The best of the best high school basketball players converge on Coral Gables this week for the McDonald's All-American Game, a nationally televised preview of tomorrow's college and NBA stars.

Back in the days of Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal, this prestigious event signified the unveiling of the young stars, their first foray into the world of pampering and fame.

Not anymore.

By the time these 24 boys and 24 girls get here, they already have been showcased in hundreds of games from coast to coast on the AAU summer basketball circuit, a multimillion-dollar operation bankrolled largely by sneaker companies jockeying to land the next megastar and build brand loyalty. The travel league has replaced high school basketball as the primary road to a college scholarship. The varsity letter has lost its luster. The high school coach has been shoved aside by AAU coach, who often is a hustler disguised as a coach.

Rather than scour high school gyms in search of players, hundreds of college coaches book trips to high-profile summer tournaments in Las Vegas, Indiana, Houston and New York, where they can see dozens of top players at once, chase them around like middle-aged groupies and buy slick scouting guides ranging anywhere from $200 to $1,000.

The biggest tournaments charge entrance fees of $500 to $700 and play host to as many as 600 teams, which often play three or four games in a day.

''It's a meat market,'' said Miami Krop High coach Shakey Rodriguez, who laments the diminished role high school basketball has taken. ``College coaches are seeing 500 kids in one day. They come to my gym and see 12, and there's only one they really want to see. It's less efficient. Kids are committing junior year or right after summer. If a college coach doesn't nail down the commitment in the summer, he may miss out on a kid.''

`THE TRIGGER PERSON'

The players, decked in free gear from head to toe, pack their free logo-emblazoned duffel bags and travel from audition to audition under the direction of their AAU coach, who is part mentor, part coach, part agent.

''When you are recruiting, you need to know who the trigger person is -- the mom, the uncle, the high school coach or the AAU guy -- and, now more than ever, it's the AAU guy,'' said Rodriguez, who used to coach at Miami High and FIU. ``He gets the call from Mike Krzyzewski or Rick Pitino. That's what he wants. The shoe companies have empowered these nonbasketball people, these noncoaches.''

Monsignor Pace coach Mark Lieberman, who is coaching in the McDonald's All-American game, added: ``Some of these kids have too many handlers. When I see a big circle around a kid, that's a red flag. There are a lot of people out there doing it right, but then there are some who are in it for their own egos.''

The summer circuit is a largely unregulated traveling circus. The coaches sell dreams to the impressionable teenagers, help peddle shoes for the sneaker companies, and, in some cases, deliver recruits to colleges for cash, donations, or assistant coaching jobs.

''That happens,'' University of Miami assistant coach Jorge Fernandez said of AAU coaches being hired by colleges. ``But there's no rule against it. It happens in the business world also. It's all about connections. It's just how the world is. All I know is, when you put your head down on that pillow at night, you have to feel comfortable with it. If the NCAA doesn't want it to happen, they have to put a rule down.''

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