Before his sterling career at Manhattan Center, the Sports Illustrated cover story, the sexual assault case that cost him a year of college basketball, his scintillating first three years at LIU, Richie Parker was a streetball legend. He started at Rucker Park the summer before ninth grade, the summer of 1989, scoring 45 points in his debut.
From then on, he was known on the famed Harlem blacktop as “The Believer.”
“I’ve been playing ever since,” he said.
Indeed, Parker hasn’t missed one summer, playing up to four games a day some years. He is in his 20th year of street ball, playing in five different leagues – Hoops in the Sun, Tri−State Classic, Entertainers Basketball Classic at Rucker Park, the Dyckman tournament and Together We Chill. He even coaches his own team in the newly formed Together We Chill, based out of Harlem, and plays with the Bingo All−Stars in the other four.
Parker has added considerable mass to his once lithe 6−foot−5 frame. He is a step slower, the result of age on his once pogo−stick legs. He still can finish, but his shot gets rejected occasionally.
“He’s like our heart and soul,” Bingo All−Stars coach Bingo Cole says. “He is tough, he plays hard all the time. I love coaching Richie. He doesn’t argue, he doesn’t look to be selfish. He understands the game.”
Unlike many of his teammates and opponents, he doesn’t have illustrious dreams. He doesn’t see an NBA contract, or even a CBA invite, in his future. Through the years, he has either played with, against or become friends with stars like Stephon Marbury, Ron Artest, Kevin Garnett and Shawn Marion.
They all tell him he should be in the league with them. Parker shakes his head. It wasn’t meant to be. He is happy with what he accomplished. He has a son, Richie III, who is now 10 years old.
“I don’t take it as a negative, I take it as a positive,” Parker says. “I made my mark in basketball.”
Parker isn’t done yet. He wants to be a coach one day. He has a steady job, as the assistant director of student activities, at Long Island University, the school that gave him a chance 12 years ago when nobody would.
He is around the basketball team there, often stopping by practice at coach Jim Ferry’s request. Ferry will bring recruits by Parker’s office.
LIU is the place he gained redemption, after he plead guilty to sexual assault as a senior at Manhattan Center, losing his scholarship to Seton Hall and scaring off other Division I suitors. It was where he made the NCAA Tournament as a freshman and earned a degree in sociology.
Parker has been out of the news for quite some time, basically since that magical winter in 1997 when he played second fiddle to Charles Jones, then the nation’s leading scorer. It was the last time the Blackbirds made the NCAA Tournament.
He is still reminded of it by students at the school.
“That’s special,” he said, smiling.
At 33, Parker isn’t ready to leave the sport he loves. He may not be the same player, but the passion remains.
“It’s great to still come back,” he says, “I still get the job done. The game is a little different. I use my knowledge now. I’m teaching as I go along. The young guys appreciate it.”
How much longer will he keep playing? Parker isn’t quite sure. “Until I feel I can’t do it no more. I’ll know when to move on. I’m like Shaq – I got three more years.”
