On the recent edition of NBATV’s “Open
Court,” NBATV’s Stephanie Ready, 1998 graduated from Coppin State University
did a virtual interview with four former NBA players who graduated from a
Historically Black College/University HBCU, with three of those four players
that won a title in their NBA career about how that experienced shaped them and
what it meant to be a part of that special group.
University of Southern graduate class of
1988 Avery Johnson, who played 16 seasons in the NBA four the then Seattle
Supersonics, two stints with the San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets, and
Golden State Warriors, and Houston Rockets, winning a title with the Spurs in
1999.
Hampton University graduate class of 1980
Rick Mahorn, who played 18 of his 19 pro basketball seasons (1980-99) in the
NBA for the then Washington Bullets (now Wizards), two stints with the Detroit
Pistons and Philadelphia 76ers, and the then New Jersey (now Brooklyn)
Nets.
Virginia Union University graduate class
of 1996 Ben Wallace, who played 16 NBA season with the Bullets (now Wizards),
Orlando Magic, two stints with the Pistons, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland
Cavaliers, winning a title with the Pistons in 2004.
Norfolk State University graduate class of
2012 Kyle O’Quinn, whose played eight NBA seasons (2012-2020) with the Orlando
Magic, who drafted him No. 49 overall in 2012, New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers,
and Philadelphia 76ers.
When asked by Ready about what they
remember most about their HBCU experience, O’Quinn said that what stood out to
him about being a Norfolk State Spartan was the “small population” and how
everyone was down for everyone succeeding in life.
That every success big or small, every
student, faculty and staff was able to enjoy in that moment.
“Every bit of success the school was able
to enjoy, everybody was able to enjoy it,” O’Quinn, who currently plays for
Fenerbache of the EuroLeague in Turkey said. “And when an HBCU did well outside
of our home, we all enjoyed it as a culture.”
“The HBCU brand was just something that we
all prided ourselves on, and you really bleed your school colors. But at the
end of the day, you live on for the legacy of other HBCUs as well.”
Mahorn, who had both of his collegiate
jerseys in the background during the virtual interview said that he “really
enjoyed” being a Hampton University pirate, which was at that time was in the
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association CIAA.
At Hampton, which now a part of the
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Mahorn was a three-time National Association
of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-American and owned 18 Pirates
basketball team records said that attending an HBCU was you being a part of a
culture of being around African Americans.
As much as Mahorn said that you hear about
HBCUs like Tuskegee University and Howard University, when it came to Hampton,
it was one of the schools where you could go to play basketball and you really
get the full scope of how real it is to be a part of the HBCU culture.
“It was something that was a great
experience to know that I can have a good time and get a higher education, and
pursue a dream of playing professional basketball,” Mahorn, who was drafted No.
35 overall by Washington in the 1980 NBA Draft said.
When Mahorn first visited Hampton, he
really did not know that it was an HBCU growing up in Hartford, CT. The only
time he said that he heard the Jackson State’s, and the other aforementioned
HBCUs is when it is labeled to someone that is a professional athlete or
someone in a position of power like a politician.
It is why Mahorn feels that anyone that
has attended an HBCU has to stand out whether they are a professional athlete
or any other profession because there is always going to be competition.
Mahorn added that it gives him a sense of
pride to see Robert Covington, the only current player to graduate from an HBCU
in the NBA, who graduated from Tennessee State University and went undrafted in
2013. Covington who played seven seasons with the 76ers, Minnesota
Timberwolves, Houston Rockets, and currently for the Trail Blazers.
Covington, Mahorn, Wallace, Johnson and
O’Quinn are the byproduct of the sacrifices the likes of Earl Lloyd went
through from being questioned from if they could play on the same floor with
certain other players or hear profane laced language from racist crowds.
For Ready, while she might have not had to
deal with the kind of abuse former male collegiate players experienced, she did
face some harshness from those in the stands both as a player for Coppin State
and as a coach for her alma mater.
Wallace, who was a four-time Kia Defensive
Player of the Year, four-time All-Star, five-time All-NBA selection, and
six-time NBA All-Defensive team selection called his HBCU experience for the
Virginia Union Panthers an “awesome” experience.
He also said that experience that reminded
him of growing up in White Hall, AL that it was “humbling.” But that close knit
vibe of everyone being up in your business, it made you accountable to take
care of your business both inside and outside the classroom.
“It was a great experience, and a place to
play to help further my basketball career. It was an amazing time,” Wallace,
who went undrafted in 1996 said.
Johnson, who also went undrafted 33 years
ago said that arriving on the campus of Southern University and enrolling as a
Jaguar “changed” his life forever.
Being around high achievers, and student
athletes like him that were turned down by some of the larger institutions.
“To have an opportunity to grow and mature
and see a lot of the same faces and people that look like me both on the
faculty and the student body, it was just amazing,” Johnson, who got only one
other scholarship offer to play collegiate basketball said. “It was a different
kind of energy that’s hard to explain. Just everybody trying to get busy and
not just become excellent but elite.”
“And every day, that was imparted into you
every single day that you have to be five times as good as your counterpart.
And that forced you and encouraged you to work even harder every single day.”
Along with getting a great education and
being in a place where they could improve their basketball skills, Johnson,
Mahorn, Wallace, and O’Quinn went to institutions where they were on sacred
grounds where they had the opportunity to expand their horizons.
They attended schools where they followed
in the shoes of NBA greats before them like Al Attles, Bob Dandridge, Willis
Reed, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe.
They also attended institutions where they
learned and understood about African American culture, from those that made
sacrifices to make life better for those that came after them and made history.
The rivalries between the likes of Hampton
versus Howard for example, and Grambling University versus Southern University
built what Mahorn called “character,” which was that you could be successful in
whatever you set your mind to.
Before he attended Virginia Union, Wallace
described himself as a “scarper” and “fighter.” Someone who was determined to
take what he wanted. When he became a VU Panther, the experience he said
“humbled” him and “settled” him to where he just needed to just work hard both
in the classroom and on the hardwood.
“Virginia Union, the campus, the
community, everybody just gravitated towards me man, and it felt great to feel
like I actually found a home,” Wallace, who started off at Cuyahoga Community
College (1992-94) in Cleveland, OH after graduating from Central High School in
Hayneville, AL said. “I really didn’t know what to expect from there. But to
get to Virginia Union, you know, it showed me that you can go out there, you
could play hard, you can be aggressive without all the aggression. So, it was
great for me.”
That experience is especially true now for
Wallace when he meets up with Mahorn whether at a Pistons game or any other time,
he not only sees a fellow Piston but a HBCU brother.
The other thing that ability to channel
his aggression properly helped him when Virginia Union played on the road where
fans had no problem expressing their racial feelings because they were an HBCU
that was coached by a Caucasian Dave Robbins from 1978-2008.
“It was tough. But Coach Nate Robbins, he
was so mentally tough man,” Wallace said of his former coach. “He rallied the
troops together. He kept us strong, and he reinforced the fact that, you know,
I’m here because we’re a real team. Regardless of what they’re saying or how
loud they are as long as we stay together. Don’t allow them to break this team
bond, we’re going to do what we came here to do. And we got wins.”
For O’Quinn, a native of Jamaica, NY, he
decided to attend an HBCU because his sister had just graduated from Hampton
the year prior to him going to Norfolk State.
He was already used to the expectation of
taking care of business from the classroom standpoint. What sealed the deal for
O’Quinn was that Spartans offered a scholarship, as well as the family
atmosphere he experienced on his visit, which made his mother and father
comfortable sending their son, who left home for the first time.
“You see the same people everyday to the
point where if you want to be right with your family, you got to handle your
business. If you ain’t handling your business, then people are going to talk
about you,” O’Quinn said about the importance of being tight with your actions
as an HBCU person.
“It made you feel really comfortable, and
it made you go out and play with a different type of aggression. You bottled it
up and you pushed it into the right direction because you knew you were playing
something bigger than yourself. Your playing for not only your university but
for the whole HBCU family, which were going up against a lot and we have the
talent, and you would be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t give it your
all.”
Johnson took it a step further when
talking about how an assistant coach had a specific influenced that led him to
Southern University that he played for previously. He referred this influence
as the P.I.E. effect. The P stands for People, the I for Investment, where
people like Johnson’s former assistant coach invested their time in helping him
become a better player and person both on and off the court. The E stands for
execution of someone like Johnson executing both and off the court.
Along with that assistant coach, two
family members on Johnson’s father’s side that worked at Southern University,
one first cousin in the dormitory and housekeeping and the other first cousin
in the school’s cafeteria.
If there is one thing about being at an
HBCU is that the dormitories will always be clean and you will always be feed.
Having those two things intact while at
Southern University along with having two members of his family in Nancy and
Delfine Duncan, who Johnson said lived one block from campus made his college
experience even more special, especially on Sundays nights at 6 p.m. where he
always knew he had a home cooked meal.
That is why Johnson said he tries to visit
his alma mater as much as possible, especially since a few years ago, they
named the schools basketball court in his honor “Avery Johnson Court” as well
as retired his jersey.
He also has provided scholarships for his
nieces and nephews to continue their education at Southern University, where
Johnson’s wife Cassandra graduated one year after him.
The other thing his college experience
provided him was the ability to play in hostile environments because when you
played for an HBCU, you played in small gyms, where you heard and felt the
intensity of the game, especially when you played against you bitter rival,
which in the case of Southern University was Grambling State.
That experience made it easy for Johnson
to play in big arenas of the NBA and perform. He really showed that 22 years
ago when he hit the eventual game-winning jumper from the left baseline in the
final minute of the Game 5 of the 1999 NBA Finals that helped the Spurs take
down the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden to win the first of their
five NBA titles.
“I really was never nearly as nervous or
as hyped as I was playing in some of those HBCU schools because those fans were
on top of you. Even when you came to the bench,” Johnson said of what he
experienced during his collegiate days. “When you came back to the bench,
they’re one foot behind you, and the things that we heard. It wasn’t as nearly
as bad as the heckler that used to be at the Detroit Pistons games that sat
behind our bench.”
That heckler was known as Leon “The
Barber” said once to Johnson in his first NBA season with the Supersonics (now
the Oklahoma City Thunder) that when then head coach Bernie Bickerstaff put him
into the game that he was in the wrong game, that the junior high school game a
couple of hours earlier.
That really did not knock Johnson off his
stride because he said he heard much worse during his days at Southern
University.
Leon heckled Mahorn as well at the start
of his NBA journey with the then Bullets, but when he got traded to the
Pistons, Leon’s wife began cutting his hair and today, his daughter cuts
Mahorn’s hair.
It is why when O’Quinn got a chance to
play against the big schools that many people know about, it is a chance to put
the many myths and misconceptions many have about not just HBCU basketball but
athletics as a whole. That they are very skilled, talented, tough, and good.
During his freshmen and sophomore seasons,
O’Quinn heard from many opposing coaches from big schools that they were going
to play really well in the MEAC those seasons, which he got really tired of
hearing.
He felt that Norfolk State could compete
at the same level as the other big time surrounding schools like Old Dominion,
William & Mary, University of Virginia. The only difference is that those
institutions had their gear supplied by Nike, while the Spartans had their gear
supplied by Russell.
“Once you start feeling that out and it
starts running through your coaching staff and it runs through the walk-ons on
the team, the practice players, you really start walking into gyms with a
different attitude because the playing field on the court is equal,” O’Quinn,
the first player in MEAC history to win Conference Player of the Year and
Defensive Player of the Year in the same season (2012) said. “Outside, it
isn’t, and it’s slowly bridging the gap through the help of many, many people
during this time.”
For Johnson, who holds the NCAA Division I
single-season record for assists per game at 13.3, which happened in his senior
season at Southern University in 1988 had a similar experience because across
town from Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA was Louisiana State University
(LSU), where in the summer he competed against former NBA studs like guard
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, formerly Chris Jackson, and Hall of Famer and four-time NBA
champion Shaquille O’Neal.
It is that attitude and determination that
gave Southern University the confidence in Johnson’s mind that they could
compete and defeat the powerhouses of college basketball at the time like
Kansas and Temple University led by the late great Hall of Fame head coach John
Chaney.
That foundation Johnson’s class built laid
the foundation that led to SU upsetting Georgia Tech in the First-Round of the
NCAA Tournament a few years later led by the late great former Cleveland
Cavalier and Charlotte Hornet Bobby Phills, who also was one of Johnson’s
former teammates.
For Mahorn, who averaged 24 points in his
sophomore year at Hampton, he played against NBA players at the time like
Wilson Washington and realized he is just as good if not better than him or any
other player that he went against.
That sophomore season that Mahorn put
together got the attention of University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth
University wanting him to transfer.
For Mahorn, he saw that as a sign of disrespect
because in his mind they had a chance to recruit him, and that because he was
dominating at the then CIAA level that he would want to make a name for himself
collegiately at a higher level. He wanted the opportunity to compete and
dominate the likes of Ralph Sampson and not just be a second banana to him.
It did not matter who designed the
uniform. It did not matter the accolades you earned before. In Mahorn’s mind
when you are there on the hardwood, it is your will against your opponent’s and
it comes down to who has the stronger will to put their team one point ahead on
the scoreboard when the game concludes.
For Mahorn, Johnson, Wallace, and O’Quinn,
their wills won out with the NBA resumes they were able to put together, which
in the case of Mahorn, Johnson, and Wallace includes an NBA championship.
As great as their HBCU experiences were
for Mahorn, Johnson, Wallace, and O’Quinn, it is about making sure the next
generation of HBCU students have as great of an experience, athletes or not.
That means investing money, time, and
resources into making all HBCUs better, which has been done recently by many
high-profile people in the entertainment, sports, and other industries.
For Wallace, that improvement must
continue through conversating about HBCUs, which have furthered the lives not
just academically of the students that have attended these proud pillars of
education and excellence but given a power glimpse of what is possible through
hard work and dedication.
“It’s one of those things that we got to
bring attention to the system that it’s broken,” Wallace said of what needs to
be done to make HBCUs more mainstream. “If we don’t bring attention to a system
that’s broken then it never gets fixed if nobody talks about it.”
“And I think right now us bringing
attention to it people can do their research and do their homework so to speak
and see the things that are broken that need to be fixed.”
“Our HBCUs has done an amazing job with
the bare minimum for their students, faculties. Paying for their own
facilities, and stuff like that. And to still be standing today and running
strong says a lot about how resilient they really are.”
One of the best examples of the kind of
headway HBCUs are making in terms of leveling the playing field in the sports
arena is five-star recruit in 2020 Makur Maker committed to playing basketball
at Howard University on July 3, 2020.
In a virtual interview last year with Cari
Champion, host of Turner Sports “The Arena,” Makur said his decision to attend
“The Mecca” was all the social unrest that took place during the summer of 2020
with the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and many
others before and after, and the Black Lives Matter Movement.
“So, by me taking this route to an HBCU
and Howard University will definitely help me bring awareness to all races,”
Makur said. “I hope to inspire. If I can go in there and help myself and be
professional. I know the whole world is watching me and see how successful this
goes. I know I’ve inspired a lot of people.”
For a long time, the question has always
been what can an athlete do for a certain institution? The question that is
coming up now with what Makur Maker has done by continuing his basketball and
educational journey at Howard and fellow five-star recruit in 2020 Mikey
Williams including several HBCUs on his list of where he would like to attend
college what can I do for an institution?
Johnson, the former University of Alabama
Men’s basketball coach (2015-19), who also coached for seven NBA seasons for
the Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets, the big difference between the top schools and
HBCUs are the resources. In schools like Alabama, LSU, Duke, Clemson to name a
few you commute to road games via private planes, exceptional practice
facilities.
That said, Johnson’s message to any
student athlete considering attending an HBCU is that if you are good enough,
are willing to work at getting better at your craft and will surround yourself
around the right people you can make it anywhere.
It comes down to can you help a team grow
their fanbase? Can you help that team improve its bottom line from the business
standpoint? Most of all, can you help that team win?
“So, whether you are from Europe or the
inner-city projects of New Orleans, it really doesn’t matter,” Johnson said.
“If you’re good enough, they will find you.”
“So, the idea that you have to only go one
way or one route to be successful, that’s not true. If you’re good at biology,
or chemistry or nursing or technology today, you can go to an HBCU, and still
experience a world of success.”
It also helps when the likes of Phoenix
Suns 10-time All-Star Chris Paul shows love and appreciation to HBCUs when he
is wearing gear from the likes of Florida A&M, Spellman, Clark-Atlanta
University, Southern University from shirts before games to custom made
sneakers, which he rocked during the NBA’s Seeding Games and the Playoffs in
Orlando, FL last season.
“A lot of these schools don’t receive the
proper funding that a lot of these big-time schools do. So, just keep trying to
educate each other as well as myself. Show these young kids know that they can
go to these schools and become doctors, lawyers, teachers and not just
athletes,” Paul said last year as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. “They
can be whatever they want to be.”
Nets perennial All-Star lead guard has
even donated scholarship money to Lincoln University students.
“I think it’s amazing,” O’Quinn said of
what he has seen from his fellow NBA brothers bringing awareness to HBCUs. “It
shows where these guys are in tune with the world, and I commend and the things
they’ve done.”
O’Quinn said though that what the NBA
players have done has been great, but more needs to be done. That it is easy to
bring awareness to something of this nature when it is the flavor of the month.
The HBCU experience is something that
Mahorn, Johnson, Wallace, O’Quinn, and Ready had to live every day. They ate,
drank, breathed, and slept the good, bad, and at times the ugly of that
experience.
O’Quinn said that while the iron is hot,
it is up to him and Mahorn, Johnson, Wallace, and Ready to push those
experiences of being and HBCU graduate.
“We got to continue to educate people on
what HBCUs are because, they’ve never experienced like us in this chat have,”
O’Quinn said.
While some of those experiences have been
tough for Mahorn, Johnson, Wallace, and O’Quinn, they did have a lot of
memorable ones both on the court as well as off.
For O’Quinn, his unforgettable HBCU moment
came in the Second-Round of the 2012 West Regional of the NCAA Tournament when
he and the No. 15 Seeded Spartans defeated the No. 2 Seeded Missouri Tigers
86-84.
O’Quinn who had 26 points, 14 rebounds on
10 for 16 shooting in the win told the late Craig Sager that he could not
explain his feelings about the biggest win in Norfolk State Basketball history,
but he said that winning that game and the MEAC Championship was his way of
paying the school back for giving him a scholarship to attend NSU.
From the personal side for O’Quinn,
getting a college degree from an HBCU that really molded him into the great man
he is today is something he said will remember forever, especially how happy it
made his mother and father.
“They go hand-in-hand as I always say. My
university did its part, and us as a family we did ours,” O’Quinn said of his
two proudest moments at Norfolk State University.
For Wallace, his best experience as an
athlete at VU was playing in his first CIAA Tournament where he played in front
of the first real sellout crowd of his life. It made him take notice,
especially after winning the game and the 1995 title that season.
“To be on that stage, you know, at that
time for the first time, and to share that experience at an HBCU, that’s something
that’s going to stick with me forever,” Wallace said. “It was just electrifying,
and I never imagined that type of crowd at a Black college game.”
Johnson’s best memory as an athlete at
Southern University was each night taking the court of the F.G. Clark Activity
center to play in front of sellout crowds in his senior year.
Games were sold out to the point that fans
parked on the nearby bridges or walked a great distance in Baton Rouge, LA just
to catch a Jaguars game. Amongst those that saw Johnson and his team during
that time were his late parents, who saw their dreams come true in their son
earning his Psychology degree from Southern University in that same arena.
For Mahorn, it was his first CIAA
Tournament at Hampton Coliseum that was his most cherished memory as a student
athlete. Having a chance to be in a loud atmosphere, seeing the embracement of
the African American culture where it challenged you to bring your A+ game to
the court.
It was also an atmosphere that was an
event where it brought not just fans but families together.
“It was an event,” Mahorn said of the CIAA
Tournament. “It was a cultural event where you find people, alumni coming back
wearing these colors. But everybody’s just looking at each other and saying ‘hello,’
and being happy. And you’re going like, ‘Now, this is what’s up?’ I love the
CIAA Tournament.”
Along with those fun memories that Mahorn,
Wallace, Johnson, and O’Quinn had as HBCU student athletes, they also had
moments where they came face-to-face with a moment that shaped how they felt
about social activism, which has been front and center over the past few months
in how the U.S. and the world tackles racial inequality and social activism, particularly
how professional athletes have spoken up about through their platforms.
Mahorn said how seeing the 1968 riots as a
youngster, and not having the chance to speak your mind because of the fear of
being outcasted or shunned. If you were a college athlete with a real shot at
being a professional athlete and you spoke up, that dream would go up in smoke.
The best example of that today is former
San Francisco 49ers quarterback speaking up about police brutality and kneeled
during the national anthem saw his career end.
Back in the 1990s, former Denver Nuggets guard
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf spoke up about standing for the national anthem and took
heat for that.
Ever since the death of George Floyd on
camera when a police officer put his knee on his neck in Minneapolis, MN back
in May 2020, people of all races took to the streets and protested and spoke up
against social injustice.
Mahorn has stated how todays athletes like
the Los Angeles Lakers four-time Kia MVP and four-time NBA champion LeBron
James have spoken up and not just kept quiet and stuck to just playing
basketball.
“You are a person that can make an impact
on anybody. We’re role models,” Mahorn said. “And we’re role models to not only
our families, but we’re role models to people who are coming out of HBCUs.”
One thing that every HBCU graduate
understands is the struggle to be great. The struggle to get through to be what
you want to be. The struggle to earn respect from others that are not like,
think like you or believe in certain things you do.
That is why O’Quinn said that getting to
the table where change can happen is not the time to get comfortable as an
African American. It is that opportunity to not only advocate for yourself to
get to a higher level but to advocate for others to be at that table to help
create the kind of change that benefits all.
“Unless that table that you’re sitting at
understands that there’s more people that looks more like me, and there
actually being prepared way better than I am, I think that’s when change when
really come,” O’Quinn said.
“HBCUs, we’re gonna struggle. Simply
because our small and our resources are limited. But on the bottom, we’ve got
to understand that there’s room for improvement. We can’t embrace the struggle to
the point where we’re always complaining.”
“But between mindset, always keeping the
iron hot, always giving that same opportunity that you was once given to many,
many more, I think that’s what gonna ultimately bring it closer together…. They
only respect you when you do something right, and I think we’re all doing
something right, and I think the world understands that. And that’s why the
iron is truly hot.”
During the NBA restart last year in
Orlando, FL and at this past weekend’s NBA All-Star Weekend put the spotlight on
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Rick Mahorn, Ben Wallace,
Avery Johnson, Kyle O’Quinn, and NBATV’s Stephanie Ready went to and graduated
from an HBCU. That experience shaped Ready into an amazing lady both as a person,
mother, spouse, basketball player, one of the best broadcast NBA journalists. It
made Mahorn, Wallace, Johnson, and O’Quinn into basketball players that became
champions and etched their names into the annals of NBA history. Along the way,
they made sure to become even better people, who continue to represent the HBCU
they graduated from.
Information and
quotations are courtesy of 5/12/2003 www.espn.com
story, “Leon The Barber Would Have Been Appalled,” by Ray Ratto; 3/6/2021 6
p.m. NBATV’s “Open Court: HBCU Alumni,” host by Stephanie Ready; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Johnson;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Jaguars_basketball;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Mahorn;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intercollegiate_Athletics_Association;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wallace;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyhoga_Community_College;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Union_Panthers;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_O’Quinn;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_State_Spartans_men%27s_basketball;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikey_Williams;
and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makur_Maker.
