Bringing B-ball back down to earth for students and athletes alike

Chris Matesic, bottom left, leads his basketball and character development program “Life for Champions,” on a weekly basis at the IN-TECH Academy in Kingsbridge. Photos by Karsten Moran

By N. Clark Judd

The hype got to Tevin Williams when he was just a freshman in high school.

“My freshman year was like the best basketball I’ve played,” he said. “A lot of people knew my name. I got ranked … I believed the hype. And I think that’s what slowed my game down a little.”

The Marble Hill resident started making news during his first year at All Hallows High School, a Catholic prep school just a few blocks north of Yankee Stadium. The New York Daily News hailed the point guard as one of the precocious young leaders on the school’s freshman squad, which took a city championship that year, and that was hardly the only attention he got.

Instead of pushing him on, the accolades made him complacent, Tevin said.

Ego can play as much a part in high-school ball as it does in the pros. A 17-year-old who decides he’s arrived when he makes the papers or gets free sneakers after a good season with an Amateur Athletic Union team runs the risk of missing his or her shot at actually getting anywhere.

That, at least, is the problem as seen by Chris Matestic, a Riverdale resident who has been coaching grassroots basketball for about 10 years. A golden ticket to the NBA is a dream for many kids in New York, but Mr. Matestic wants to set their sights on a more immediate goal: College. And toning down the egos of could-be teenage superstars, he says, is a big part of helping them get there.

To help kids learn to be student athletes more in the mold of David Robinson than Latrell Sprewell, he founded Life for Champions, a stillnascent basketball program that combines workouts in the IN-Tech Academy gym with academic help and character development. The Life for Champions team also competes in grassroots tournaments.

“New York City … could be the worst of America when it comes to basketball players who have a sense of entitlement,” Matestic said. “And most of them aren’t even that good.”

A former teacher in city high schools, Matestic, a Kripalu yoga instructor, says his basketball idol is Drazen Petrovic, the late Croatian shooting guard who rose to fame playing for the New Jersey Nets.

His is not the usual idol, though Petrovic is an inspiration to many European basketball players. Neither is his the usual basketball squad. He puts the group of about 15 regulars through yoga routines as a warm-up, and begins and ends each practice by riffing on themes like commitment, showing up on time or collective responsibility.

The kids come for the workouts. But when Matestic stops talking about mastering a jump shot or disrupting the layup after a fast break and starts in on the attitude of a champion, they seem to keep listening.

“With Matestic, we practice for a reason,” said Tevin, now a rising senior at All Hallows.

To help them make the cut academically as college prospects, Matestic has called in Tim Porter, who runs a tutoring business. Tevin will get help this summer to beef up his SAT scores.

Brandon Adams, a forward and rising senior at Manhattan College, went to Matestic’s workouts. When he’s not coming off the bench for the Jaspers, he studies marketing and global business management. He’s still not sure what’s next for him: maybe law school, maybe a return to his family’s business, the Riverdale staple Lloyd’s Carrot Cake on Broadway.

“New York City basketball becomes a business,” Adams said. “It’s about who can win games, and who can get contracts, sneaker contracts to get more kids.”

Real player — and character — development is hard to get in that world of grassroots basketball, Matestic says.

Tevin now keeps his own ego in check. He says being a team player is important to him and plays ball like he means it, firing no-look passes and racking up assists during his workout sessions.

“If I start it off and I get the ball moved and the person gets the shot off, a nice shot, I did my job.” Matestic emphasizes selflessness and collective responsibility. On the court, it manifests itself in more ways than just assists: When you miss, do you laugh and get embarrassed? Do you get frustrated and curse? Do you shrug it off and get back on defense?

Tevin hopes those no-look passes — and, no doubt, the occasional 20- point game — will get him into college. His coaches tell him he’s getting interest, but won’t say from whom.

But that’s only part of the organization’s mission, says Elizabeth Nasser, who has a godson in Matestic’s workouts.

With a professional interest in movement herself, Nasser watches the kids practice, studying their posture, their mechanics. She says she can tell when a player’s routine will lead to knee problems, say, or back problems down the line.

The teens’ body language, how well they listen to what Matestic is telling them about their followthrough and other physical factors, she can read. The inscrutability of teenagers makes it hard to tell if Matestic’s other lessons are sinking in.

“Whether they get it or not, I don’t know,” she said. “I get it.”

This is part of the June 18, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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