“MERCY MERCY….JEROME KERSEY” was gone at age 52
II
He collapsed in the Portland Trailblazer parking lot Wednesday…. To drive home, complaining he wasn’t feeling well. Knee surgery a week earlier.
A blood clot in his left leg broke off and migrated to his lungs.Pulmonary thrombosis.
. III
No grandeur of stats could forecast the inevitability of an overachiever: a human dynamo and complete player, from a class two college where he dominated the basketball acrobatics.
The grief counselors were speechless. His wife and children were stunned. His teammates Terry Porter “we grew up together”, Clyde Drexler, Gus Williams, Kevin Duckworth awakened to their own “ how fragile mortality is.”.
The unselfish overachiever and teammate, playing for a ‘w’ , an allegory for poetry in motion. A musical over drive, translated by the Harlem Globetrotters into an acrobatic “trapeze” in agymnasium, awed spectators in the bleachers… later hooplacameras, ESPN, referees to maintain the clean cut rules of a competition, originating in schoolyards and academia, to the pros, the moneyed halls of status and the Hall of Fame, once their stepping stones of legendary flesh, had come complete circle…
George Mikan, Julius(“Doctor J”) Irving, Earl the Pearl Monroe,7 footer Bob Kurland,
IV
What could a Nobel Prize conquistador Ralph Bunche, himself a basketball “honky” from Los Angeles City College and UCLAsay…. his Howard University Professorship(History) but a leg up on these grand- children of sharecroppers, finding theirRoyalty in Abe Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, a hundred years later.
Skin pigment breaking the color line at in UCLA’s BrooklynDodgers Jackie Robinson, the Wilbur Johns John Wooden God’s Way, opening it up for “Wilt”, Bill Russell, Brooklyn bornMichael ”Air” Jordan, Wesley Unseld.
“Mercy mercy Jerome Kersey”
V
24 years of age, a late comer from a Division 2 school,(“March Madness”) to the slam dunk contest, prior to the NBA all star game, he stayed with Michael Jordan, doing the double clutch, hanging time, slight of hands, while suspended in motion 50 points said the judges,..49 and into the final round these twoacrobats, playing out their vision an dream, testing their passionand collective intelligence, translated into the judges had to mathematically diagnosed on a scale: the chords of the space ‘s NASA and the planet of nets, hoops, schoolyards, gyms, sweats, scrambling for loose balls, weaves, man to man, zone defenses,cuts, screens, picks, time clocks to bring the ball down and shootclock…. set shots from downtown,(3 points against a per diem2) with one hand (“Hank” Luisetti of Stanford) from the antiquated and ancient two handed set of a Wally Kaplan(Midwood High’s p.e. Chairman Julie Raskin) or *Dolly Kin gat Madison Square Garden..
VI
“Mercy mercy, Jerome Kersey”……
”Doing the dirty work. Diving for loose balls, leading the fast break.” Rivaling the Lakers I n the playoffs: Koby,” Shaq”, Derek Fisher, the Phil Jackson, and his back up coach on thebench…the triangle offense of Tex Winter of USC, Kansas Statementor… his pioneer system evolving..
VII
Mighty “soul” magicians..left hand right hand…dribbling…looking for the open man, a deceptive trajectory that encompasses leadership: intuition, lack of egotism, the ultimate- recognition and the putting themselves I n their right spot of their brother hood and NBA family…..Doc Ramsey, RedAuerbach, Red Holzman, LIU’s* Clair Bee, all fathersurrogates…. breaking down the bias of skin pigment..
“Mercy Mercy Jerome Kersey.”
VIII
Two credits away from his degree, he returned to his alma mater: a small college campus in Virginia, for his culmination and degree, returning to Portland, his family … wife andchildren and his role in the community..
Cry the flood of tears until the ducts are empty. A larger than life human came into our ocean of humanity thru the tube…. theweekly pro games and our own school yard dreams of seven and a half decades ago, in the quest for heroes and dignity….”a w”
“MERFCY MERCY JEROME KERSEY”
February 22, 2015. The City that never sleeps
