9 California high school basketball players selected for 2025 McDonald's All-American game

Alijah Arenas, son of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, is the first McDonald's All-American selection from the City Section since Renardo Sidney in 2009.
Harvard-Westlake's Nikolas Khamenia is announced with the starting lineup before their game in the Desert Holiday Classic in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024.
Harvard-Westlake's Nikolas Khamenia is announced with the starting lineup before their game in the Desert Holiday Classic in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. / Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

You know what they say: "the West Coast is the best coast."

It could apply to the 2025 McDonald's All-American high school basketball game, which will include nine California high schoolers — six boys and three girls.

On the boys' side:

  • Alijah Arenas of Chatsworth (undecided)
  • Niko Bundalo of Prolific Prep (Washington)
  • Brayden Burries of Eastvale Roosevelt (undecided)
  • Nikolas Khamenia of Harvard-Westlake (Duke)
  • Darryn Peterson of Prolific Prep (Kansas)
  • Tounde Yessoufou of Santa Maria St. Joseph (Baylor)

On girls' side:

  • Addison Deal of Mater Dei (Iowa)
  • Grace Knox of Etiwanda (LSU)
  • Aliyahna 'Puff' Morris of Etiwanda (Cal)

Only 12 players are selected for each coast, so the six California boys make up for half of the McDonald's All-American West roster. The game will be played April 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

In fact, to concentrate the selections even more, six of the nine selections are from Southern California in Arenas, Burries and Khamenia. All three girls are in SoCal, and all play in the CIF Southern Section except one: Alijah Arenas, who plays in the Los Angeles City Section.

Arenas recently reclassified from the class of 2026 to 2025.

High school basketball; Chatsworth High; California; CIF
Chatsworth guard Alijah Arenas is one of the best high school basketball players in the country for the 2025 class. / Greg Jungferman

Arenas' selection is impressive. The status of the City Section has severely dwindled in talent the past 20 years or so with the rise of private school programs. The last City Section player to be selected a McDonald's All-American was Renardo Sidney of Fairfax High in 2009.

There was also Amir Johnson of Westchester High in 2005 and Jordan Farmar of Taft in 2004 — all of which live in City Section basketball lore.

The 2008 class also had a bevy of Southern California natives selected to the prestigious game. Jrue Holiday (Campbell Hall), Malcolm Lee (JW North), DeMar DeRozan (Compton), Brandon Jennings (from Los Angeles, but played for Oak Hill Academy (VA), and Larry Drew II (Taft).

OTHER NOTES

Khamenia joins Trent Perry ('24) and the Collins twins ('97), Jason and Jarron, to be selected to the McDonald's All-American game from Harvard-Westlake...

Etiwanda's Grace Knox and Puff Morris will be players that earn McDonald's All-American status for the second straight season from the program after Kennedy Smith ('24) was selected last year..

Mater Dei's Addison Deal joins Katie Lou Samuelson ('15) and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ('11) as Monarchs to be selected...


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Tarek Fattal, SBLive Sports
TAREK FATTAL

Tarek Fattal has been covering high school sports since 2015 in Southern California and primarily in Los Angeles, covering notable athletes such as Bronny James, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Alyssa Thompson. He was with the LA Daily News for eight years, which included being the beat reporter for the UCLA men's basketball team. Tarek can be seen on TV regularly on CBS/KCAL as a sports analyst with Jim Hill.