The Rise & Fall of the NYC Hoops Empire

[SJUalum98]

Long read

Link to full article:http://www.gothamhoops.com/the-rise-fall-of-the-nyc-hoops-empire/

Excerpt:

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS

“We veneer civilization by doing unkind things in a kind way,” George Bernard Shaw

Last Christmas, The New York Times asked basketball insiders to name the top 5 basketball players of all-time in New York City.

The page is remarkably interactive, peppered with old high school photos of New York High School basketball luminaries. At first what felt like a basketball junkie’s utopia became a Thomas Cole’s Course of Empire template: the savage state, the Arcadian, the Consummation, destruction, and desolation.

I could line up players by decade, by high school or by borough. Simultaneously, realizing that there is a thin barrier between memory and history. The former is a personal account distorted by time, fogged by emotion, clouded with imprecision; the latter can be a septic, cleaner, well-sculptured version.

Examining New York City basketball today and it is clear that it has become a corpse of its former self. Only crumbs are left from the once grand kingdom. Historically, empires die slowly rarely do they suddenly collapse. New York City has been the sick man of basketball for decades. “When did it collapsed?” is not the right question. “Why it started to decline?” is a more profound question.

 

[SJUalum98]

The rise, reign and fall of New York City’s Riverside Church AAU Basketball dynasty


He wasn’t hard to find. If you turned on ESPN you saw Lorch, who had amassed a multi-million dollar personal fortune practicing corporate law, seated behind Lou Carnesecca and the St. John’s University bench at Alumni Hall and Madison Square Garden.

At the time, St. John’s was a nationally relevant, perennial top-10 team flush with the talent that flowed in from the Riverside Church program.


Ernest Lorch (Right) seated next to a young Ron Artest
During the ’90s, the Riverside roster was a Who’s Who in basketball: Metta World Peace (then Ron Artest), Erick Barkley, Kareem Reid, Lamar Odom and Elton Brand played together on a Riverside team that obliterated all competitors.

Full Article: http://blacktopxchange.com/2013/08/...itys-riverside-church-aau-basketball-dynasty/