It’s hard to argue against Lincoln Williams having the most memorable holiday tournament not just out of players of the 16 teams at the 75th annual Kankakee Holiday Tournament, but any holiday hooper in the state.

His weekend ended with a bang, scoring a game-high 25 points and repeating as the maroon bracket MVP following Kankakee’s 54-50 championship victory over Lincoln-Way Central, a game in which he became the Kays’ career scoring leader.

It started special too, as Williams was one of the 75 players honored by the tournament as part of the All-75th Anniversary Team. The team was honored with a private reception Friday night before being introduced to a standing room-only crowd ahead of the Kays’ opening game Friday night.

“It felt good,” Williams said. “It’s only my fourth year and I’m a current player, so it felt good being with all the older guys. Being able to spend time with them in the back and talk, it was great.”

Williams was the most recent of 18 Kays named to the team, with another eight Kankakee selections coming from the now-closed Eastridge (five) and Westview (three). A total of 30 schools had at least one player make the team.

Bradley-Bourbonnais had nine selections. Bishop McNamara and St. Anne had four each, while Herscher had three members, and Momence was also represented by Will Campbell, as Kankakee County schools claimed 47 selections.

Three NBA veterans were among those selected – Scott Meents (Herscher), Nate Driggers (Corliss) and three-time NBA All-Star Antoine Walker (Mt. Carmel) while dozens of Big Ten standouts like Bradley-Bourbonnais’ Chris Gandy (Illinois) and Kankakee’s Andy Kilbride (Wisconsin) were recognized.

There was one father-son duo selected – Bishop McNamara standouts David Hoekstra, a 1984 McNamara graduate and his son Michael, a 2013 graduate.

“For me, it’s a full-circle moment,” Michael Hoekstra said. “Growing up, a lot of his friends we’d get introduced to, for some reason it would go back to his accolades in basketball. People would look at my brother and I kind of cheekily and be like, ‘And you’ll be just as good, right?’”

For David, seeing the names that he and his son were next to on the team helped put in perspective some of the old stories he told Michael and his other son, Daniel, over the years.

“Scott Meents, Michael’s heard plenty about him, but he was a nemesis of ours, a great player and great competition,” David Hoekstra said. “We had some great battles.”

Michael Hoekstra was also thrilled to see how much fellow representation he had from the modern era in the past decade and change. Several recent Bradley-Bourbonnais stars like Micah Bradford, LJ Harris and the late Zach Hollywood were honored, and 2015 Kankakee graduate Martavias Laster was praised by fellow selections from multiple schools.

Laster now coaches at Kankakee, serving as a JV assistant and seventh-grade coach, a coach of both Williams and fellow honoree Larenz Walters. He said that he’s relished the opportunity to give back to the school that raised him and is also sure to let them know that during his time, things were a little more intense when the Kays would face crosstown rivals Bishop McNamara and Bradley-Bourbonnais at both the season-opening Olivet Nazarene University Thanksgiving Tournament and the KHT.

“It was that crosstown rivalry,” Laster said. “Kankakee, Mac and Bradley, every time we got together, there was no beef, it was just like, ‘I’m going to go at you.’ The gym would be super-packed. … Back then, when I was playing, the talent level was high."

While several recent stars made the team, there were also plenty of selections that dated back to some of the first tournaments. Former NBA first-round pick and Illinois legend Paul Judson starred in the first two tournaments at Hebron. His Fighting Illini teammate, the late Kankakee legend Harv Schmidt, was a year behind him.

The oldest player with family present was the late Dave Windmiller, a 1958 Kankakee graduate. His sister, retired longtime Kankakee teacher Kathy Sadler, and Kathy’s son, Dave Sadler, were present on Windmiller’s behalf.

They brought an old scrapbook of Windmiller’s Kankakee career with them, complete with Daily Journal press clippings and photos, as well as tournament memorabilia, an artifact that made them quite a popular table at the reception.

“My daughter was looking through the scrapbook last night and said, ‘Do we have any photos of Uncle Dave smiling?’ And I said, ‘Probably not,’ ” Kathy Sadler joked. “He was pretty to himself, but if you could get him talking about his playing days … he would definitely talk about it."

One honoree had the unique distinction of both playing and coaching in the tournament. Joe Lightfoot III, a 2009 Kankakee graduate, brought his family from Michigan, where he coaches at Lawrence Tech, to meet some of his Kankakee family.

“Coming back, seeing Coach (Ronnie Wilcox) and his family, other guys that I played with, other guys that I coached, it’s fun,” Lightfoot III said. “My son didn’t get to see me play, my wife never got to see me play, so just getting back and seeing how far the school has come with athletics and reminiscing with these guys, it’s just a good time.”

When people like Lightfoot III and Jamie Sykes, a 1993 Kankakee graduate, come back home, they do so radiating school pride. And each time they come home, they see the Kays finding more success across the sporting landscape, but especially on the hardwood, where the 10-1 Kays have now won seven of the last KHT maroon titles and look like a top contender for the IHSA Class 3A state crown.

“The school’s grown, the programs are moving along, so it’s awesome to see,” Sykes said. “There’s nothing like that maroon and light blue. There’s truly a certain amount of pride that comes with seeing that color scheme and knowing we came from the Kankakee program.”