Month: April 2018

By Matthew DeGeorge

It’s not easy to get Isaiah Wong to crack a smile on the basketball court. Even dressed in his school uniform, tasked with the very un-competitive pursuit of taking portrait photos, a certain steeliness dawns once he steps on the court at Bonner & Prendergast. He’s not going to cross anyone over in his dress shoes, but the basketball in his hands still inspires the impassiveness of his visage.

There’s a couple of tricks to get Wong to offer a glimpse at his pearly whites, though. Bring up the number of close games his Friars played this year — 16 decided by 10 points or fewer, five that went to overtime and an 8-1 mark in the Philadelphia Catholic League in games decided by seven points or fewer — and you’ll see a hint of a grin curl up the corners of his mouth. Mention the prospect of rising to the individual challenge of playing in the Catholic League, and the smile grows wider still.

If you want to get Wong beaming, though, just bring up the chants — those heckles about him being from New Jersey and the student-section antagonism of “Ov-er-ra-ted” that he heard in cramped gyms across the Philly this year. That’s a sure-fire method to piquing Wong’s amusement.

(click on this link for the full story as well as links to the All-Delco team)

By Christopher A. Vito

In flashes, you can see Rondae Hollis-Jefferson on an NBA court and envision him wearing an orange-and-black uniform. The tools he developed at Chester High are the ones he showcases nightly on basketball’s grandest stage.

The smoothness that enables him to push the ball up the court in effortless strides. The creativity required to make acrobatic shots look routine. The aggressiveness to clean the glass against rebounders four inches taller.

Those attributes are constant, win or lose. And for Hollis-Jefferson, now 23, his team’s losses have far outnumbered its victories.

“I’m human. It wears on you. It definitely has its days,” he said.

Hollis-Jefferson’s most-pressing task, the one linked intrinsically with his pro career, is the ongoing rebuild of the downtrodden Brooklyn Nets. The third-year pro is compiling his best season as the club’s longest-tenured player, one whose leadership extends beyond his place atop many of its stat categories.

Beyond basketball, he focuses on change — changing lives, changing outlooks, changing what the future holds for children in Chester. The irony, he freely admits, is that a guy so dedicated to change remains the same.

(click on this link for the full story)