Part of it breh is that winning city/state titles dont me shyt anymore, the HS coaching pool is weak as fukk/relying too much on raw talent, the rest of the country caught up like 20 years ago while NY coasted on reputation alone AND theres no specific powerhouse program thats on the map nationally. Even tho the public schools and Catholic schools held their own lane, there was STILL a pecking order and the Catholic schools were running it. The early-mid 90s were the peak of it IMO, even tho no real NBA talent came out of it. The Archdiocese of NY, in the early 2000s, like many Catholic churches in other states were busy paying sex abuse settlements and could care less about bbcall because they were doing damage control. Then, enrollment at private schools went down as the economy tanked and parents werent willing to pay $300-400 a month just for their kids to get the kind of average grades they could get in a public school.
The Archdiocese is so cash strapped that its not bailing out these financially mismanaged schools and many of them closed and sold their properties or let charter schools set up shop in there. The money just isnt there anymore and the corporate sponsors that used to have a huge presence back then (Nike, Gatorade) have taken their business else where and would rather throw cash at a summer camp/tournament where they can keep a tight (invisible) leash on their next "LeBron."
Also, I just think that NYC bball doesnt have the talent anymore. Kids still hoop but youre not seeing elite shyt. Cats dont have complete arsenals these days but swear that they have enough in them to do a decent mixtape video on youtube. shyt is wack because bball here couldve been like football is in some of these southern states. It just wont happen. Kids have mad shyt at their disposal here on the good and bad spectrums but sadly the bad stuff is whats slowing them down.