THEY weren’t just the princes of the city. They were the kings of the country. The best AAU team possibly ever assembled.
When the Riverside Church Hawks that played together in the spring and summer of 1996 weren’t winning tournaments in Harlem, they were doing so in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio and California. And they mused about all going to the same college and keeping the magic together.
”We’re all good friends,” said Duke power forward Elton Brand, who was the center on that Riverside team. ”There was a strong camaraderie among everyone. We just played hard and played well. We just wanted to win.
”I remember we’d mention sometimes about all going to the same school but it was somewhat jokingly. It was mentioned, ‘Let’s go to a program that’s kind of down and stick together and just bring it back up.’ We never did that. But the other guys did that with St. John’s.”
The other guys are Ron Artest, Reggie Jessie, Erick Barkley, Chudney Gray and Anthony Glover. Artest, Jessie and Gray helped St. John’s garner its first NCAA Tournament appearance last season. Barkley has come in as a freshman point guard and led the way to the Red Storm’s astounding 16-3 start this season. Glover must sit out this season under NCAA academic guidelines, but he is the foundation of future St. John’s teams.
One can only imagine what a dominating college team they would have made. Just come to the Garden Sunday when St. John’s, ranked ninth by The Post, plays host to top-ranked Duke. Brand, Artest, Jessie, Barkley and Gray may all be on the court at the same time, if not the same team.
But what a team they were along with some other top-flight players such as Lamar Odom, now at Rhode Island, and Colorado’s Aki Thomas. The Hawks went 69-1 that summer and won every tournament in which they competed.
Their only loss came against Team California in a preliminary round game of the Slam-N-Jam Tournament in Long Beach, Calif. The Collins twins – Jason and Jarron – who currently star at Stanford, and UCLA’s Baron Davis were the stars of that team. The Hawks got their rematch in the championship game and won by 20.
”The big thing I’ll always remember about that team is the chemistry that they had,” said Riverside coach Ernie Lorch. ”The camaraderie was unbelievable. We tell our teams today about those guys; about how willing they were to play together.
”They really believed in it’s not who scores as long as we score. We told them, ‘Feel good about your teammates success and you’ll feel good about your own success.”
Now we understand why Mike Jarvis has uttered the words, ”I’m blessed,” more often than he’s had to say, ”time out,” this season. The first-year coach has a team with just one senior – Tyrone Grant – but they’re veterans. Veterans who years ago learned what the price was for playing on a winning team.
”There some problems at first,” said Brand. ”Guys who were stars on their high school teams weren’t happy about coming off the bench. But once we got our nucleus together there were never any problems.”
Artest, Barkley, Jessie comprise part of the Red Storm’s nucleus. Brand, Trajan Langdon and William Avery are Duke’s nucleus. Don’t expect these cells to merge Sunday. It will be the white blood cells trying to kill off the invading infection.
Without senior forward Tyrone Grant, who will miss his third game with a broken wrist, the Red Storm really doesn’t have anyone to body up on the 6-8, 260-pound Brand. Artest, at 6-7, 238, will give it a try but he knows he can’t beat his former teammate with power.
”I’ll have to try to make him run the court and tire him out, hopefully,” said Artest. ”I may give him an easy basket or two just to make him run.”
Brand knows all of Artest’s tricks and vice versa. They are players with dazzling athletic ability and remarkable understanding of the game. But what sets Artest and Brand apart from other plays is the muscle that beats in their respective chests.
Artest said that he and Brand speak on the phone every couple of weeks. Brand said that the entire Riverside team got together for a Christmas dinner at Lorch’s home. Greatness has a way of finding greatness.
”The will to win,” said Brand when asked about his friendship with Artest. ”The inner drive to win games, I feel that Ron and I have in common. We just wanted to win at whatever the cost, you know – dive on the floor, whatever needs to be done, Ron would do it. He’d get me prepared to do it. I’d get him prepared to do it. I think that’s why we became so close of friends. We just wanted to be the best.”
Duke (18-1) might be the best team in the country. Artest might be one of the best all-around players in the nation. When the ball is tossed for the opening tip, the friendship between Brand and Artest will vanish and we can only dream of what might have been.
”I enjoy being with him,” Artest said of Brand. ”I wish he was with us. It was supposed to be me, him and Glover, Reggie and Erick going to the same school. It didn’t work out that way.”
It did, for one summer. And no one who was associated with that Riverside team will ever forget.
”The willingness to play together,” Dermon Player, an assistant coach at St. John’s who coached that Riverside team with Lorch said of the ’96 Hawks. ”To bring a bunch of guys together who were all the No. 1 players on their high school teams and get them to play as one, man, it was magic.”