Street smarts to court sense

For the most part, the sport of basketball has helped keep Adris DeLeon out of trouble.

There was one instance in the past, however, where it helped land DeLeon, now Eastern Washington University’s first-year junior point guard, in jail.

As DeLeon explains, it was a warm summer evening in the Washington Heights District of the Bronx in New York City, and he and some close friends were attending a party. DeLeon, who had become a bit of a legend in the Big Apple’s streetball leagues by then, having earned the nickname “2 Hard 2 Guard,” was confronted by a couple of members of the local high school basketball team, who started talking trash about his streetball exploits.

“They were like, ‘Yo, let’s go to the court and prove who’s better,’ ” DeLeon said. “And I was like, ‘That’s no problem with me, let’s go.’ “

The two groups went to a nearby schoolyard to let things play out. It seemed like an innocent enough way to resolve the matter – until someone suggested they play inside on a real basketball court.

“So we broke into the school and started playing,” DeLeon said.

When the police showed up, the game was still going on. There might have been a chance that all of those involved could have escaped with a stern lecture and warning. But a couple of young men, according to DeLeon, had lost interest in basketball and gone upstairs to vandalize a classroom.

“So when the cops got there, they figured everyone had been doing the same thing,” DeLeon said, “and they took us all to jail.”

DeLeon spent the night in a cell, surrounded by drug dealers and addicts and experienced his own sort of “Scared Straight” epiphany.

“I’ve made some bad decisions in my life,” he said, “but this time, being with all those addicts, I realized this is not really me, and I need to do something for my life.”

Today, DeLeon is playing NCAA Division I basketball for an Eastern Washington team that will try to keep its Big Sky Conference tournament hopes alive tonight when it entertains Weber State at 7:05 at Reese Court.

“I don’t regret any of my bad decisions, because I learned from them all and they got me here,” he said. “I never in my life thought I would be playing basketball at Division I. I figured I would just get a job when I was 20 and keep playing in the streets of New York.”

The 5-foot-11, 165-pounder, who spent his freshman year at College of the Siskiyous in California and his sophomore year at College of Southern Idaho, where he averaged a modest 8.4 points, 3.9 assists and 1.5 steals, has been wildly inconsistent – but almost always entertaining – during his short stay at Eastern.

In a 91-85 overtime win over Northern Colorado, he erupted for 42 points – the third-highest total in school history – and committed only one turnover in 42 minutes. But in a 74-69 road loss to Montana State just nine days later, he turned the ball over nine times.

He has started only about half of Eastern’s 27 games, but is still averaging 12.1 points, 3.0 assists and 0.8 steals for an Eagles team that is 9-17 overall and 4-8 in the Big Sky.

First-year Eagles coach Kirk Earlywine traveled to New York shortly after being hired to get a first-hand look at DeLeon, who did not play basketball in high school, but split his time between the streetball leagues and an AAU team during the summer.

He watched one of DeLeon’s streetball games calling the style “really unique.”

He has been trying to break his flashy point guard’s streetball habits of dribbling too much and trying to make every pass – no matter how simple – a highlight-reel keeper.

“He’s getting a little bit better every night out, but he’s still a work in progress,” Earlywine said of DeLeon. “He’s great at getting his own shots, but he needs to improve at getting his teammates shots, too.”

DeLeon’s teammates also acknowledge he has made strides in trying to adapt to Earlywine’s structured style of play.

“He’s handling the chance pretty well so far,” said sophomore center Brandon Moore. “Sometimes, you still see that streetball-Bronx thing come out, but that’s what makes Adris Adris. He’s really a good point guard when he doesn’t get too crazy with the ball and turn it over.”

DeLeon, who was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York when he was 9, admits the adjustment, even from junior college, where the pace was hectic and points and possessions were in abundance, has been difficult.

“Junior college was more up and down and pressing everybody. The game was really fast,” he said. “In JC, when I make four or five turnovers, it didn’t matter as much because the score was going to be like 105-100. But now, if I make three or four turnovers here it’s a big deal, because the score is going to be 50 to 40-something.

“That’s what Coach Earlywine wants to get me to understand. He tells me to just be fundamental. He keeps telling me don’t make the home run, just make the simple pass, but sometimes I still get out of control and he has to pull me aside.

“It’s different coming from New York City and playing basketball in the streets to a Division I school, but I’m trying to listen and learn.”

DeLeon insists the game – even when played at a more deliberate tempo – is still fun.

It’s still fun, because it’s still basketball,” he said. “I’ve been playing all my life, and I’m blessed to be able to still be playing. I can still do some of what I do back home in Coach Earlywine’s scheme. I just have to find a way to do it where he don’t get mad at me.

“If you do it your way and you don’t mess it up, he can’t get mad at you, right?”