As we can all relate to, this is an unbelievable moment in history that we are living through. It is not possible to have workouts with players or to have safe interaction with just about anyone else at this time. But we can communicate en masse through a medium like this and share thoughts, ideas, and stories that bind us all together in the basketball world. Basketball has been a huge part of my life since the day I enrolled in a brand new high school called East Phoenix in 1964. There I encountered a young, tough, and demanding coach named Royce Youree. None of his knew him or knew of his exploits at Arizona State University, just down the road. But he would become a big part of our lives and, in my case, continue to be a coach, colleague, friend, and mentor to this day. So let's share first how the game gripped us enough to want be part of it forever. I hope to be able to read your stories, and you mine, as let's face it, we don't have much else going for us right now. So I'll start...
I grew up in a much smaller Phoenix. Until individual household air conditioning systems were mass produced, that's all Phoenix would ever be- small. After that happened, Phoenix has mushroomed to the mega metropolis that we know today. My first sport of passion was baseball. My mother was an elite professional softball player who played first base for the A-1 Queens, who in their heyday, was one of the best softball teams in the world. Along with the PBSW Ramblers, Phoenix had become a hub of women's softball in the 40's and 50's. My mother had been approached by the people who put together the women's baseball league that is featured in the movie "A League of Their Own", but had turned them down. Her logic was that she was at the top of her game as a professional- why would she sacrifice that for what she felt was a circus act. So by age five, I was a bat boy for the Queens and loved everything about a ball, a glove, and a bat.
We lived right next to Papago Elementary School and there was an outdoor concrete basketball court at one end of the property. It had chain nets. I never had much interest in it until about sixth grade. There was no club ball in those years and Papago only had a seventh grade team and an eighth grade team. Around my sixth grade year, I began to watch some NBA broadcasts on one of the three available TV channels- ABC. They would show one game a week, on Sunday, and it usually included the Boston Celtics, who won most of the titles in a league that we knew little about. The Celtics had an extraordinary big man named Bill Russell. The other team that would get a lot of airplay was the Philadelphia 76'ers. They had another extraordinary big man named Wilt Chamberlain. Every now and then on a Sunday, we would come home from church to find that the Celtics were playing against the 76'ers, so we got to see both big men at once. I really enjoyed those games and as my interest grew, I was able to get a basketball and go to that concrete court right after watching a game and start to learn how to play solely based on what I saw on TV. I had no coach nor received any instruction early on. Sometimes, there would be some grown ups at the court, and if they needed an extra body, they would let me play. The only thing I was really allowed to do in those games was rebound, so I got pretty good at it.
My seventh grade year, I tried out for the school team. The tryouts were after school on the concrete court with the chain nets, and I don't really know how I made the team other than most of the boys were sort of like me in terms of prior coaching. We didn't have any. But I was clearly not very good- wasn't a starter and didn't have any prospects of getting any better, as we only practiced twice before our first game. Now, in those days, the basketball "season" consisted of a tournament among the various schools in the Creighton Elementary School District. If you won, you advanced, but if you lost your "season" was over. Our first game was against Squaw Peak Elementary School. We lost and the coach didn't put me in. That was my seventh grade "season" in a nutshell. I went back to shooting around on Sundays or getting picked in those occasional adult games where I was only allowed to rebound.
The eighth grade year, I tried out again and once again made the team. Last year's seventh grade coach had been elevated to the eighth grade coach, so he knew me. That can be a good thing, but can also be a bad thing. As luck would have it, we drew Squaw Peak again for our opener, and once again, we were defeated. This time, however, I was inserted into the game midway through the first half. I got a rebound right away (I was good at that), but then dribbled the length of the floor to roughly the top of the key and shot the ball. I was lifted immediately and did not return to the floor. So my eighth grade "season" was over. In two "seasons" I had played approximately twenty seconds. Who would have thought at that time basketball would play such an important role in my life. Certainly not me.
Next up- East High and a legend. Share your early beginnings if you wish, or any other thoughts about the game. I am eager to read your stories.
I grew up in a much smaller Phoenix. Until individual household air conditioning systems were mass produced, that's all Phoenix would ever be- small. After that happened, Phoenix has mushroomed to the mega metropolis that we know today. My first sport of passion was baseball. My mother was an elite professional softball player who played first base for the A-1 Queens, who in their heyday, was one of the best softball teams in the world. Along with the PBSW Ramblers, Phoenix had become a hub of women's softball in the 40's and 50's. My mother had been approached by the people who put together the women's baseball league that is featured in the movie "A League of Their Own", but had turned them down. Her logic was that she was at the top of her game as a professional- why would she sacrifice that for what she felt was a circus act. So by age five, I was a bat boy for the Queens and loved everything about a ball, a glove, and a bat.
We lived right next to Papago Elementary School and there was an outdoor concrete basketball court at one end of the property. It had chain nets. I never had much interest in it until about sixth grade. There was no club ball in those years and Papago only had a seventh grade team and an eighth grade team. Around my sixth grade year, I began to watch some NBA broadcasts on one of the three available TV channels- ABC. They would show one game a week, on Sunday, and it usually included the Boston Celtics, who won most of the titles in a league that we knew little about. The Celtics had an extraordinary big man named Bill Russell. The other team that would get a lot of airplay was the Philadelphia 76'ers. They had another extraordinary big man named Wilt Chamberlain. Every now and then on a Sunday, we would come home from church to find that the Celtics were playing against the 76'ers, so we got to see both big men at once. I really enjoyed those games and as my interest grew, I was able to get a basketball and go to that concrete court right after watching a game and start to learn how to play solely based on what I saw on TV. I had no coach nor received any instruction early on. Sometimes, there would be some grown ups at the court, and if they needed an extra body, they would let me play. The only thing I was really allowed to do in those games was rebound, so I got pretty good at it.
My seventh grade year, I tried out for the school team. The tryouts were after school on the concrete court with the chain nets, and I don't really know how I made the team other than most of the boys were sort of like me in terms of prior coaching. We didn't have any. But I was clearly not very good- wasn't a starter and didn't have any prospects of getting any better, as we only practiced twice before our first game. Now, in those days, the basketball "season" consisted of a tournament among the various schools in the Creighton Elementary School District. If you won, you advanced, but if you lost your "season" was over. Our first game was against Squaw Peak Elementary School. We lost and the coach didn't put me in. That was my seventh grade "season" in a nutshell. I went back to shooting around on Sundays or getting picked in those occasional adult games where I was only allowed to rebound.
The eighth grade year, I tried out again and once again made the team. Last year's seventh grade coach had been elevated to the eighth grade coach, so he knew me. That can be a good thing, but can also be a bad thing. As luck would have it, we drew Squaw Peak again for our opener, and once again, we were defeated. This time, however, I was inserted into the game midway through the first half. I got a rebound right away (I was good at that), but then dribbled the length of the floor to roughly the top of the key and shot the ball. I was lifted immediately and did not return to the floor. So my eighth grade "season" was over. In two "seasons" I had played approximately twenty seconds. Who would have thought at that time basketball would play such an important role in my life. Certainly not me.
Next up- East High and a legend. Share your early beginnings if you wish, or any other thoughts about the game. I am eager to read your stories.
