After surviving the first round of cuts for the United States junior national team earlier this month, Al Jefferson, a 6-foot-9 high school senior, wrote USA Basketball a letter saying he would not be joining the team.

Instead of playing for his country in a prestigious international competition against top-flight opponents, Jefferson chose to play for his Nike-sponsored summer traveling team. Jefferson, one of the top ? if not the top ? high school seniors in the country, will play at Nike's all-American camp in Indianapolis in July and help his Amateur Athletic Union team defend the national championship it won last summer.

So while the junior national team practiced this week under the eyes of top college coaches at the American Airlines Center ? where the Dallas Mavericks practice ? Jefferson was hoping his high school coach in Prentiss, Miss., would unlock the gym, according to Larry Stamps, Jefferson's summer traveling team coach.

"He had made some prior commitments," Stamps said of Jefferson in a telephone interview. "Obviously, he respects USA Basketball a lot. But we all have to make tough decisions sometime in our life."

Basketball's changing culture, and its focus on self-interest, has undermined the junior national team and the Pan American team.