hopes to revive the tax credits. Bill Latka, board member on the MFIA’s legislative action committee, spoke with WDET’s Russ McNamara about those efforts.

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