On the eve of my induction in the Charlotte High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame, I am releasing a memoir of my experience growing up in Charlotte and being a part of their basketball program, titled: Orioles: Growing Up in a Golden Era of Hoops. The following is an excerpt from the 86 page book. Orioles will launch Friday, September 14th at 8pm. Order your copy of Orioles HERE
With our record standing at 10–2, it was now on to the biggest game of the season. Two-time defending state champion and Class B number-onefirst Class B ranked Detroit Country Day, with the number-one ranked high school player in the country, 6’10” Chris Webber (Michigan, NBA) was coming to Charlotte to play us at the dome!
Webber was such a rare talent, that Country Day was parading him around the state to showcase him. The week before we played them, DCD played the second-ranked Class A team in the state Battle Creek Central in front of 5,000 spectators at the Kellogg Arena and beat them, 72–68. Charlotte had one of the best facilities in the state, we were near Lansing, and we could pack in a big crowd of over 3,000 people. All of this made it attractive for DCD to play us. Our ’90 team went to DCD over Christmas to scrimmage them (without Webber) and that’s when Coach Ernst started talking about scheduling them for the regular season. When Coach Ernst told us in the fall we would be playing Webber and DCD in the regular season, everybody got excited and worried. We all knew of DCD. We had all heard of Chris Webber and had seen his highlights. It was intimidating to play against a player like Webber. Nobody likes to get their shot blocked or get dunked on. Playing against Webber, those things were likely to happen and happen often.
The week leading into the DCD game, there was a lot of hype. All three Lansing television networks came to visit our practice to promote the game. In the Lansing State Journal, the sports section did a feature on the game. They also featured when and where tickets would be available twice so interested people in the area could attend. All three television stations asked me about playing against Webber. My teammates couldn’t stop talking about the Country Day game. Kids at school wanted to talk to me about the upcoming DCD game. There was a definite buzz of anticipation around the school and the whole Lansing area that ramped up the week of the game.
When I arrived at the dome early for the JV game, the gym was buzzing with anticipation. Even though the game had just started, the dome was already three-quarters full. Just like all of our games back then, both end bleachers were pulled out and the upper deck bleachers on both sides were open for seating. By halftime, the dome was completely full. I saw players and coaches from other area high schools in attendance. There was no doubt about it, everyone was there to see Chris Webber.
The entire Michigan State Spartan basketball team was sitting behind our bench, all in their green and white jump suits. Webber hadn’t announced where he was going to college yet, but the Wolverines and Spartans were suspected to be the frontrunners for Webber’s services.
The team was excited, but nervous. The moment had finally came and we were ready to do what we always did and that was play hard and compete. When I met Webber at center court for the captains meeting with the officials during warm ups, Webber was big. I wasn’t a small guy, standing 6’5”, but Webber dwarfed me. When I shook his hand, his huge mitts swallowed my hand. It wasn’t his height that was intimating, it was how big he was. Webber wasn’t skinny, even back then. He was a muscular 240 to 245 pounds.
We started the game in zone against the DCD Yellow Jackets. One of the first plays of the game, Webber snuck behind our two-three zone and point guard, Kevin Colsen zipped a pass to Webber underneath. Rae Dennison was beat and tried to recover to deliver a hard foul. Rae did deliver a hard foul, but he was a late and Webber was still able to power the ball up to dunk the ball with two hands, for the bucket and the foul. The crowd exploded and jumped out of their seats. Even the kids and fans rooting for Charlotte came out of their seats to cheer. That’s what they had come to see!
After that first dunk, Webber put on a dunking display for the big crowd to enjoy. A couple possessions later, on a rebound, Webber pivoted through and reverse dunked the ball in traffic with two hands. Later, he would catch a lob pass over me on my side of the zone and dunk it through the rim easily. He had a back scratcher on a breakaway. Another time, he 360 dunked with two hands. Rick Colegrove, bravely, tried to get in Webber’s way to take a charge, but Webber dunked it anyway and Rick got called for a block. Webber’s most spectacular dunk of the game, didn’t even count. On this play, Webber was running the court hard on the right wing on the fast break. Colsen dropped it to Webber, who took off outside of the lane in full stride, with a full head of steam. Our center, Doran Parker was back and planted himself on the block bravely. This didn’t stop Webber as he went over and through the 6’6” Parker and still dunked the ball with one hand! The ref called a charge and waved off the basket, but it didn’t matter. The crowd went berserk. We helped Doran up and congratulated him as Webber also celebrated, slapping high-fives with his teammates, even though his breathtaking play didn’t count.
All in all Webber finished with eight dunks (nine if you include the one waved off). Keep in mind, nobody from Charlotte had dunked in a game during the Ernst era. So seeing Webber’s performance in our gym was a real treat for the people in Charlotte.
But, it wasn’t just Webber’s dunks that made him special. He made good passes. In the second half he made this nifty, athletic reverse layup in traffic. Defensively, he was a presence. Webber blocked one of my layups early in the game. Another time, I caught the ball just inside the free throw line. I saw Webber there, so I put up a floater/jump hook with some extra arch on it to get it over him. Webber still got to it, cupping it with one hand as he landed. The refs called goal tending, so I got credit for the basket, but it was still a heck of an athletic play. In the second half Rae Dennison squared up to take a routine jump shot at the top of the key. This was a typical shot just like I’m sure Rae had taken hundreds of times. Except this time, Chris Webber was there and he blocked it with his forearm and sent it out of bounds by half court.
Even though that night was about Webber, we were able to compete with DCD and gave the home crowd something to cheer for as well. Despite falling behind early 21–7, we were able to battle back, to cut the lead to four, 36–32 by halftime. In one first half play, Webber was guarding me. When Coach Ernst saw this, he immediately called play “6” for me, which was a clear out/isolation, play for me. Coach Ernst wanted me to isolate Chris Webber on the wing! So I caught the ball on the left wing, free throw line extended at the three-point line. Webber got a little too close to me and reached for the ball. I felt his weight forward and I ripped through baseline, to my left. Webber tried to recover to block my shot, but I had him beat and easily scored a lay-up. The Charlotte crowd oohed and aahed surprised that I had scored on Webber.
DCD pulled away from us late. The score was 73–55 when their coach, Kurt Keener pulled their starters. Always competing until the end, we scored nine straight points to cut into their lead. Keener had to sub Webber and the rest of the starters back into the game to secure the victory. They did just that and held on for a 75–68 win.
For us, we were proud of our performance. I had played my best game of the season up to that point, scoring twenty-eight points and pulling down fourteen rebounds. Steve St. John had hit three threes and finished with eleven points. Travis Rawson hit two threes and had twelve points. As a team we made some brave defensive plays trying to stop Webber. We had just competed against and only lost by seven with the best team in Class B in the state. Besides Webber, DCD had two other seniors that went on to play Division I basketball, Kevin Colson (Florida A&M) and Iyapo Montgomery (Detroit). Even though we had lost, we didn’t get blown out and we showed we could compete against the state’s best. We even won the second and fourth quarters against the eventual three-time state champions! Through all of the buildup, hype, and anticipation, we felt like we rose to the challenge. We felt we made Charlotte proud that night.
Video of the complete Charlotte-DCD game here, including pre-game and post-game news coverage:
Order your copy of Orioles HERE
