Still Searching for the Promised Land


Moses "Zach" Marbury


Not selected out of the University of Rhode Island via-Brooklyn’s Lincoln High School and a stop Connecticut’s Milford Academy, Moses Zachary Marbury has never seen a minute of NBA time. Since leaving school after his junior year for the 2001 draft, the closest he’s come is running with the Knicks summer league team team shortly after his older brother, Stephon’s, arrival as the big teams starting point guard. He is now best known for his play in New York’s summer leagues and street tournaments with Fat Joe’s Terror Squad Team, but played in the D-League (Columbus RiverDragons), ABA (Phoenix Eclipse, Philadelphia Colonials) and the USBL, where he was coached by former Knicks shooter John Starks in Westchester.

Though it’s only honest to say that Zach has been greatly, if not totally, overshadowed by his brother’s All-Star success in the NBA, he did have his moments in college. He was second team All Atlantic 10 as a sophomore after being declared ineligible by the NCAA. He averaged 16.9 points as junior and scored a career high 38, including 17 of 20 from the free throw line, in a win over La Salle. While he showed promise and certainly possessed the ability to score, the younger Marbury was never really considered a legit pro prospect.

Lately, Zach has been largely off the radar. With the exception of showing up to run in a few ABA games and spending short seasons in Rucker Park he hadn’t been heard of. You’d figure a player some five years removed from college ball and with limited pro experience he’d wouldn’t even be a though in any minor league draft. However, Zach might have a better chance at getting to the NBA now more than ever. On November 2, 2006 the Albuquerque Thunderbirds selected him with the 12th Pick in the 9th Round of the D-League draft.

NBA ALL-SUBSTANCE ABUSE SQUAD




C – Chris Washburn
Washburn was banned from the NBA for life in June 1989 after he flunked three drug tests in asmany years. Washburn was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the 3rd overall pick of the 1986 NBA Draft. It seemed that he looked like the next Karl Malone, at least in physical appearance, but his moral fiber and work ethic did not match.

He played 72 games over two seasons with the Warriors and part of another with Atlanta Hawks, averaging 3.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. He is widely considered to be one of the biggest busts in NBA draft history. Sports Illustrated named him the second-biggest NBA draft bust in 2005.

He was last known to be in the mortgage business in Dallas.

F - Lloyd Daniels
Lloyd "Swee'Pea" Daniels The 6'7" guard never played in college, nor was he ever drafted by an NBA team, but he did manage to play in 5 NBA seasons for 6 NBA teams. He played for the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors.
In his career, Daniels played in 200 NBA games and scored a total of 1,411 points. Prior to his NBA career, he played in the GBA, the CBA, the USBL[1], and also in Europe.
Daniels is considered to be a New York City basketball playground legend. His problems with drugs overshadowed a tremendous talent. The anti-Lebron James, Daniels was the best high school player in the country who never went to school. His drug problems followed him through several different high schools and colleges.
On May 11, 1989, Daniels was shot three times in the chest and survived. [2] He still has a bullet lodged in his right shoulder.
In October, 2005, Lloyd tried to revive his career by trying out with the Strong Island Sound of the American Basketball Association.

F – Richard Dumas
Aside from displaying tons of playing poetential, Dumas’ NBA career was plagued by substance abuse.
Dumas, a 6'8" small forward from Oklahoma State University, was selected with the 46th pick of the 1991 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns but was suspended for what would have been his first season by the NBA for violation of its drug policies.
Dumas began his first year in the bigs 19 games into the Suns' stellar 1992-93 NBA season, averaging 15.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game as he helped the club win league-best 62 games and an make an apperance in the NBA Finals.
Although Dumas was banned the entire next season by the NBA for further drug violations, he returned in 1995 to the Phoenix Suns, averaging just 5.5 points in 15 games in his final season with that team. Under the influence of former troubled player and then-Philadelphia 76ers head coach John Lucas, Dumas concluded his brief NBA career with a season with the 76ers, averaging 6.2 points in 39 games.
He then continued his professional career overseas, as well as for the Westchester Wildfire of the United States Basketball League.
Richard Dumas retired from basketball in 2003.

G – Chris Herren *above
Chris Herren (born September 27, 1975 in Fall River, Massachusetts) is a professional basketball player who was selected by the Denver Nuggets in the 2nd round (33rd overall) of the 1999 NBA Draft. A 6'2" guard, Herren played for the Nuggets and the Boston Celtics during his NBA career. He played collegiately at Fresno State University under legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian.
Once the subject of the high school basketball book “Fall River Dreams,” and Sports Illustrated magazine cover boy, Herren entered a rehab for abusing cocaine and other drugs during his junior season at Fresno
Herren’s substance abuse followed him across the country. He once told legendary NYC high school coach Jack Curran that Kareem Reid, former Arkansas guard, wasn’t passing him the ball during the McDonald's All-American game because he was white.
In December 2004, Herren rammed his car into a Dunkin' Donuts in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and was found unconscious leaning over his steering wheel. He was arrested and charged for possession of heroin and driving under the influence of drugs with a revoked drivers license.

G – Micheal Ray Richardson
Michael Ray Richardson’s career is one of the more “turn-around” stories of all the sorry substance abuse cases where spoiled atheles messed-up. The 4th pick in the 1978 NBA draft Richardson was an offensive threat and fashy scorer who spent the better part of eight seasons in the NBA with the Knicks, Warriors and the Nets. His problems with cocaine and other substances landed him out of the league by the mid-80’s and later he would personally banish himself to Europe for a 14-year run in which, he said, he kept himself away from bad influences and mostly likely the substances that were easily accessable to him in the states. He often criticized the NBA for never punishing longtime Warriors star Chris Mullin for the alcohol habit he carried through his active playing career before seaking treatment. In 2000, TNT television ran a documentary Whatever Happened to Micheal Ray?, and in 2004 he was named the Head Coach of the Albany Patroons of the CBA where, as a player, he won the ’87-’88 CBA championship.

G/F - Chris Mullin
Like Herren, Mullin was a Tough Irish Bastard (or T.I.B.) and probably was born with the naturall ability to drink an entire case of beer and play in extremely competitive games. Mullin, who reportedly received a sports car when his Power Memorial H.S. closed on him in the 10th grade, played nearly 1,000 games over 16 seasons and averaged just-over 18 points and was a 5-time All Star. As a likeable white-guy, Mullin’s alcoholism was largely overlooked and, in fact, it was only be the encouragement of his then-coach with in Golden State, Don Nelson.

F – Shawn Kemp
One of the sadest stories concerning substance abuse in the NBA is Shawn Kemp. As a star forward for the Seattle Supersonics he brought his team to the finals in 1995 only to loose to the Houston Rockets. Coming out of Trinity Valley Community College, where he transferred after pawning a teammates jewlery at the University of Kentucky and was dissmissed from the team, the 19-year-old camp became almost an instant superstar. A five-time NBA All Star, Kemp began fading into oblivion after being traded to the Portland Trailblazers in 2000. His play quickly began to decline and before long his first season in Oregon ended with Kemp entering a rehab program. At the time many Kemp was so dependent on marijuana that players began finging joints in the locker room. It is rumored that his teammates thought that the 6’10 Kemp would die on the court. After two rough years in Portland he was shipped to the Orlando Magic before he left the league in 2003.

SHAWN KEMP RECENT WRAP SHEET:

On April 4th, 2005 Shawn Kemp was arrested in Shoreline, Washington for an investigation of drug possession. Kemp along with another man were found with cocaine, about 60 grams of marijuana and a semiautomatic pistol, according to the King County Sheriff's Office. On April 29 Kemp was formally charged with drug possession and pleaded guilty.[2] Kemp was again arrested for misdemeanor marijuana posession in Houston, Texas on July 21, 2006. [3]
[edit]

NBA comeback attempts:

In April of the 2005-06 NBA season, Kemp's NBA comeback chances looked promising [4]. The eventual Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks considered adding Kemp to their roster in time for the NBA playoffs. Mavs' head coach Avery Johnson scheduled a personal workout to take place in Houston, where Kemp trained for several months. However, Kemp failed to appear because of undisclosed reasons. The two parties tried to re-schedule a workout but the NBA refused to grant Dallas an injury exception (for a 16th player). Ultimately Kemp did not get a second chance to join the Mavs that season. [5]
In June 2006, the Denver Post reported that Kemp had slimmed down to the playing weight of his all-star days and was determined to join an NBA team, possibly the Denver Nuggets, and finish his career "the right way." [6] The Nuggets ultimately turned their attention away from Kemp, signing power forward Reggie Evans. Kemp drew some interest from the Chicago Bulls in September 2006, but missed his scheduled workout to visit an ailing relative instead.[7]
Despite his most recent legal setback in July 2006, Kemp remains committed to his NBA comeback. Facing the media just days after his arrest, Kemp revealed his weight is down to 257 pounds, its lowest since 1998. [8] However, it remains to be seen if the former superstar can recapture some of his past form and secure a position on an NBA roster in time for the 2006-07 season.

“They Got Game - The Best Basketball Team in New York No One Knows About”
By Matt Caputo
KILLED-by The L magazine (BK/NYC)


Without any help from Isaiah, Larry and oddly enough some effort from an unrelated Marbury, a New York basketball team is sitting upon an eastern conference thrown. The Brooklyn Kings, of the professional United States Basketball League, have been quietly winning division titles and keeping the nest warm for the LIU Black Birds during the off-season. The USBL allows players just out of college and those returning from playing-for-pay overseas to stay in competitive shape, make some extra cash and play for a professional championship. Ten of fifteen current Kings played high school ball in the city, including former St.John’s star Anthony Glover, and and streetball icon Mike Campbell. Despite the league’s organizational troubles, the Kings have managed to overachieve with little fan support by building a quality evening or afternoon of entertainment around a first class minor league line-up.

“Throughout the history of basketball, Brooklyn has sent many, many guys to the NBA,” Head Coach and general manager, Kenny Charles, says in a sugar-cube sized hallway between the home locker-room and the staircase leading out to the main court where the Kings have just defeated the visiting Nebraska Cranes. “Brooklyn is a basketball Mecca, some of the great summer tournaments started here, our goal is to get these guys invited to (NBA rookie and free agent) summer basketball camps when they open.”

Unlike the NBA’S Barnum & Baliey-like events that offer corporately funded and name-tagged giveaways like the beach towel and the sports bottle, the USBL is only endorsing one product, basketball. When not traveling to such exotic outposts as Enid, Oklahoma, Salina, Kansas, and Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, The Kings are very much at home in Brooklyn. Their home games are played in the old Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, which dates back to the late-1800s, on the campus of LIU-Brooklyn, where the building has long been restored into the Schwartz Athletic Center. It is as interesting a sporting venue as any of it’s kind in a town where basketball is “the city game.” While the Kings home court has all the lore and culture one could imagine in a gymnasium, no other arena in the league, save for the large USBL venues of the Midwest, offer as much game atmosphere.

“Right now we’ve got a great ownership group and since they took over we’ve had two twenty win seasons, rapid improvement and we’re trying to build awareness,” says Harris Rappel, VP of Basketball Operations, on the road with the Kings at the Elmcor Youth and Adult Activities Center on Northern Boulevard in Corona, Queens. The Kings are in town to take on the Long Island Primetime in front of a scant crowd of 35 or so observers. Put together just as the season opened, the home team offers no roster print-out to match names to the numbers on their otherwise blank uniforms and play over a PA system given to extended ear bending feedback, but make up for their sub-rag-tag event coordination with free admission. “You need to have faces that people are going to want to come out and see. This year we have a great supporting cast and our coach is an icon in Brooklyn.”

The Kings all-time franchise roster reads like a “Who’s Who in New York City Basketball.” Coach Charles, who played at both, the since closed, Brooklyn Prep and Fordham University spent five years in the NBA. There are ten players currently running with the team who played high school ball in the city and former Kings like two-time NCAA leading scorer Charles Jones, former Archbishop Molloy and Boston College center Uka Agabi and renegade high school phenom turned pro Lenny Cooke, who was USBL Rookie of the Year in 2003, all played high school hoops in the city. The Kings also enlisted the help of Vance Marbury, a point guard out of Ohio, who is no relation to current Knicks point-guard Stephon Marbury. Other notable players making appearances with the Kings over the years include former Seaton Hall star Shaheen Halloway, Kareem Adbul Jabar Jr. and Corey “Homidice” Williams. Ed “Booger” Smith, one of, if not the, most storied “playground legend” of recent time and subject of the documentary “Soul in The Hole,” also sipped short cups-of-coffee with the Kings in the early years.

“When I graduated from St. John’s and the Kings drafted me and I’ve been here ever since” remembers Anthony Glover, who is in his fourth season with the Kings and plays overseas during the winter. Glover, a six-foot-six forward, once powered Rice High School to a few catholic league titles and joined the Kings this season from France. “I get to play at home against my friends, and when I’m overseas my wife and my daughter don’t often get to see me play a lot, I like getting to play in front of my family and in my hometown.”

At one-point, the USBL, dubbed “The League of Opportunity,” was a premier breeding ground for basketball’s high towers and half-pints honing their skills in hopes of making the league. Besides journeymen pros like Billy Donovan (Head Coach of the University of Florida) and Tim Legler (NBA 3-Point Champion & ESPN analyst) the USBL rosters have been filled with a considerably assorted cast of characters stretching from Mugsy Bouges, Spudd Webb, and Charlie Ward to Roy Jones Jr., the boxer, R.Kelly, the singer, football players Randy Moss and Terrell Owens, and Arthur Agee of “Hoops Dreams” fame, to John “Hot Rod” Williams, former Knicks forward Anthony Mason and human-skyscraper Manute Bol.

Recently though, the USBL has declined a bit. In 1999, the league had twelve teams, as of right now there are eight teams but the Pennsylvania Valley Dogs are said to be “not breathing” and the North East Pennsylvania Breakers have cancelled three games on Flatbush Avenue this season alone. Franchises in the boredom infested Midwest may see two thousand fans any given night, but USBL teams in the east seem to be a tough sell even with top quality talent. While the quality of play hasn’t suffered, the USBL is struggling to find a market. The Kings are not unlike the great pizzerias, diners and barber shops in the borough they represent; they’re hard to find, only cool people know about them and you’re lucky if when you find them they’re open for busienss. If they are open, you’ll live and die by them.

“The last three seasons we’ve been winning the eastern conference championship and we want to keep going what we helped start,” said Antwan Dobie, a Corona, Queens native who went to Monsignor McClancy H.S. and also played his college ball at LIU-Brooklyn. “People are defiantly missing something not coming out to see these games.” Dobie, a quick point guard with a smooth shooting touch, plans to pursue a career in real estate when his playing days are done.

“The best part about this league is about being able to come back from Overseas and stay sharp,” offers Mike Campbell, also a city product who played his college ball at LIU, who Slam magazine named among the “greatest playground players of all time. “The worst part about this league is that it‘s not the NBA, but there is no comparison between this and Summer Tournaments where you’re playing for a trophy, this is more serious, guys are playing for something.”