(NBA) stars in their eyes?

["Belanger,Roger" <rbelange@foxboro.com>]

Thought you all might enjoy this story from the Providence Journal.

Roger B.


8.10.97 01:03:21
BILL REYNOLDS
(NBA) stars in their eyes? Not these amateurs=20
Would you believe that a team of Rhode Island playground basketball
players recently beat a team that included NBA players Rick Fox and
David Wesley?=20

No, you say?=20

Call it the basketball equivalent of a fish story.=20

It occurred two week at ago, at the annual ``Oar and Anchor Classic,'' a
tournament in Falmouth on Cape Cod. It's been played every summer for 18
years on an outdoor court across the street from the beach in Falmouth
Heights. As Ed Leary, who runs the tournament says, ``We've had seven
NBA players play in it and none of them have ever won it.''=20

The tradition continues.=20

Barely.=20

To understand how unbelievable this is, consider the Rhode Island team:=20

Patrick Lynch, 32, a former Brown star, is a prosecutor in the
attorney's general office.=20

Dana Smith, who played at Rhode Island College and also is in his early
30s, is a police officer in the courthouse in Providence.=20

Kevin Kolek is a former high school teammate of Lynch at St. Ray's.=20

Robert Williams, another ex-St. Ray's player, is an assistant coach at
Shea High School.=20

Kyle-Ivey Jones, the ex-URI player, teaches in Pawtucket.=20

Troy Smith, who once played at RIC, teaches in New Jersey.=20

All with a basketball r sum certainly.=20

Still good playground players, certainly.=20

But all a long way from playing in the FleetCenter for the Celtics.=20

The Rhode Islanders already had won their semifinal game and were in a
pizza place across the street when they heard that Rick Fox had showed
up to play for the Boston team in their semifinal game. The same Rick
Fox who was the Celtics' captain last year.=20

``We were laughing with each other,'' Lynch said. ``Things like, `who's
next, Larry Bird? Kevin McHale?' It became like a running joke.''=20

Later in the afternoon, when they went back to the court to start
preparing for the final game, they saw David Wesley, last year's
starting point guard for the Celtics who recently signed with the
Charlotte Hornets.=20

``Now it really became a joke,'' Lynch said. ``We kept looking for
someone else from the Celtics to show up. But we were excited, too. When
else are we going to get the chance to play against NBA guys?''=20

Fox and Wesley have spent the summer in the news. Both were free agents
at the end of last season. Both were essentially passed over by the
Celtics for financial reasons. Still, they were basketball royalty at
this outdoor court in Falmouth. They signed autographs. People wanted to
shake their hands. News of their arrival swelled the crowd ringing the
court. The NBA doesn't come to Falmouth Heights all that often.=20

The Boston team also included ex-Friar Trent Forbes, plus a couple of
other guys with good size, so the thinking was that the Rhode Island
team was going to be little more than fodder for Fox and Wesley and the
Boston gang, some local version of the Washington Generals lying down
for the Harlem Globetrotters.=20

``We were like this sloppy little team from Rhode Island,'' Lynch said.
``On paper we had no chance.''=20

Then the game started.=20

Kolek opened the game with a long 3-pointer, Ivey-Jones scored inside,
Lynch bombed in a three. Bing, bang, boom. Before Fox and Wesley were
even into the flow of the game, they were down big. Kind of like playing
for last year's Celtics.=20

Outdoor basketball also can be a great equalizer. The wind. The
peculiarities of the court. All the subtleties that go into making
playground basketball different than a regulation game played indoors.=20

``We also had played a lot together,'' Lynch said, ``and they came
together on the fly.''=20

Still, by halftime, it was apparent a big upset was in the works. The
Rhode Island team was up by nine, and all the pressure was on Fox and
Wesley. NBA players aren't supposed to lose to lawyers and teachers, no
matter where the game is played. NBA players don't want to be
embarrassed, even if it's a July afternoon on the Cape in front of a few
hundred people lining a small outdoor court. It's one thing to lose to
Michael and the Bulls in the United Center, quite another to lose to a
bunch of guys who have to go back to the office or the classroom the
next morning.=20

``The second half was a total grind,'' Lynch said. ``They didn't want to
lose.''=20

In the end, though, the Rhode Island team hung on, 66-62. Ivey-Jones
scored 21, Troy Smith got 18, Lynch 16. Wesley led the Boston team with
30. Fox? Fox had eight.=20

``Some of the guys on the Boston team were upset afterwards,'' said
Lynch, ``but Fox and Wesley were gracious. They were quiet, but they
didn't run and hide. I admire them for that. In a way I felt for them.
They had nothing to win and everything to lose.''=20

And there's no doubt that for Fox and Wesley the game was quickly
forgotten, just some minor blip on a much larger radar screen. Come the
fall they will be back to the NBA, back to a basketball life that has
little to do with a small outdoor court across the street from the beach
at Falmouth Heights.=20

Still, for the guys on the Rhode Island team, it's one of those magical
basketball moments. Everyone who has ever played secretely measures
themselves against the best, wonders how they'd do if they ever really
get the chance. Everyone fantasizes about the NBA, the sport's Oz, the
magical kingdom that always seems so far away. But for a a couple of
hours on a summer afternoon in Falmouth, the gap between who advances in
basketball and who doesn't seemed a little narrower.=20

``It was just one of those games we're going to remember forever,'' said
Patrick Lynch.=20

The day they beat the two NBA players.=20

The story they'll be telling around the water cooler some day and no one
will believe them.=20

A basketball version of a fish story.=20


Copyright =A9 1997 The Providence Journal Company
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