When Paul Harris heard he had been left off the McDonald’s All-American roster, composed of the top high school basketball talents across the nation, he took it in stride.

Somehow.

Forget that Harris, who will attend Syracuse next fall as the most highly-touted recruit since Carmelo Anthony, was chosen to play at Saturday’s Nike Hoops Summit in Memphis and the Jordan All-American Classic later this month in New York City, two elite high school all-star games.

Disregard that Harris was voted into the March 29 McDonald’s game by the 32 members of the selection committee, only to be cast off in a veto by Chairman Morgan Wooten.

And while you’re at it, don’t worry about the fact that the 6-foot, 4-inch Harris is ranked the second-best shooting guard in the country by Rivals.com.

To Harris, all this doesn’t mean he deserved to be in the McDonald’s game. He wasn’t pleased, but it was his coaches, friends and family that were truly perturbed. While they may have a case, in fact a very convincing one, Harris has stayed level-headed. This is one small setback he knows isn’t life-changing.

‘I just look at it as like, everything can’t go your way,’ Harris said.

The Niagara Falls native would know.

In 2003, Harris spent 13 days in the Niagara County Jail on drug possession charges. It had been the low point of a downward spiral he had fallen into. Harris ran into a bad crowd of people and was in the ‘wrong spot at the wrong time with the wrong people,’ said Niagara Falls High School assistant coach Sal Constantino, who has known Harris since he was 9 years old and coached Harris for two years at Niagara.

‘One of the downfalls of Paul’s is, the people that he’s grown up with he doesn’t disassociate himself with,’ Constantino said. ‘He’s done a lot better as he’s gotten older, but that was a problem back then.’

For a little less than two weeks, Harris sat in a cell, was ordered when to wake up and couldn’t play basketball when it was all he was itching to do. Not easy for a high school student.

‘It’s hard having to listen to people that, it’s not like they are your mom and dad, but, somewhat they are, you’ve got to listen to them,’ Harris said. ‘I didn’t want that, and I said I’d never go back. I kind of came home to my family, I asked God to give me a second chance, and he came through.’

Turned out a second chance was all he needed. Harris’ time in jail was a setback that, unlike the McDonald’s game, was a true turning point in his life.

‘Basically it made him think for himself,’ said Emma McCall, Harris’ mother. ‘Do you want to hang out with these friends and get in trouble? Or use your own brain and do the right thing for yourself?’

Ever since Harris developed into a dominant player as a young teenager, Constantino had been telling Harris basketball could be a ticket: an opportunity not only to earn a living, but to receive an education as well. Right after his stint in jail, Harris said the idea clicked. Knowing how bad things could become, he didn’t want to head down that road again. Constantino said Harris turned into one of the most-liked kids in the school by students and faculty.

And it wasn’t because of his basketball skills, which were certainly flourishing. It was Harris’ maturation into a respectful, responsible and charismatic young man off the court.

‘Sometimes you see these better players, and you talk to people at their school about them and they’ll tell you how that guy was kind of stuck on himself,’ Constantino said. ‘(Paul’s) a very humble person, to achieve all the things he’s achieved, he’s a very humble person.’

And Paul has achieved a lot. Taking on a leadership role, he and friend and 2007 SU recruit Johnny Flynn, led Niagara Falls to a state championship in 2005. He transferred to Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., for his senior season, and the team was ranked the No. 1 prep school in the nation at the end of this year. Such success hasn’t meandered its way to Harris’ head, he still works hard as ever and maintains the good behavior that had taken him so far.

It still wasn’t enough.

The 74-year-old Wooten, who did not return calls for this story, denied Harris from the McDonald’s game. In an interview with Fox Sports, Wooten first said the reason was that Harris – who spent five years in high school after redoing his freshman year – was ineligible because of his extended stay in high school.

But several other All-Americans were five-year high school players, including J.R. Smith in 2004. When posed with this information, Wooten talked about Harris’ past.

‘They questioned his character, and then they say he was this old,’ Constantino said. ‘When they say, ‘No that’s not true,’ then they say, ‘Well there was a character issue.’ Well, who is lacking character in the situation?’

Constantino was not alone in his anger with how the situation was dealt. Those that coached Harris were disappointed with the news. Others who simply knew Harris, or knew of him, were equally irate.

Clark Francis of HoopScoop.com is on the McDonald’s selection committee and voted for Harris. Francis said everyone on the selection committee voted for Harris, and that if he was eligible on the ballot, then he should have been on the team.

‘He’s done everything right the last few years,’ Francis said. ‘That should count for something; apparently it doesn’t when it comes to McDonald’s. I guess that doesn’t mean anything, I guess you can mess up (only) once in your life, which is too bad.

‘I think he’s a great role model for people; you can mess up and figure it out and get things right. That’s a great story, and again he’s getting penalized when hopefully more people in our society are like him.’

‘If this man (Mr. Wooten) is 74 years old, in his 74 years he’s never made mistakes?’ McCall said. ‘Paul made mistakes, but I feel like it made him a better person.’

Sean Ford, the USA development assistant executive director for men’s programs, lived down the hall of a dorm from Harris in June 2005 when Harris was with a USA youth development team. Ford said Harris was polite and mature, and that a committee of USA coaches, including some that coached Harris on the youth team, thought the same when voting for this year’s Hoops Summit.

‘The biggest statement USA can make is selecting him,’ Ford said. ‘He was a unanimous selection to play on the Hoops Summit team this year.’

Forgive the parade of witness testimony, but this was the mood of many people who interacted with Harris, Constantino said.

‘I got calls from guys on the selection committee, screaming what a travesty it was,’ Constantino said. ‘The whole time (Harris) would say, ‘Sal, I’m OK.”

As Harris mentioned, it was the people who knew him that were more upset than him.

‘God bless him for being his age and being able to handle it,’ Constantino said. ‘It was very difficult for me to bite my tongue.’

Harris decided to deal with the disappointing news by using it as a motivational tool. He still believes he wasn’t good enough to make the McDonald’s game and that ‘maybe it came down between me and another guy.’

Although experts say Harris deserved to be at the game, that’s not how he looks at it.

‘You want to be with the best, and the McDonald’s is the best,’ Harris said. ‘I guess I’m not considered at that top (level). I’m going to try to get better and better and prove it as the years come.’

Proving to everyone he is among the best is just another challenge for Harris. He is not the type of person satisfied seeing himself below his full potential. There is no time when he isn’t pushing himself to improve. Coaches recollect that one of Harris’ habits is a desire to guard the other team’s best player every game. Two instances stuck out in the minds of Constantino and Francis.

At the USA Basketball Youth Development Festival in 2005, Harris demanded to guard O.J. Mayo, the No. 1-rated star of the high school class of 2007. Harris stuck with Mayo, using his strength to his advantage on the perimeter. At the 2006 ABCD camp in Teaneck, N.J., Harris guarded Mayo again, and in some minds, shut him down. But likely the more telling instance took place years before at the 2003 ABCD camp.

Harris was still an afterthought back then. But when current NBA forward Marvin Williams went down with an injury, Harris stepped in. A relative unknown, Harris immediately became the team’s leader. He called Constantino after the game. Constantino recalled Harris’ words:

‘Sal, this big guy was killing us and I said, ‘I got him.’ Sal, I’m checking (guarding) this guy, the guy’s got to be 6-10, 6-11.”

Constantino sought a second opinion, calling a coach he knew at the camp.

‘So I call up one of the guys out there. I said, ‘What happened?” Constantino said. ‘The guy is laughing and he says, ‘You know who your kid went and grabbed? Dwight Howard!’ That’s just Paul, there’s not a challenge he won’t take.’

Howard, the No. 1 pick of the 2004 NBA draft, towered over Harris by more than half a foot. It was another indication of Harris’ toughness.

‘The thing that I like about Paul is that nine out of 10 times he’s the toughest guy on the court,’ Ford said. ‘I remember very vividly how upset he got when he lost and how he always wants to guard the best player on the other team.’

It sums up Harris’ mentality – nothing is unattainable.

For a kid that hates losing – ‘even if it were Tiddlywinks or the NCAA Championship,’ Constantino said – it speaks volumes how he is handling missing out on a spot on the McDonald’s squad. But flashback to trying times in jail for Harris, and suddenly, the one game doesn’t look too bad. Harris said he watched the McDonald’s game and enjoyed it. With a desire to play basketball for a living, this setback isn’t going to hold him down for long.

‘You can’t get everything you want,’ Harris said. ‘That’s how I look at it. I’m not going to be down and depressed, if it happens it happens, it’s over.’

So Harris will move on to play in the other prestigious games he was selected to. On Tuesday he arrived in Memphis to play in the Hoops Summit. Come this fall, Harris will be donning a Syracuse jersey. There is speculation about how long it will take for that jersey to be replaced by a suit and a fat NBA contract, but Constantino said it probably won’t be one year and done.

‘I think he’s going to stay at least one year (in 2007) to play with Johnny (Flynn),’ Constantino said.

His aspirations are still intact and at his doorstep – playing at a big-time basketball school, having an opportunity to win the NCAA Championship and moving on to the NBA.

With all that’s ahead of him – and all that’s behind – the snub from the McDonald’s game will likely soon be forgotten.

Said Ford: ‘Hopefully it’s just a blip on the radar screen.’

Published on April 4, 2006 at 12:00 pm