Denzel Washington may be the most famous native of Mount Vernon, N.Y. But growing up, he had the chance to play against a number of future NBA stars from his hometown — and watch some of basketball’s greatest legends play on his own home court.
Mount Vernon has produced several NBA standouts, most recently Chicago Bulls guard Ben Gordon. When Washington was a boy, during the 1960s, he grew up alongside a number of future college and pro players. Some of them refined their games at the same Boys Club that played a major role in Washington’s development.
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Clinton Young Jr., now the mayor of Mount Vernon, remembers his old friend Washington as a fierce competitor and “a tremendous athlete.” However, future West Virginia University standout Lowes Moore, who also played in the NBA, concedes that he, Washington and other younger roundballers were sometimes on the outside looking in when the serious games got started.
“We were in awe of guys like Gus Williams, Rudy Hackett, Earl Tatum,” Moore says, mentioning three future pros who came from Mount Vernon.
“On Sundays sometimes, Nate ‘Tiny’ Archibald would come down, Dr. J [Hall of Famer Julius Irving] would come down, and Ollie Taylor and guys who played for the Nets, and they’d play Gus and Earl and the other guys,” Moore recalls, adding wistfully, “All these great players, and all we could do was look through the fence.”
Moore, who has served as executive director of the Mount Vernon Boys and Girls Club since 1993, says Washington still stops in for his hoops fix when he’s in town. At one pickup game during the filming of the 1996 movie “The Preacher’s Wife,” Moore remembers Washington taking a hard fall.
“So he goes down, and all the guys who are with him from “The Preacher’s Wife” are going, ‘Hey! If he goes down, we all lose our meal ticket!’ ” says Moore, laughing.
