Baltimore doesn?t have a team in the National Basketball Association, but the city?s representation in the league may be more prevalent than it?s ever been.
When Donte Greene and Joey Dorsey were selected in the NBA Draft last week, they joined a growing list of Baltimoreans who have reached the top of the basketball world.
The Memphis Grizzlies selected Greene, a Towson Catholic graduate, with the 28th pick, with Dorsey, a former star at Douglass High, going five picks later to the Portland Trail Blazers. But before they were given their jerseys, they were traded to the Houston Rockets.
Dorsey, who grew up in west Baltimore, said it?s his responsibility to maintain the tradition of the city?s best players thriving in the NBA.
From Dunbar?s David Wingate, Reggie Williams and Muggsy Bogues in the late 1980s to Dunbar?s Kirk Lee and Calvert Hall?s Duane Ferrell in the 1990s, the city best players have made millions playing on the game?s biggest stage.
But the NBA?s spotlight has never been brighter on Charm City since the Bullets left for Landover in 1973 than right now.
Denver?s Carmelo Anthony ? a former standout at Towson Catholic ? is a two-time All-Star forward recently named to the squad that will compete in the Olympics. Forward Rudy Gay, a former star at Eastern Tech and Spalding, is thriving in Memphis by averaging 20 points per game. And a few weeks ago, guard Sam Cassell, another former Dunbar star, likely cemented his status as the city?s most accomplished player by winning an NBA title with the Celtics, the third of his career.
“Just look at Sam Cassell,” Dorsey said of the 38-year-old guard. “He?s just part of a great tradition we have in Baltimore. We?re all close friends and have all talked about how to become better players and build on this tradition.”
Cassell is in the twilight of a professional career that began in 1993, but Greene and Dorsey?s are in the infant stages.
“Baltimore is an underrated basketball town,” Anthony said. “We?re always producing some of the top players in the country.”
Greene, a 6-foot-9 small forward, already has turned to Anthony as a mentor, asking him how to prepare for a career as a multi-million dollar athlete.
“He told me to stay focused ? the work is just beginning,” Greene said. “You?ve got to keep working. It feels good [to represent Baltimore]. Especially for me, I wasn?t always the most talented guy on the floor or in the area. It was hard work, a lot of hours in the gym. Especially these last couple years.”
Dorsey said he hopes to mirror Anthony?s philanthropy. Anthony founded the Carmelo Anthony Youth Development Center in 2006 and contributed $1.5 million to the Living Classrooms Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides education and job training for children and young adults in east Baltimore.
“I got to come back to Baltimore recently and saw a lot of kids in the same position as me when I was younger,” Dorsey said. “I?m hoping now I?ll be able to give back a little and help my family at the same time.”
