The North Carolina Tar Heels. The legacy of this esteemed college basketball program conjures up words like prestige, championships, class and dominance, along with Hall of Fame names like Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Dean Smith. They’ve won 27 ACC regular season titles, 17 ACC tourney titles, competed in 18 Final Fours and captured five National Championships.
The question that begs to be answered is how did the program ascend to such rarefied heights. Read More »
Wayman Lawrence Tisdale was drawn to basketball by watching his older brother Weldon. Initially, the sport was not welcomed in the Tisdale household as his father, the accomplished Reverand L.L. Tisdale, preferred football. But Wayman’s mother Deborah would not allow her sons to strap on helmets and shoulder pads, regardless of the fanaticism surrounding the game in their home state of Oklahoma.
Wayman, and his older brother William, began playing in their backyard, using a garbage can as their first hoop. Eventually, they outgrew tossing a ball into the trash can, migrating a few blocks away to the asphalt courts at the Immaculate Conception Church schoolyard. Read More »
Christopher Paul Mullin was a simple, neighborhood guy from Troy Avenue in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. The love affair with hoops was a multi-generational thing that began in the driveway of the family’s small row house. Read More »
“Simple and plain, give me the lane, I’ll throw it down your throat like Barkley!” - Chuck D’s lyrics from the Public Enemy classic, Rebel Without A Pause.
To young fans, Charles Barkley is simply a former player. He’s better known as the affable television personality that always has something funny to say on the TNT show, Inside the NBA.
But for those who watched ball in the ’80s and ’90s, he was an awe inspiring, revolutionary talent that turned the establishment on its ear. He was an unstoppable, undersized, 6′4″ power forward who owned the low post, an explosive leaper and ferocious rebounder who could dribble, pass, score and pump gallons of fear through the hearts of even the most accomplished big men. Read More »
Johnny Earl Dawkins came from a family of ballers. Running on the D.C. playgrounds with his father and three uncles, the young boy learned the essence of the outdoor game before ever stepping inside the cushy confines of the gym.
“They didn’t cut me any slack,” Dawkins told Darren Sabedra of the San Jose Mercury News about playing on Dodge City’s asphalt. “But it hepled me because I understood how to play the game at a faster pace. I had to play just to survive.”
It was during those asphalt runs that he developed into the mercurial, quicksilver marksman that would go on to become one of the greatest guards the college game has ever seen. Read More »
