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ROCHESTER, NY. I am chillin' in my hotel room icing a bruised thigh I sustained from a collision in the paint resulting from a post move I tried to execute in heavy traffic. On ESPN is a game my roommate and I have been anticipating all day.
The game is St. Benedict's Prep vs. Oak Hill Academy and our players of interest, Samardo Samuels and Tirstan Thompson, both playing with St. Benedict's Prep.
This is the first time I will see Samardo Samuels, the #1 center in America high school play the game of basketball that has been our ticket out of Jamaica.
My roommate, Vidal Messiah, was curious to see Tirstan Thompson play. Tirstan is a high school transfer from Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto where Vidal and myself live. Tirstan was a 16 year old up and coming Canadian talent who transferred states side (Just like Samardo and I did from Jamaica) to experience a better brand of basketball.
As I iced my bruised thigh, and the game progress, watching Samardo run the floor stirred deep memories of when I first came to America to play college basketball. Those days are so far gone now, but tonight they were staring me dead in the face as I thought to myself…. Man, I pray this kid make it to the league.
See, back in 1981, I left Jamaica on a scholarship to Tyler Junior College with hopes of one day being an NBA player competing against the best players in the world.
Originally I was supposed to go to the University of Texas. U of T brought me from Jamaica on a recruiting trip that exposed me to my first live NBA player, George “ The Ice Man” Gervin. The “Ice Man” had stopped by to visit his younger brother Derrick who was also on this recruiting trip. It was an inspiration to meet “Ice”.
Anyway, I committed to Texas but had to change gear because the school was placed on probation, which was something I really had no understanding of back in 1981. Barry Dowd who was the assistant to Abe Lemons, and the coach who came to Jamaica to recruit me, suggested I attend Tyler JC because the coaching staff at the University of Texas had been fired.
This was all very confusing to me back then because I really wanted to go to the University of Texas to play alongside LaSalle Thompson, who was an All-American and my tour guide throughout my recruiting trip. Coach Dowd suggested Tyler JC as leverage and then transferring to a major D1 which turned out to be San Diego State in 1983. So already my lofty dreams of getting to the NCAA and the NBA was taking some bumps and bruises.
But getting back to reality… as I lay here reflecting on my time at Tyler… Samardo is collecting a rebound which he outlets to his PG while Tristan Thompson fills the lane….
How crazy is this though? Why did these memories of ages past enter my mind. I am guessing it’s because Samardo has committed to attend the University of Louisville and play for Rick Pitino.
See, in 1981 my roommate at Tyler JC was a kid from Louisville, Kentucky by the name of Keith Floyd. Keith took me home with him to Louisville one spring break and that’s when I first met Milt Wagner who later played with the Lakers and then in Israel the same year Derrick Gervin and I were also on contract with Israeli teams. Buck Johnson was in Israel that season too playing with Milt, so was my younger brother Andrew.
In 1987 I went through the Houston Rockets rookie and vet camp with Buck Johnson who was Houston’s first round draft choice that year. Hmm....memories, memories!
So here I am in Rochester, NY laying in bed icing my bruised thigh thinking to myself….. watching this young Jamaican kid play ball got me reflecting into corners of my mind I have not been to in a long time…
Thanks though kid, those were fun times and I wish you the best of luck because I did not get that long NBA career I left Jamaica dreaming about, and I hope our path cross so I can teach you the art of Pivotology, because I know it can help you at the next level. Don’t worry though because you are my little homie, and even if our paths don’t cross I will make sure you have my instructional DVDs. And when you get them study them and use the drills over and over. They will take care of your footwork the way they did for Boris.
The stuff that goes through my mind!
Anyway, the game is over and Samardo and Tirstan's team, St. Benedict's Prep, won.
So now its time for me to get some sleep because we have practice in the morning at 6 am.
Peace
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