Tomfoolery: Basketball Camp

I went to at least two Auburn basketball camps during the Sonny Smith era. I remember those converse shoes. I had some Lakers purple & gold shoes that I had worn out, and then I bought these light blue. What's funny is that I didn't think of the Carolina Tar Heels and the shoes being their Carolina Blue. I just liked the color. I wore these to the Auburn camp. I am sure somebody gave me a hard time.

I was a Lakers fan in the eighties. The biggest! At one of the Auburn camps, Jerry West was a speaker/instructor. All the campers sat around on the arena floor while he put in a few jump shots. He wasn't missing. He then moved it to half court, where he calmly sank a couple. He had the perfect form! He then spoke to us all about the art of shooting a basketball and what it takes to be a good teammate and leader. At one point, he pulled out signed Kareem, Magic and Worthy jerseys, and said they were prizes for some trivia questions he had. I don't remember the questions, and I never got called on. But if anybody wanted a jersey, it was me.

Once at a camp, I was under the basket at one end of the coliseum floor, and Charles Barkley, who was already with the Sixers then and was assisting at the camp, started running off the court. I was in his path! He ran up, grabbed me and lifted me up over his head, into a ball. I was horrified, yet thrilled! Barkley laughed, then put me down and ran towards the tunnel.

Another time, the "Rifleman" Chuck Person, who was with the Indiana Pacers, led morning shooting drills at 8 AM! And he was out just firing away, like a machine. Nothing but net! Everyone then had to get up and get in line to shoot 3's. Anybody who shot a "brick" had to run up the stairs to the top of the arena and back down before a certain time, with everyone watching. Luckily, I managed to hit iron every time. I am pretty sure at the same camp, the Rifleman's brother Wesley and Lance Weems were campers. They later played at Auburn.