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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 12:09:35 GMT -5
Wasn't sure where to post this & I don't have a subscription, but this may interest the posters that do subscribe - an article about St Cecilia's
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Post by upbasketballfan on Jul 13, 2020 14:00:00 GMT -5
Wasn't sure where to post this & I don't have a subscription, but this may interest the posters that do subscribe - an article about St Cecilia's Scout, thanks for finding this.
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Post by titantarheel on Jul 13, 2020 14:29:01 GMT -5
It's a LONG read, but pretty great especially for Detroit-area basketball fans like all of us. During my senior year of high school, I spent each Wednesday morning at St Cecelia's tutoring the 3rd graders. Never got to set foot in the gym though.
Here's a teaser from the story...
"Thomas, who played at St. Cecilia’s every summer during his 13-year NBA career, all with the Pistons: You could’ve brought anyone in the gym and no one ever would’ve packed it like George Gervin. What he was to the community and to the neighborhood. So the Pistons would show up, and we were local pros and we were making our way through the league in terms of championships and all of that, but when George Gervin came home and he walked into the gym, there was nothing like it. Nothing.
You’re talking about shooting the basketball and the things he could do with a basketball in terms of banking it, shooting it straight in, off the glass, it was like — it’s like George Gervin was Minnesota Fats on the pool table. That’s how much control he had over the basketball.
Nobody was better than George Gervin. Nobody. I saw him make 14 straight bank shots and the crowd was counting."
Later on...
Thomas: Our whole (Pistons) championship team played down there. Joe Dumars and I were NBA Finals MVP, back-to-back MVPs, and we were playing at St. Cecilia.
Dumars, who played all 14 of his NBA seasons for the Pistons: A guy named Terry Duerod, he might’ve played a year or so in the league. Just one of those guys, man, I think he’s over 50, maybe 60, and still playing in some pickup league in Detroit. He has never stopped playing. Here’s a guy that wasn’t in the NBA at the time but everybody knew him …
Thomas: Duerod was one of the greatest shooters ever, that nobody ever really talks about. But Duerod — and if you ask any of the old Boston Celtics players, Duerod played with them, he was also a star at the University of Detroit — literally would get hot at St. Cecilia’s. You talk about people now coming across halfcourt, stopping and shooting with range and dropping it … Duerod was dropping like eight, nine, 10 shots in a row, and it was special.
Cuerton: I brought Daryl Dawkins up to St. Cecilia’s. They wouldn’t let Daryl play, though.
Washington Jr.: (Laughs) I remember that. Dawkins walked in with Earl — they were teammates in Philly — and was trying to get in on a run. My dad pulled him aside and said, “I don’t have any other backboards. I can’t let you play.”
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