Over the years the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) graduated such players as Brooklyn residents Albert King, Pearl Washington, Connie Hawkns, and Stephon Marbury, Sebastian Telfair and Lance Stephenson eventually into the National Basketball Association. The latter three were all city players at Abraham Lincoln High School, located in Manhattan beach, near one of the hotbeds of Brooklyn-Coney Island. These are only some of the great players who came out of Brooklyn. The first four mentioned are now retired actively from the court.
Who will come out of the current crop, who recently completed their careers in the PSAL?
Lincoln really doesn’t have a super star, but over the course of their next four years someone might blossom out. It could also be one player who recently starred in the PSAL championship game and could go on and become a college All-American.
Boys & Girls High captured the PSAL Class ‘AA’ title for the past three years. And not all of the players spend their complete four years at one school. Some transfer out early or after their first year in that particular school to come to Lincoln or another power house. And some came to get an education and play at Lincoln during the course of their early years in another school. And it could be because of basketball reasons, as they want to be part of a school that has a good reputation and develop basketball players in the NBA.
Five seniors expect to be graduating in June from Lincoln — Trevonn Morton, Elijah Davis, Anaselrahm Abdu, Michael Vigilance and Shaquille Davis. For the most part they will be off to college. Nine underclassmen will be back looking toward another title-Anthony Williams, Shaquille McFarlan, David Ivanov, Isaiah Whitehead, Desi Rodriguez, Antonio Albert, Gregory Poleon, Tarkim Edmunds, and the only freshman on the roster and Thomas Holley must step it up another level.
Rodriguez, who tallied 16 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, Elijah Davis, who added 18, and Whitehead added 12 in the championship game against Jefferson at Madison Square Garden. Rodriguez played hard both on offense and defense in minutes of action. Richard Moody led Jefferson with 17 points and defensively stole the ball six times.
“Basketball in Brooklyn is tough,” added Ted Gustus, commissioner of the PSAL in Brooklyn. “After I retired from coaching I became commissioner of Brooklyn basketball. The greatest players who I coached were Robert Phelps, Renaldo Blackman, and John Salley who was at the championship game last week),”
Meanwhile, back to last Saturday’s title game, Lincoln Coach Dwayne Morton said that he didn’t find it much pressure to coach in a championship game with his son on the team. The players come hard to win that game. The game marked the first time that a coach had a son playing in a title game. There wasn’t any pressure on the court, as well. They knew what they had to do to win.
Late in the third quarter Elijah Davis hit on a jump shot to put Lincoln ahead 43-42. The Railsplitters constantly built on the margin, never looked back, and went on to post a 65-52 victory over Thomas Jefferson.
The boys found it very exciting to play at Madison Square Garden and each member worked hard to get there and play there. The coach praised all the players in their effort to succeed, and they did!
The kids had a great opportunity to play on a court on which the best athletes in the country play.
Now comes the state tournament held in Albany, which will determine the top teams in the state in Classes ‘A,’ ‘AA’, and ‘AAA.’
Photo by Lem Peterkin
