He
played in the Golden Age of NBA basketball, a time when
John Havlichek was out on the floor working miracles,
Bill Russell was an ever present nemesis to opposing
teams and the clutch play of Sam Jones was right out of
a John McLendon text book. His name is Emmette Bryant,
former Boston Celtic and departing member of the
Executive Board of the NBA Retired Players Association.
In 1992, the National Basketball
Retired Players Association (NBRPA) was formed by
basketball greats Dave Bing, Dave Cowens, Dave
DeBusschere, Archie Clark and Oscar Robertson to promote
basketball and enhance the sport’s image. These former
front and back court visionaries shared a goal of
assisting retired players with a variety of services.
With post-retirement objectives in mind, the core
services include career transition, pension issues,
providing comprehensive health care coverage and
encouraging community service for charitable activities,
special appearances and international basketball tours.
The Association also offers the Dave DeBusschere NBRPA
Scholarship fund for members and their children.
The NBRPA is a non-profit
organization consisting of former basketball players
from the NBA, ABA and Harlem Globetrotters. The NBRPA is
a subsidiary of the NBA, and the NBA has made
significant financial contributions to the NBRPA down
through the years. The NBRPA has also partnered with the
National Basketball Players Association.
For the past three years, Emmette
Bryant, Jeff Mullins and Earl Monroe have been serving
as board members of NBRPA. Their efforts have not only
met, but exceeded the organization’s goals and
objectives. As of February 2010, they will make way for
the election of new members to serve the next term.
Back-in-the-day, watching the NBA on
ABC T.V. was ringside viewing of a league with a mixture
of great talent; Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlin, Jerry "Mr.
Clutch" West, Oscar "The Big O" Robertson, Nate "Tiny"
Archibald, "Pistol" Pete Maravich, Walt "Clyde the
Glide" Frazier, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, Bob
"Butterbean" Love, and a dominant 7’2" rookie out of
UCLA named Lew Alcindor. It was indeed a time of three
cheers and other celebratory noise. Soaring even higher
than this galactic cluster of superstars was Emmette
Bryant and his unequivocal champion Boston Celtics.
Bryant grew up on Chicago’s Westside,
infamous training ground for some of the best NBA/NFL
bound athletes pro sports had ever seen. As a youth in
the early 1950s, Bryant excelled in grammar school
academics, making doubles and moving on to high school
at age twelve. In athletics, he was just average and did
not rank among the elite in his community. At McKinley
High School, the play of future Harlem Globetrotter,
Leon Hilliard, caught Bryant’s basketball eye. Hilliard
would break out his dazzling dribbling routine that
would make him world famous, and would also inspire a
future NBA champion who emulated his ball handling
skills.
Young Emmette had a certain
attraction to the big city street life, which found him
occasionally dropping in on classes but hanging out more
in the streets. He still found time for recreation at
the community gym, where a watchful Mr. Hunter spent
time with him and tried to keep him involved with the
positive aspects of athletics at the park district and
the Boys Club. By his sophomore year, Bryant was no
longer dropping in on classes; he dropped out, without
ever playing one day of high school basketball.
Song poet Randy Crawford once pinned
the words to Street Life. Fitting of Byrant’s life at
the time, is the abbreviated version of that song.
Street Life – you can run away from
time,
Street Life – for a nickel, for a
dime,
Street Life – but you better not get
old,
Street Life – or you’re gonna feel
the cold,
Street Life – it’s the only life I
know,
Street Life – there’s a thousand
cards to play,
Street Life – until you play your
life away.
Bryant’s truancy landed him in a
reform school for boys in St. Charles, Illinois, located
about 40 miles west of downtown Chicago. The purpose of
the school was to provide young boys with a good
education, vocational training, along with religious and
military training. Fate would have it that Bryant’s gym
teacher was a Chicago legend, held in high esteem, named
Jesse White. At Chicago’s Waller High School, White was
an All-City baseball and basketball player and again
earned All-Conference honors as a baseball and
basketball player at Alabama State College. White served
in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division as a
paratrooper. In 1959, he founded the Jesse White
Tumbling Team to provide guidance and direction to at
risk youth. White somehow found time to play minor
league professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs
organization and followed that up with a 33-year career
in the Chicago public schools system as a teacher and
administrator. He is currently Illinois’ Secretary of
State. He was not only a beacon of light to Emmette
Bryant, but to thousands of others who drifted far from
the peaceful shores.
As time marched on and Bryant
matured, he enlisted in the United States Air Force in
1955. He trained at Sampson Air Force Base in New York,
and became a skilled radar operator, prepared to
scramble fighter jets at a moment’s notice to any blip
on the screen that appeared to be hostile, threatening
or unidentifiable. Bryant was stationed at the Panama
Canal, and played for a Panamanian and U.S. team that
both won championships during his tour of duty. One of
the servicemen, who had an opportunity to play with the
Baltimore Colts, told Bryant that his skills were
outstanding and that he was better than most players,
and should consider going to college.
Bryant returned home to Chicago and
enrolled at Crane Junior College, and was the leading
playmaker, averaging 36 points per game. Along the way,
Coach Ray Meyer of DePaul University had seen Bryant
play, and invited him to come to DePaul. In 1960,
Emmette Bryant set all kinds of freshman records that
held until another heralded All-American from the
Westside of Chicago, named Mark Aguirre, enrolled at
DePaul in 1978. Four years later, Bryant was graduating
from DePaul with a degree in Physical Education, and was
being drafted by the New York Knicks as a guard and the
Dallas Cowboys as a defensive back.
Bryant wisely chose to play for the
Knicks, and arrived in New York in September of 1964,
joined by two other rookies; Jim Barnes, the overall
number one selection of the NBA draft and 2nd round
first selection, Willis Reed. While with the Knicks,
Bryant would team up with future Hall of Famer and U.S.
Senator, Bill Bradley, and another future Hall of Fame
player in Walt Frazier, before joining the Celtics in
1968. Boston was loaded with great players: Bill
Russell, Sam Jones, John Havichek and Don Nelson. Bryant
added value each time he came off the bench as a
defensive specialist, and eventually broke into the
starting line up.
If you think clowns and mimes have a
heated rivalry, then what do you think existed between
the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers? These two
teams only had to show up at the Boston Garden or the
L.A. Forum to fill it with die-hard screaming fans.
Game 7 of the 1969 NBA finals was at
Los Angeles. With a heart-pounding 7 minutes and 5
seconds to go and the Celtics out in front 101 to 89,
Emmette Bryant was the fast moving point guard, guiding
his team toward victory with 20 points against a potent
Lakers team featuring Wilt Chamberlin, Elgin Baylor and
Jerry West. This was a title fight and the Lakers wanted
a parade, too. Jerry West had his trigger finger stuck
on automatic when he turned on the point faucet and
mounted a furious come back with a triple double of 42
points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists. When the horn
sounded, the Lakers came up short to the Celtics by a
score of 108 to 106. The Celtics were World Champions,
and walked off the court with a tickle me Elmo feeling.
During the series, while at his
hotel, Bryant received a telegram from a woman asking if
he knew a Mr. Harper, who was a retired recreation
teacher from Chicago. The telegram went on to say that
Mr. Harper was now living in Los Angeles and a telephone
number was left where he could be reached. It was signed
by Mrs. Harper. Bryant called the number and reunited
with the man that kept a watchful eye on him as a youth.
Bryant asked Mr. Harper to attend each of the four games
played in L.A. as his guest. When Emmette Bryant was
crowned World Champion, he and Mr. Harper both wept.
"That was one of the happiest days of my life," said
Bryant, as we dined in a Chicago restaurant.
In 1970, Bryant moved on to the
Buffalo Braves, and retired from the league in 1972.
Immediately after his playing days,
Bryant became an assistant coach, one year at Columbia
University in New York and two years with the Seattle
Supersonics. All along the way, Bryant would say, "I’m
just a teacher that happened to play pro ball." Bryant
then went to work for the state of Washington for the
next 30 years, starting out with the Department of
Social and Health Services, in charge of recreation
throughout the state for that department’s correctional
institutions. He later became the Recreation Director at
Mission Creek Youth Camp.
Today, the DePaul University Hall of
Famer is living back in Chicago. He still plays
basketball weekly and even won a championship last year
in a league of extraordinary gents, age 70 and older.
