Bembry

By: Jhamar D Youngblood

The news of Muhammad Ali’s passing just hit social media a couple of hours ago. Among the shared post on Facebook and retweets on Twitter was this gem where Ali explained how he wanted to be remembered:

“I would like to be remembered as a man who won the heavyweight title three times, who was humorous, and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him, and who helped as many people as he could. As a man who stood up for his beliefs no matter what.”

This bought me back to a conversation I had with a great friend of mine, DeAndre’ Bembry, right after he’d won his second A10 title in three years. After winning the championship in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, the team went directly to their hotel in Manhattan to watch Selection Sunday to find out where and who they will be playing in the first round of the NCAA tournament. I had a few minutes to chat with Dre before he had to regroup with his team. I congratulated him on his career and joked around by calling him the goat, meaning greatest of all time. In typical Dre fashion, he deflected the comment and in an attempt to take the attention away from himself he started asking me questions about my personal life. But he’s done this to me before and I get it. It’s his personality. It’s not that he hates having all the attention or can’t handle it, he just hates when it’s at the expense of others. But I wasn’t going to let him get away with it this time. He had arguably the best career in the school’s history and I wanted him to acknowledge it.

First I asked him about not winning the MVP of the tournament, his response:

“You think I should’ve won it? You are crazy! Zeke was balling!”, referring to his teammate Isaiah Miles.

I continued to press, hoping he’d crack and I’d get some type of braggadocios response. So I called him the goat again and asked him if he thought he was best player to ever play at St. Joes. And there he was again:

“Jameer and Delonte. My guys! . . . So what’s up with you?”

I ignored his question. He’s 6’6, ridiculously athletic, intelligent and extremely skilled. St. Joes and the A10 have never seen a player this polished and I wanted him to acknowledge it. But he refused to and so I gave up. I asked him one last question, about his last home game when the St. Joes fans chanted “one more year” in an attempt to keep him from leaving school early for the NBA and how he’d felt about that.

His response:

“That was crazy right? I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I’m not even thinking about that we still have games to play. But either way, they all know who I am and what I stand for and that’s why they respect me. Never in my life have I looked down on someone or treated them like I was better than them. And I’m not only talking about basketball either. We all are equal and I treat them like it. That’s how I’ll be remembered.”

He paused, then continued “Well, until I get you on the court, then I’m trying to destroy you!”

We both laughed and I’d finally gotten out of him what I wanted, and so much more.

I’m not comparing him to Ali, not one bit. But I am saying there is so much more to Dre besides his ability on the basketball court just like there was much more to Ali outside of what we all witnessed in the boxing ring. And if he keeps working hard and believeing in himself the way he does, the world will see this very very soon!