Learning from the Knights

Barako Bull import Mike Singletary said the other day he picked up valuable pointers from playing under two Knights during his four-year tenure at Texas Tech. He referred to legendary Hall of Fame coach Bobby Knight and his son Pat. The Knights were together when they visited Singletary in his home to recruit him for the Texas Tech varsity.

“At practice, coach (Bobby) Knight was a shouter,” said Singletary. “I’ve played for shouters and yellers. Coach Knight was very defense-oriented, a disciplinarian and a motion offense guy. He believed in hard practices. Coach Pat is a new era type who likes the run-and-gun style and puts a premium on athleticism. In a way, coach Rajko (Toroman) is like coach Knight. They’re both sticklers for perfection. They believe in team play and working within a system.”

 Bobby Knight had health issues in Singletary’s rookie season and his son took over day-to-day bench duties in the middle of the campaign. But Singletary said the older Knight still attended every practice and game, advising his son and the players on how to get things done. The lessons he learned from the Knights will never be forgotten.

A college game where Singletary made his mark was Texas Tech’s 99-92 overtime win over No. 10 Washington in 2009. Singletary hit a triple from the left wing at the buzzer and that would’ve won it for Texas Tech outright. But after fans stormed the court to celebrate, officials waved off the basket and ruled overtime. Singletary rallied his teammates and finished with 16 points. “This is a brotherhood, a family,” he said quoted by Jason King. “We’ve got to stay hungry. We can’t be satisfied just because we beat the No. 10 team in the country. We’ve got to want more.” That’s the same philosophy Singletary brings to the PBA.

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Alaska rookie Calvin Abueva revealed recently that his father Calvin Sweeney, a retired US Navyman now living in Brooklyn, thought of joining him in Las Vegas when he worked out with seven other Aces at the Joe Abunassar Impact camp for 10 days last July. Abueva was only a baby when his father abandoned him and his mother Evelyn in Angeles City.

In 2009, Abueva’s sister Jovel managed to contact his father via the Internet. Abueva said he spoke with his father on the phone but was turned off. His father asked for Abueva to pay for his plane ticket from New York to Manila and back to watch him play for San Sebastian. Abueva said he was receiving only about P800 a month as allowance and couldn’t afford to pay for the plane ticket. But he offered to pay for game tickets. He never heard from his father again.

When Abueva left for Las Vegas, his sister got in touch with his father again. “If he showed up, I wouldn’t know what to tell him,” said Abueva in Pilipino. “I’ve never seen him. I’ve never met him. The only time I talked to him was when he asked me to pay for his plane ticket in 2009. I don’t really care to meet him. I was raised by my mother and grandmother (Siony). I had no father, not even a father figure. My grandmother lives in Pampanga but comes to Manila often to watch me play. My mother also lives in Pampanga. I owe what I am today to my mother and grandmother.” His father never showed up in Las Vegas.

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 Former NBA star Stephon Marbury, who played on the US bronze medal team at the 2004 Athens Olympics, has offered sage advice to the Philippine squad bound for the FIBA World Championships in Spain next year. He said when the time to play comes, it’s about conjuring and figuring out how to win, regardless of who the opponent is.

“Put your best effort into it, whoever’s hot, you throw him the ball, that’s the way you play,” he said. “When you’re playing (knockout) games, along with playing within the frame of doing what you do, make the extra pass and create and give it to the guy who’s hot. You’re playing for your country, give it all you’ve got because at the end of the day, that’s all you can do.”

 Asked about his moniker “The Handler,” Marbury said it has nothing to do with his ballhandling skills. “That came from Rucker Park and they called me ‘The Handler’ because of the way I handle situations like I’m handling it so it’s cool,” he said. “Nobody calls me that anywhere else, though.”

Dime Magazine listed Marbury as one of the modern-day playground legends along with Philip (Hot Sauce) Champion, Ronald Manigault, Grayson (The Professor) Boucher, Rafer (Skip To My Lou) Alston, Larry (Bone Collector) Williams, Carl (Black Magic) Krauser, Daryll (Showtime) Hill, Junie (General Electric) Sanders, Erron Maxey, Jamaal (The Abuser) Tinsley, Ed (Booger) Smith, Ryan (Special FX) Williams and William (Smush) Parker.

Here’s what Dime wrote about Marbury: “He was a playground legend well before the NBA ever came calling. The little brother of a string of older Marburys who had each carved their own niche in New York playground basketball, Steph was destroying people at ‘The Garden,’ the court just outside his family’s Coney Island project apartment before he had even hit high school. Books have been written (‘The Last Shot’), movies have been made (‘He Got Game’) inspired by the story of Stephon’s rise from Coney Island to the NBA. Phat contracts, shoe deals and Bentleys aside, Marbury remains loyal to his playground roots, regularly returning to Coney Island. Many summer nights, Steph still runs in the EBC (Entertainers Basketball Classic) at Rucker Park where he’s been dubbed ‘The Handler.’”