The dogfight for Brooklyn is back on.
Thomas Jefferson boys’ basketball coach Lawrence “Bud” Pollard and Dwayne “Tiny” Morton, the Abraham Lincoln headman, continued their battle for who is Brooklyn’s “big dog” after the Railsplitters’s 87–77 victory over the top-seeded Orange Wave in the Public School Athletic League Brooklyn borough final at York College on Feb. 14.
“I might be the big dog again,” Morton yelled to Pollard with 30 seconds to play. “I might be.”
The jab was a reference to Pollard’s proclamation he was “the new boss in town” after the Orange Wave upset his top-seeded Lincoln team in the Public School Athletic League Class AA semifinals two years ago.
Morton down-played his comments after winning the borough crown — it was just another well-timed barb in the city’s best boys’ basketball rivalry.
“I feel if Bud thinks he can talk to the media about me, I can do it back,” Morton said. “It’s nothing personal. It’s just jabs.”
Pollard claims he didn’t hear what Morton said from across the bench — others told him. He wasn’t surprised by the comments, joking that his counterpart has been waiting two years to say that.
“Today he is — he is the big dog,” Pollard said. “He’s been waiting to say that a long time. That goes to show you how much that loss hurt him a couple of years ago. Two years later he came back, he can’t sleep at night. It is what it is.”
Lincoln and Jefferson have been dueling for supremacy in Brooklyn and New York City after Boys & Girls won its third straight city title in 2012 against Jefferson. The Railsplitters beat the Orange Wave for the crown a year later at Madison Square Garden. Jefferson returned the favor by winning the next two postseason meetings — that included last year’s borough final with now-Orange Wave assistant coach and longtime Morton assistant Kenny Pretlow as the Railsplitters’ head man.
Things only heated up when Pollard chose to sit his stars Shamorie Ponds and Rasheem Dunn to rest them for the playoffs in the team’s season finale in Coney Island. Morton, who has beaten the Orange Wave twice this year in three contests, called it “kind of disrespectful” and said his players were happy to beat Jefferson at full strength.
“It’s a great win for coach,” said senior guard Cahiem Brown, who scored 30 points in the victory. “Everyone is on his back doubting him about everything. I feel he proved he is still the best coach out here in the PSAL.”
Pollard acknowledged this round went to Morton, but knows this year’s battle is far from over with the city playoffs set to begin.
“Today I guess he was the big dog,” Pollard said. “He won the chip, but there can only be one big dog — know what I’m saying?”