Basketball camp comes full circle for Boston Celtics rookie Terry Rozier, former Shaker Heights teammates

http://highschoolsports.cleveland.com/news/article/-3046439027367425877/basketball-camp-comes-full-circle-for-boston-celtics-rookie-terry-rozier-former-shaker-heights-teammates-video/



Basketball camp comes full circle for Boston Celtics rookie Terry Rozier, former Shaker Heights teammates (video)



By Matt Goul, Northeast Ohio Media Group

on September 19, 2015 5:51 PM




SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio – A 6-foot-1 Boston Celtics rookie stood in line Saturday afternoon with three elementary school-aged children for a game of knockout.

Make a basket before the person behind you or be eliminated.

Terry Rozier bowed out to the three remaining children. Almost a week before training camp with the Celtics, Rozier returned to Shaker Heights High School for a two-day camp that concludes Sunday.

His elimination during knockout came on a dunk that hit the back of the rim, just before the boy behind him sank a short jump shot. About 45 children in grades four through nine signed up for the camp, Shaker Heights boys basketball coach Danny Young said. Most of them looked on and roared with laughter at Rozier. He looked to former high school teammate and current manager, Markeese Lavette, standing on the baseline.

“I couldn’t,” Rozier told Lavette.

A 2012 Shaker Heights graduate, Rozier knows some of the children at his camp. He was the same age as some of them when he moved into the school district as a fifth-grader from Youngstown. Young said he heard about Rozier’s basketball potential around that time.

Young finally met the future University of Louisville and Celtics player as a seventh-grader, who then told Young of his desire to reach the college and professional levels.

“It’s been a real joy seeing Terry interact with some of the kids from around the area,” Young said Saturday. “What we’re trying to teach them is through hard work and dedication, and being determined, your dreams can come true.”

Young posed the idea of a basketball camp in June during Rozier’s NBA draft party, when he was selected by Boston with the No. 16 pick. Rozier has returned to his alma-mater before, speaking to Young’s team, but this trip brought some former teammates.

Rozier's manager, Lavette, played as a senior during Rozier’s freshman year with the Raiders. So did Anthony Wells, now a JV coach for Young. Two of Rozier’s classmates, Greg Robinson and Nick Thomas, also returned Saturday to play again with him. The five, some drenched in sweat, participated in drills and played full-court games with campers.

“When we were seniors in high school, we’d come to the camps,” Robinson said. “As soon as (Rozier) started his own thing, we said we’ve got to keep it going. There’s no other place like coming here to Shaker to do it.”

Freshman Kevin Bishop came to Shaker Heights games when he was younger to watch Rozier. Standing 6-3, Bishop is now trying to make the basketball team and had his turns Saturday guarding Rozier.

“He called me a little body,” Bishop said. “He said I wasn’t strong enough for him.”

Those words provided incentive for Bishop to seek the weight room.

“See if I can compete with him next time,” he said.

Rozier intends to return for future camps and this marked his second of the summer. He held one in Louisville and plans to have another in Boston. Lavette said he wants Rozier to return home during the NBA season, but added that depends on breaks in the Celtics’ schedule.

Lavette doubted the All-Star break would provide an opportunity. He hopes Rozier participates in some facet.

Young is sure of it.

The Shaker Heights coach proclaimed his first pro will be NBA Rookie of the Year to campers who circled around them at the end of Saturday's session.

Rozier took questions from the campers. One asked who’s his favorite NBA player.

“D-Wade,” he responded, referring to the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade.

Another asked whom Rozier sees himself dunking on this season.

With a smile, Rozier had an answer.

“LeBron,” he said.

One more time, the children roared with laughter at him.



bob
MY NOTE:  Rozier is from Shaker Heights?  I thought Shaker Heights was a very well-to-do neighborhood.  According to Wikipedia the median income there is $105k.  65% of the population have college degrees or better.  That's more than double the national average.  This is no "poor, inner city" kid here.


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He's from a really rough area in Youngstown. In the fifth grade he moved in with his grandmother is Shaker Heights. After his dad went to jail for a deadly robbery or something. I think he and his family were even threatened by the associates of the deceased robbery victim.