Sitting in the Sheraton late on the evening of Aug. 22, after a flight from L.A., the Sidneys displayed signs of their California conversion: Dad wore sunglasses in a dark restaurant, as well as two jewel-encrusted prep state title rings that had recently been won by Renardo and his older brother, who's now at Santa Monica College. Son wore a Bluetooth clip on his right ear, occasionally tapped away at his Sidekick, and spoke happily about "all the pretty girls" he sees in L.A..

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Yet their roots had not entirely departed them; Mississippi remained in their accents, they professed a love for fishing and when they placed dinner orders, they both requested to customize the menu's pasta dish by adding shrimp. The term journeyman, in basketball, is generally reserved for wandering pros, but Sidney's path makes him a new-age hoops traveler: In his brief prep career he's been at a different school each fall and a different AAU team each summer.

Following his debut at ABCD in '05, Sidney enrolled as a freshman at The Piney Woods School in Piney Woods, Miss., but the state ruled him ineligible to play basketball because his family's home, in Jackson, was more than 20 miles from the school's campus. A story in the Washington Post in the summer of '06, after the Sidneys had moved to L.A. and joined the loaded Southern California All-Stars AAU team, speculated that Renardo might be the first American star to skip high-school ball altogether and merely play during the summers.

It was a headline-worthy scenario, but did not turn out to be the case: Sidney joined the team at Lakewood's Artesia High as a sophomore and helped lead it to a Division III state title. The summer of '07 also brought about a change in AAU squads. Renardo began playing for the LA Dream Team, which happens to be coached by Renardo Sr., and spent much of an 0-4 run in the Reebok Summer Championships trying to expand his repertoire by shooting threes -- with limited success -- rather than playing in the paint. Renardo Sr. says the departure from the S.C. All-Stars was simply because, "I wanted him to have his own team. I wanted him to call his own shots, and learn how to make everyone around him better. I'm trying to get him ready for D-I."

The newly formed LA Dream Team is also sponsored by Reebok, for whom Renardo Sr. initially worked as a consultant when he first arrived on the West Coast. California state records show that the LA Dream Team is registered as a non-profit, which means Renardo Sr. could feasibly accept NCAA-legal, charitable donations from college teams interested in his players. Renardo Sr. has also begun offering training services for a number of youth players in L.A., but says he's not interested in coaching at the college level once his son makes the jump.

While Sidney's college destination is still unclear, he already knows where he doesn't want to play: on the blocks. Despite his abilities to be a force in the paint, he says, "I don't really want to just be a center. That would get boring." He admires Kevin Garnett, and raved about meeting the Hornets' Hilton Armstrong recently in L.A., but his favorite pro tapes to watch, he says, are of Magic Johnson. "Magic was out there making plays," Sidney says, "and when he didn't get the ball he went to get it."

No one gathered in New York for the Elite 24 event got to see much of Sidney's game. He suffered an injury early in Thursday's scrimmage at Columbia University and was resigned to sitting on a training table and watching the run with an ice pack on his right knee. One of Sidney's former S.C. All-Stars teammates, UCLA-bound super-recruit Kevin Love, was on hand to observe this year's Elite 24 after playing in the inaugural game in '06. Asked for a scouting report on Sidney, Love said, "He could be a special player. He's ahead of his time."

For Friday night's main event, Sidney was slotted into the starting lineup for the Skip To My Lou squad, which was coached by Jerry Tarkanian, but lasted no more than a few minutes on Rucker Park's asphalt before the injury flared up again. Another Class of 2009 prospect who's lurking near Sidney in the recruiting rankings, Brooklynite Lance Stephenson, ended up as the team's star by scoring 38 points. Sidney strolled through the post-game VIP tent in his warmups, with his Bluetooth clip back on his ear. He was not the tallest person in the room (that was 7-foot-2 Sudanese center John Riek) but cut the most imposing figure, and wasn't pleased with what had transpired on the court. "I should have just listened to my father and sat out, instead of embarrassing myself while I was hurt," he said. "I didn't have my first step. I'm just going to have to get healthy and come back next year."

He and his father were headed back to the West Coast in the morning. Soon Renardo was to start his junior year -- at his third different high school, Fairfax, in Los Angeles. The family had moved again so their prodigy could transfer from Artesia, the Division III state champs, to the school that won the Division I crown.

That, for now, is the biggest pond available.