photo: celticsbeagle.net
The fall of the Boston Celtics empire was not due to, though it did coincide, with Larry Bird’s back problems in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The definitive blows were delivered in the forms of the untimely passing of the franchise’s future torchbearers - Len Bias in ‘85 and Reggie Lewis in ‘93.
Reggie Lewis, known as “Truck” to his family and friends in his hometown of Baltimore, was on the cusp of stardom when he succumbed to a heart condition. At the moment of his death, he was doing what he loved - playing ball.
photo: nba.com
Reggie did not grow up consumed by hoops. He loved baseball and football. With his long arms, he was a force on the pitching mound. As a sandlot quarterback, he was known to zip spirals the length of a full city block.
When he was fourteen, standing 6-foot-4, Reggie was coaxed to the playground by his sister’s boyfriend and an older brother. To avoid the sweltering heat, he would hit the lighted Collington Square outdoor courts in East Baltimore at midnight, working on his passing, dribbling and boxing out. He immersed himself in the game, travelling throughout the city for a run. Along with his cousins, the twins Terry and Perry Dozier who would later play at the University of South Carolina together, Reggie gained confidence from his playground success.
Truck honed his game at two legendary B-more institutions, the Cecil-Kirk Rec program under Anthony “Doody” Lewis and the famed Dunbar High School under the gaze of coach Bob Wade. Coming off the bench for Wade’s powerhouse team, he made enough noise to catch the eye of Northeastern University’s coach, Jim Calhoun (the current UCONN coach).
At Northeastern, Truck began to come out of the shadows of his more heralded high school teammates David Wingate, Reggie Williams and Muggsy Bogues by destroying the college comp.
By his second year as a Celtic, when Bird missed a great deal of time with injuries, Lewis was averaging 19 points per game. In the ‘92 playoffs, he was hotter than fish grease with 28 ppg!!!
photo: Getty Images
In ‘93 he was named team captain, joining the elite fraternity with the likes of Cousy, Bill Russell, Havliceck and Bird. In his last game, against the Charlotte Hornets and his Baltimore homeboys Bogues and Wingate in the playoffs, Truck had 17 points in 13 minutes before collapsing to the parquet. He died a few months later.
Although we only had him for a brief time, those who saw him blossom from a high school 6th man to an NBA All-Star knew that he had the potential to be one of the all time greats. His hunger, desire and work ethic conspired with the playground to make that possible.
So when checking KG, Jesus Shuttlesworth, Rondo and Paul Pierce and the return of the Celtic mystique during this year’s playoff run, remember the late, great Reggie Lewis.
The Playground is not the problem. It is the solution.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am
illest says:
reggie was ill. i remember reports came out that he did a little coke. i dont know about that but he definitely was a great player who was on the to quote clyde frazier threshold togreatness. reggie definitely had more heart than any of the present day celtics.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
ali says:
illest,
those coke rumors were false. Reggie’s family had an extensive history of heart problems. His brother Jon was born with a hole in his heart and his mother Peggy was diagnosed with a heart murmer and leaky valves. she suffered from a heart attack at 17.
His mother did drugs and he was hurt and hated what drugs did to his family. Truck was diagnosed with an irregular heart beat when he was at Dunbar.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Ashley says:
The Boston Celtics , as a professional team of NBA, is one of the major teams that has fans all around the world. It is quite normal if Boston Celtics tickets are so pricy or hard to find because such great teams tickets worth any price. It doesn’t matter if we pay a respected price for Celtics tickets because we satisfy our eagerness to watch good games and more than that when we go to watch a game it’s because we love this team and we shouldn’t be mean.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
illest says:
ali…na i know they were fake. its wrong how the media does black athletes with sudden death or anything else.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
ali says:
ashley, i think you’re confused. who’s being mean? or are you just hawking celtic tickets?
May 5th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
word up. ali, i love your ‘the playground gave us . . .’ series. down the road when bounce steps up and starts publishing books, you should totally do one on the starks, big Os, etc. of the world. you rock, b.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:33 am
illest says:
word up to the playground gave us. one i havent seen in bounce (i dont think) or slam or anywhere else is pearl washington. i need one of those.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:27 am
ali says:
illest,
you’re letting the cat out of the bag. the pearl joint will be official and coming in the form of a bounce magazine article in the future. hold on to your bloomers homeboy. it will definitely be worth the wait!
May 6th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
illest says:
okok i know i emailed bob a time ago about this too. im sayin its needed.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
ali says:
the definitive pearl washington piece is needed more than Jeri Curl needed his activator in the robert townsend flick “Hollywood Shuffle.” trust me, when it drops, you will feel fulfilled. I saw Pearl around the way alot when I was a young buck in Bed Stuy. watching him at boys and girls, in the parks and at the ‘cuse took my love of the game to the level of infatuation. believe, when we get at it, it will be talked about for generations.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Jeremy Ripley says:
^Ooh Wee! Looking foward to it…
You strike again with another beauty Ali!
Hotter than fish grease indeed…My only beef is this: I never got to see any of these dudes play.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:18 am
ali says:
jeremy,
check espn classic when they’re running some of the old games and see if you can catch reggie lewis in the playoffs in ‘92. and here’s what you need to know about Pearl - he wasn’t fast and didn’t have incredible hops but he was a wizard of a point guard. tim hardaway got his crossover from the pearl. and if you ever watch the ‘84 big east championship on espn classic, check how pearl shreds georgetown, one of the greatest college defensive teams of all time, and their vaunted pressure as a freshman. he was nyc playground magic in every sense.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Jessica says:
David Wingate doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as these great players. He is nothing but a deadbeat Dad who has 5 daughters w/5 different women and he isn’t taking care of any of his kids financially or emotionally.