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Sunday, September 14, 2008 11:12 AM EDT
The same neighborhood for 3 Bona basketball players
Lewis Leonard can't help but laugh as he recalls the days of his high school battles with St. Bonaventure teammate Malcolm Eleby.
His grin widens from ear-to-ear, as if he knows what's about to be asked, and he collects himself for just enough time to answer confidently.
"We always beat them when we scrimmaged," he said. "He'll tell you they beat us, and in a scrimmage nobody really knows, but I feel like we beat them every time."
Leonard and "his point guard" Eleby both hail from Germantown, a predominantly black neighborhood of Philadelphia, about six miles northwest from the center of the city. It is rich in historic sites and buildings, many open to the public.
Germantown, though best-known for its national historic landmarks, also happens to be a hoops hotbed. And it was basketball that first brought Leonard and Eleby together years ago.
"I really knew Malcolm because me and him are from the same neighborhood," the 6-4, 205-pound junior college transfer said. "I went to his playground to play pick-up. It was right across the street from his house, and there's good runs up there, so that's where I went to play at."
Eleby vehemently denies ever losing to Leonard in a high school game – "He knows that ain't true," he says – but the Bona sophomore does remember his days at the Mowery Recreation Center with the friend who "shoots too much."
"Louie stayed right around the corner from me," Eleby said. "I've known him for a long time. I knew Grease (Maurice Thomas), but not as well as I knew Louie. We played a lot of playground leagues ... we played together. He was right around the corner, so we even hung out away from basketball."
Comic Bill Cosby, boxer Bernard Hopkins and baseball's all-time winningest manager, Connie Mack also hailed from Germantown.
Leonard, however, attended Frankford High School along Oxford Avenue while Eleby went to The Franklin Learning Center on 15th Street.
The two schools are separated by eight miles of everything in the City of Brotherly Love – cheesesteak, museums and basketball.
"His coach and my coach were real good friends," Leonard said. "So before the season mine and Malcolm's teams always used to scrimmage each other. He'll tell you they beat us, but I don't think they ever did."
Who scored more?
"I did, of course," Leonard says with a smile.
Leonard went on to play two seasons at San Bernardino Valley College in California, where he was named the 2006-07 Foothill Conference Most Valuable Player. Eleby signed with St. Bonaventure right out of FLC. It's basketball that has once again brought the Philly natives back together, this time as teammates under head coach Mark Schmidt.
"Every time I came into the gym we would talk," Leonard said. "We were really cool. Now since we're back here, our bond is real close because we're from the same city.
"If I really needed to talk to Malcolm, if he was doing something wrong on the court, if I go holler at him, he wouldn't take it the wrong way. He'll tell me the little things I'm doing, too. It's just that bond."
Said Eleby, "Being able to be on the floor with him, it's a lot more comfortable. We know each other. Us being from the same city, we know we can get on each other harder than we would. If Louie screams at me, "get back on D" in another tone, I wouldn't take it in a big way."
Maurice Thomas grew up 10 minutes and two neighborhoods over, in Logan, another largely black area in Northwest Philadelphia. Thomas, known affectionately around campus as "Grease" for handling the dirty work on the boards, met Eleby and Leonard through open gyms and summer leagues.
"He was a couple years older than us," Eleby said, "but we still knew him a little bit. Good players don't go unnoticed like that."
At one point, Leonard, Eleby and Thomas were all within one long outlet pass from one another on the rough-and-tumble playgrounds in Northwest Philly. They've taken far separate roads to get here – Leonard through junior college, Thomas through Texas-El Paso and Eleby as an untested freshman, but come November they'll play together again ... on Bob Lanier Court in the Reilly Center.
The Philadelphia Connection is one of the primary reasons Leonard chose to come to St. Bonaventure.
"Maurice and Malcolm were a big part of why I came here," he said. "So were the coaches and other players, but they were the ones who talked to me on my visit. They were the ones who told me everything about the school."
"When they told me about Louie, I was straight up with him," Eleby said. "After his visit we would text message each other all the time and I'd be telling him about the school. Louie had a lot of other offers, but with me and Grease on the team, I think he felt at home here."
The Bonnies will travel to Philadelphia twice this season, on Feb. 22 to take on Temple , and March 3 to visit St. Joseph's. While each of them beams at the thought of going back home, home can be found at the Reilly Center when they're together.
"Philly players play with that toughness," Leonard said. "Malcolm and Grease, they got my back, and so do the other players. But it's that bond from the same city."
"It's like being back home," Thomas said. "I'm back in the open gym at Philly when I'm with those guys."
(J.P. Butler, a Times Herald sports writer, can be reached at sports@oleantimesherald.com)
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