Newsday's Long Island All-Decade boys basketball players

SJU85 said:
Also found this site.

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The funny thing about this list (other than some blasts from the past) is that there are so many misspellings and mistakes. I can tell you with certainty that the ‘95 Suffolk team, the first name, first-team, says Darryl Bell, we had nobody by that name on our team. We had Darryl Alleyne who is Naheim’s dad. That’s who that’s supposed to be lol. His name would go there alphabetically too.
 
SJU85 said:
Newsday's All-Decade boys basketball players: The 1950s
NBA, NFL and MLB Hall of Famers are among the Island's best high school hoops players of the 1950s.
www.newsday.com

Newsday's Long Island All-Decade boys basketball players: The 1950s

NBA, NFL and MLB Hall of Famers are among the Island's best high school hoops players of the 1950s.
www.newsday.com

Newsday will do one of these for seven decades on boys basketball (they are also doing girls for five decades). The decisions on selections of players were made based on the totality of their careers, not just their high school accomplishments.

The 1950s

Some familiar names but at least two for other sports. The article includes their bios.

Players
Joe Blocker, Hempstead High School
Jim Brown, Manhasset High School
Larry Brown, Long Beach High School
Mike Cingiser, West Hempstead High School
Connie Dierking, Valley Stream Central
George Emma, Freeport High School
Reggie Giddens, Oyster Bay High School
Art Heyman, Oceanside High School
Bill Thiebem, Sayville High School
Carl Yastrzemski, Bridgehampton High School

Coach
Dick Crowley, Oyster Bay High School
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I haven't seen Joe Blocker's name in ages. I went to grade school with him and his brother. He was a multi sport superstar in high school and was supposedly going to Syracuse on a football scholarship when he got caught burglarizing a home. A few years later I saw him selling beer in the stands at Shea Stadium.
 
guinness77 said:
Played against Brian Ehlers and Gary Williams many times. Played against Zendon and Sczerbiak once each. Played against Bobby Hodgson a handful of times. Sczerbiak was a dead eye shot back then. He dropped 39 on us at Draddy Gym in summer of ‘94. He was skinny as a rail (just like I was back then unfortunately), he really filled out a few years later. Williams was just an absolute beast. He was a man as a teenager. We lost to Bay Shore, something crazy, like 110-98 in OT my junior year and he had like 3 or 4 dunks in that game I’d never seen in front of my face before.

Not on the list…played against Vasil Evtimov and Drew Nicholas each once. Just hated walking into that gym. Mike James and Oliver Hinckson in some summer league games. Ed Brown once or twice. Those summer league games and the camp I went to upstate had a bunch of D1 guys but these are the ones I remember the most.

A guy not on the list who was impressive was Kareem Farmer, he had some handle and could drive with impunity. I guess when you got a beast like Williams and a shooter like Ehlers (his brother wasn’t bad either) to dish off to, that doesn’t hurt either.

Zendon went for 36 and 21 against us, he had a good PG too but I don’t remember his name, but we only lost to them by 5 or 7, it was close.

Gotta say, have to give a shout to Hodgson. I know he wasn’t great at Rutgers but that dude was a coach’s son for sure. He could play all 5 positions and he was good at all of them. We played Floyd both years I started but he was even better on his summer team.

Another name you might know is Barry Baker. He was our starting PG my senior year. He was our 8th-grade starting PG and we made it to the County Finals that year and lost at Stony Brook to eventual state champs, Northport. They knocked us out in double OT my junior year too in the semis. lol I hate those guys.
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You played against a lot of great HS players. Respect.
 
bamafan said:
You played against a lot of great HS players. Respect.
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I played CYO, high school, summer league from ‘92-‘95 and went to a high school that annually made the playoffs so, not that I wasn’t good, but it was more of just playing good competition. I played for Jack Loth who was around forever (won the state twice in the 80s) so a lot of our non-league games were tough games because he had relationships with all the coaches on LI. I/we hated our non-league schedule but we mowed through our league (Bay Shore was always our toughest game) because he set us up to be ready which you don’t realize when you’re a teenager.

He also forced me to go to camps which is why I was lightly recruited by UNC-Greensboro and SMU because when I was away I didn’t have the partying to distract me. I was so unmotivated and skinny at that age, it ruined any chance I had. I played 2 summers with a Hills East team too which got me into a lot of these tournaments.

I’m in better shape now than when I was a teenager. I was in insane shape like 8-10 years ago, but for 48, I can still play. Can’t jump like I did. I wish to God I had this will when I was 17 but you know, the youth is wasted on the young and I was stupid. I was on 2 teams that won my age group Suffolk/Nassau/Queens too with the footie and I captained one of them and I threw that away too, lol 🤷‍♂️
 
guinness77 said:
I played CYO, high school, summer league from ‘92-‘95 and went to a high school that annually made the playoffs so, not that I wasn’t good, but it was more of just playing good competition. I played for Jack Loth who was around forever (won the state twice in the 80s) so a lot of our non-league games were tough games because he had relationships with all the coaches on LI. I/we hated our non-league schedule but we mowed through our league (Bay Shore was always our toughest game) because he set us up to be ready which you don’t realize when you’re a teenager.

He also forced me to go to camps which is why I was lightly recruited by UNC-Greensboro and SMU because when I was away I didn’t have the partying to distract me. I was so unmotivated and skinny at that age, it ruined any chance I had. I played 2 summers with a Hills East team too which got me into a lot of these tournaments.

I’m in better shape now than when I was a teenager. I was in insane shape like 8-10 years ago, but for 48, I can still play. Can’t jump like I did. I wish to God I had this will when I was 17 but you know, the youth is wasted on the young and I was stupid.
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Did you camp at Gus Alfieri’s camp or play against his St. Anthony’s team?
 
bamafan said:
Did you camp at Gus Alfieri’s camp or play against his St. Anthony’s team?
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No. We played St. Mary’s and St. John the Baptist as part of our non-league schedule. I do recognize the name though. We played Lutheran too, but that’s Nassau. The big camp I went to was in Oneonta.

I should probably mention I’m 6-foot-7. That had a lot to do with it too. 😂 Can’t teach size.
 
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