OT: Best pickup games vs CBB/Pro athlete stories...

[shandeezy7]

Damn, you beat me to it. Mine happened maybe a couple years earlier before they moved to Genesee Hills, we'd play at Barry on the east side.

We played at Barry Park for a little bit after JCC died down. I remember being there one day when Derek Coleman showed up and played some (long after his NBA playing days were over). I didn't play against him, but it was still very cool to see.

 

[OttoMets]

We played at Barry Park for a little bit after JCC died down. I remember being there one day when Derek Coleman showed up and played some (long after his NBA playing days were over). I didn't play against him, but it was still very cool to see.

A number of old SU guys cycled through Barry, not sure if they still do, but it was common to see even active players out there. I remember one time with not enough kids to play pick-up just shooting around (and throwing alley-oops) to Deshaun Williams, who was there by himself. Probably his freshman year.

 

[Tom K.]

I have two stories. At SU my freshman year I was playing pickup and generally getting killed by short guys from Brooklyn. They grew up playing on playgrounds; I grew up playing against other suburban kids in my driveway. A kid about my height of 6 feet on the other team was really lighting it up from the outside. And by the “outside” I mean from the quad, from Manley, from Pittsburgh…. What I’m trying to say was he had what is known as “range.” After a while I realized he was Greg “Kid” Kohls, who ultimately became the greatest shooter in SU history.

GMac? Andy Rautins? Jim Lee?

No.

Anybody who ever saw The Kid knows that #33 was the greatest Orange shooter. End of story. His senior year he averaged somewhere between 25 and 27 ppg WITHOUT the 3 point arc. He would have easily been over 30 ppg had the three point line been in effect.

Fortunately I wasn’t the guy guarding him because who needs that humiliation?

Before that, in high school, my gym teacher was Larry Costello. Larry played in the NBA for years and started his coaching career at my high school. One day he had the class taking free throws. I can still hear him saying “no Richard, get your elbow higher!” Well crap, when you are shooting in front of one of the greatest free throw shooters in NBA history, it makes a guy a tad nervous. I’ll tell you what though; my son was visiting from Oregon last week and this old man beat him at HORSE. Thanks Larry!

Costello went back to the NBA briefly and then coached the Milwaukee Bucks. He eventually took them to the NBA Championship with Oscar Robertson and some guy named Alcindor. Wonder what ever happened to that Alcindor guy?

Interesting, some actual teaching going on in gym class. My gym teacher just rolled out the bball, football, tennis equip, whatever was schedule for that day and have at it.

I blame, and this is honest, most of my shortcomings as a ball player (besides my height) on bad coaching. All of my coaches growing up were basically a parent who drew the short straw. Our practices were 10 minutes of lay up lines following by an hour of 5 on 5 without instruction. But hey, it gave the kids something to do. My HS CYO coach was and is a friend of mine who is only 2 years older than me!

 

[Millhouse]

My story isn't overly interesting, but I remember about a week or two in college at Le Moyne when SU walk-on Ronneil Herron showed up to play a few pickup games. When you watch the walk-ons play junk minutes in games, you don't really formulate a high opinion of their abilities, so you kind of forget that these guys can ball. Ronneil was far and away the best player in the gym. I was shocked.

herron is a hall of fame walkon though. boeheim chose him for meaningful FTs one game. not putting down other walkons

 

[DoctorBombay]

Interesting, some actual teaching going on in gym class. My gym teacher just rolled out the bball, football, tennis equip, whatever was schedule for that day and have at it.

I blame, and this is honest, most of my shortcomings as a ball player (besides my height) on bad coaching. All of my coaches growing up were basically a parent who drew the short straw. Our practices were 10 minutes of lay up lines following by an hour of 5 on 5 without instruction. But hey, it gave the kids something to do. My HS CYO coach was and is a friend of mine who is only 2 years older than me!

Agreed. In HS we had a coach one year that was clearly in over his head- losing record. The very next year, we had a new teacher from Minnesota who’d played organized ball and he taught us the 2-2-1 zone, full court pressure, offensive sets, etc. We lost one game all season, this was in Queens NY btw, and got knocked out in the district semis. Those 2 years w/ Mr Ericsson were night and day, & when he left...we went right back to the losing!

 

[Doc5120]

In highschool, we played Utica Proctor at our place to open the season (basketball). They had Will Smith. Will was built like a brickhouse even at 17/18 years of age. Being that I was 5 inches shorter and probably literally 120 lbs lighter at the time, I wasn't matched up with him.

Our fans were "clever" like all student sections and were yelling things like "Gettin Jiggy With it." There was a stop in play, the chanting was going on, and Will just turns around, points up to the student section and proceeds to dance for 5-10 seconds. He definitely won over our crowd with that one.

Also Utica Proctor related. I remember going to their place, I was a Jr at the time, on varsity and we were watching the JV game before us. And there was this 7th grade kid just KILLING our team. I think he went for just over 30. Granted, our JV team was not very good that season, but I was very impressed with him. It was Josh Wright. If only he could have had 1/4 of that production while at SU.

 

[OrangeDW]

In highschool, we played Utica Proctor at our place to open the season (basketball). They had Will Smith. Will was built like a brickhouse even at 17/18 years of age. Being that I was 5 inches shorter and probably literally 120 lbs lighter at the time, I wasn't matched up with him.

Our fans were "clever" like all student sections and were yelling things like "Gettin Jiggy With it." There was a stop in play, the chanting was going on, and Will just turns around, points up to the student section and proceeds to dance for 5-10 seconds. He definitely won over our crowd with that one.

Also Utica Proctor related. I remember going to their place, I was a Jr at the time, on varsity and we were watching the JV game before us. And there was this 7th grade kid just KILLING our team. I think he went for just over 30. Granted, our JV team was not very good that season, but I was very impressed with him. It was Josh Wright. If only he could have had 1/4 of that production while at SU.

I came in to post that Will Smith was the only “big name” that I could think of that I played against. It was a summer league game. Nothing particularly memorable, just that he was a specimen and seemed like a solid guy.

 

[OburgOrange]

A little OT. Played some hockey against current Detroit Red Wing goalie Jimmy Howard. He’s from our town. Kid was a sieve. Guess things turned out ok for him though. Oh, and he was 12 years old at the time, and we were in our late 30’s. Lol

 

[shandeezy7]

A little OT. Played some hockey against current Detroit Red Wing goalie Jimmy Howard. He’s from our town. Kid was a sieve. Guess things turned out ok for him though. Oh, and he was 12 years old at the time

One of my good friends was his best man in his wedding. He's a good dude. He's got us tickets to see him play more than a few times.

 

[TinyManInside]

where to start?

I've been dunked on by Bernard Blunt, Tchaka Shipp, and Taj Holden (yeah, strange group of players, no?).

When I was at SU I probably played 15-20 or so pickup games head to head against walk-on Ronneil Herron. He was an incredible player, probably the toughest player I ever had to guard in multiple games. He honestly looked like freakin' Isaiah Thomas in pickup games. The way he would dominate the games (I should point out these games weren't with the scholarship players) you'd have thought he was first team All-Big East.

I remember how excited I was for him when he made the team, then going to see multiple practices. He could barely get the ball past halfcourt against the scholarship players. That's when I really started to understand how freakishly athletic, strong, and skilled these guys are.

In 2001 after SU had been eliminated by Kansas in the NCAAs I played in a few pickup games on a Saturday morning at Archibold that Preston Shumpert was in. We were on the same team and he was absolutely positively terrible in the first game. After airballing like 4 consecutive 3 point attempts, he pulled me aside and said "you're gonna have to take over". At first I found hilarious, then I realized he reeked of booze and was either really, really hungover, or still drunk from the night before. We ended up winning a couple games and by the last game he started making shots. I still chuckle every time I think about it.

I played in a few pickup games with Allan Griffin, Ryan Blackwell, Etan Thomas, and Damone Brown --- I was basically just an on-court spectator while they essentially played full court 2-on-2 with 6 other players on the court. Ryan Blackwell is hands down the best pick-up player I've ever seen. He looked like he was on a completely different level than the other 3 scholarship guys on the court. Same thing in practices - he usually looked like the best player on the team, but he could never really turn it up to that level in games.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

I played at PB.

We had a thread one time about Mel Hall. I don't remember if I started it or not, but not growing up around there, I was definitely interested in how good he was in high school. Just seemed like someone who would be the best at no matter what sport he played (kind of a Jim Brown type athlete).

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Not a game that I played in but when I was a kid, I used to hang out at Hoffman Park in Albany where they would have some pretty good games in summer. I ended up helping keep the scorebook and giving out uniforms and stuff like that. One night Ticky Burden showed up. This was right after his first season with the Knicks. Of course word got out so there were quite a few people watching. Charlie Leigh matched up with him on the other team. If you don't know the name, Leigh was a kick returner for the undefeated Dolphins team and a pretty good hoopster as well. This night was a bit windy and Ticky couldn't make a shot but Charlie was dialed in from way downtown and scored something like 30 and his team won easily. Ticky was a legend but never known for his defense and it was the only time I ever saw him play in person.

 

[4evaOrange]

Nothing that involves me but I got to watch Andray Blatche in highscool as he was two years ahead of me maybe or when I was a freshman he was a senior.

In football I played agaisint some good players here and there, I did get the chance to watch from sidelines(I didn’t play much) when we played shading CBA and that was the year they won states with Paulus, Williams, Lobdell, and a bunch of other talented kids. We lost of course but it was like 38-29 I think. Still think that if we beat cba we either would’ve won states or lost in the finals to Ray Rice and new Rochelle.

 

[OrangeDW]

Also, if this post doesn’t bring bjorn back, nothing will.

 

[AlpharettaCuse]

Dorsey Levens & Jason Buchanon at Nottingham. Also played against some kids from Henninger. Big 6-8 kid that ended up at Rutgers I think, along with Marquis something. That's when I realized how far our of my league I was. Played with Darren Morningstar at Pitt once. Pretty good dude. Lazarus Sims at St. Anthony's and at Bishop Ludden.

 

[4evaOrange]

Also, if this post doesn’t bring bjorn back, nothing will.

#InBjornWeTrust

 

[OrangeDW]

Dorsey Levens & Jason Buchanon at Nottingham. Also played against some kids from Henninger. Big 6-8 kid that ended up at Rutgers I think, along with Marquis something. That's when I realized how far our of my league I was. Played with Darren Morningstar at Pitt once. Pretty good dude. Lazarus Sims at St. Anthony's and at Bishop Ludden.

Maurice Brown? Big kid from Henniger that went to Rutgers, I believe. Not sure if he actually played there?

Marquis Walker? Played WR for Michigan.

 

[JDubbin]

I've shared this story in a couple of other threads in the past, but figured it'd be worth it again...

I got to play ball against James Thues and Jeremy McNeil at Archbold once after the basketball season was over. My friend, whose nickname was literally "Big Man" (6'6, 270 or so), was guarding McNeil (who is essentially a physical freak of nature). First play, McNeil gets fed the ball in the post, he does a couple of back down dribbles and goes straight up and 2 hand crams it on my friend like Shaq on Dudley... it was both magnificent and hilarious, we were rolling on the floor.

Bonus story:
Does anyone remember a highly skilled high school hooper from Syracuse with the last name Stackhouse? For some reason, I think he went to Corcoran, but I can't remember (I believe the story was he was highly recruited but never made it due to grade issues or the like). I grew up around Westcott St, so I used to run at Thornden all the time. Was out hooping one day and this Stackhouse dude was running with my team, he was a BALLER. In the midst of the run, two kids on the opposing team were talking smack saying Stackhouse couldn't dunk in game. Next possession, I swing it to him at the top, he crosses over one of the idiots talking to him, drives down the lane and just smashes home a dunk in spectacular fashion... the whole rim, backboard, foundation of the hoop was rocking back and forth seemingly forever. I've never seen this before... but after he dunked it (the game was still going) he called timeout, walked off the court, got in his car and left. One of the best basketball moments I've ever been a part of, job accomplished

 

[OrangeDW]

I've shared this story in a couple of other threads in the past, but figured it'd be worth it again...

I got to play ball against James Thues and Jeremy McNeil at Archbold once after the basketball season was over. My friend, whose nickname was literally "Big Man" (6'6, 270 or so), was guarding McNeil (who is essentially a physical freak of nature). First play, McNeil gets fed the ball in the post, he does a couple of back down dribbles and goes straight up and 2 hand crams it on my friend like Shaq on Dudley... it was both magnificent and hilarious, we were rolling on the floor.

Bonus story:
Does anyone remember a highly skilled high school hooper from Syracuse with the last name Stackhouse? For some reason, I think he went to Corcoran, but I can't remember (I believe the story was he was highly recruited but never made it due to grade issues or the like). I grew up around Westcott St, so I used to run at Thorndon all the time. Was out hooping one day and this Stackhouse dude was running with my team, he was a BALLER. In the midst of the run, two kids on the opposing team were talking smack saying Stackhouse couldn't dunk in game. Next possession, I swing it to him at the top, he crosses over one of the idiots talking to him, drives down the lane and just smashes home a dunk in spectacular fashion... the whole rim, backboard, foundation of the hoop was rocking back and forth seemingly forever. I've never seen this before... but after he dunked it (the game was still going) he called timeout, walked off the court, got in his car and left. One of the best basketball moments I've ever been a part of, job accomplished

Hopefully not this Stackhouse:
Five years ago, Larry Stackhouse went to a CBA game. The 19-year-old's never been seen since

 

[Millhouse]

We had a thread one time about Mel Hall. I don't remember if I started it or not, but not growing up around there, I was definitely interested in how good he was in high school. Just seemed like someone who would be the best at no matter what sport he played (kind of a Jim Brown type athlete).

i didn't know he was from cny and i had forgotten that he's a rapist. he was the one of the better yankees for a while and that was not a good thing

 

[RF2044]

Hopefully not this Stackhouse:
Five years ago, Larry Stackhouse went to a CBA game. The 19-year-old's never been seen since

Jesus...

 

[4evaOrange]

Hopefully not this Stackhouse:
Five years ago, Larry Stackhouse went to a CBA game. The 19-year-old's never been seen since

I don’t think that’s the one I think that Stackhouse he’s thinking of was very early 00s or mid to late 90s

 

[JDubbin]

I don’t think that’s the one I think that Stackhouse he’s thinking of was very early 00s or mid to late 90s

Yeah it would have been around 2000

 

[4evaOrange]

I retract maybe it is.

I seem to rmember a Stackhouse that was older in the “late 90s...

 

[4evaOrange]

Yeah it would have been around 2000

Ooo ok maybe I’m right then.
Crazy stuff though.