The Hustle (36 page)

Our team was never going to do more than paper over this rift and perhaps give a few of the black players a shot at bettering their positions in life. There were really no demands on the white side except to simply show up. Lasting friendships can't be built when the power differential flops onto one side. To really work, the group with the advantages—money, position, status, education—has to let down the armor of superiority, has to give up its edge.

It always struck me, when I spoke with my teammates about our time playing together, that the dominant memories were of joking around during the van rides. No one had clear recollections of our games—it would have been very hard to write about them if Maitland's brother, Rob, had not unearthed a couple of old videotapes. I think those rides, though so brief, showed us possibilities for something different, what we could be—just kids having fun and forgetting, temporarily, Lakeside, the Central Area, whatever individual ruts we were in at school and at home. I've come to see why Coach McClain said the team “worked,” even if the later outcomes for some players have been so sad and tragic. Those moments showed him something that he hadn't seen in his life before, and hasn't seen since. It was a vision of transformation, of our better selves.

A lot of years have gone by. We are all now in the same age bracket as Randy Finley and Willie McClain when they formed our team. There are no more AAU tournaments, no more games, no more van rides. Nothing to bind us together. All we have is us.

In the cafeteria at Zion Prep, the conversation begins to wind down after a few hours. Guys need to get home to their wives and kids. Before we leave, everyone gathers at one end of the room, where there is a stage about eighteen inches high. We arrange ourselves for a photo.

On the floor, from left to right, stand Dino, Mait, JT, Coach McClain, Chris, and Sean. Coach McClain holds the plaque we received for winning the 1986 Western Washington AAU championship, the same one that Chris and Eric had once lofted above a crouching Tyrell.

On the riser, in the back row, stand Damian, Randy Finley, Eric, Coach Miller, and me.

Mait's brother, Rob, tells us to get ready. We smile at the camera. JT—just as he often did two decades earlier—holds his right hand in front of his chest and raises his index finger in the “Number One” pose. Everyone begins to laugh as the shutter snaps.

 

Twenty Years Later

Front Row:
Dino Christofilis, Maitland Finley, John Thompson, Willie McClain, Chris Dickinson, Sean O'Donnell

Back Row:
Damian Joseph, Randy Finley, Eric Hampton, Joe Miller, Doug Merlino

Acknowledgments

One of the main pleasures in writing this book was getting to know my teammates again. To a man, they were incredibly patient with my habit of popping up every few months with a new set of questions. I have tried my best to reflect their voices in these pages.

My family in Seattle and Australia have given essential support throughout: Gene and Inky Merlino; Kay Harvey; Michelle Merlino; Jim and Lynn Merlino; Jean Merlino; Dave and Carlene Merlino; Nik Merlino; Paul, Cheryl and Roman Merlino; Dina Potter; Mary Harvey; Lexi Rado; Noel, Mary and Julie-Ann Gurd, and Kerry Gurd.

Friends have been steadfast with moral support, encouragement, commiseration, and as drinking companions. In no particular order: James Sandler, Brandon Sprague, Alisa Weinstein, Jim Rudd, Millie Org, Robin Shulman, Jessi Hempel, Alida and Rupert Bale, Sunil Abraham, Glenn Gordon, Faye Lane, Charles Hack, Austin Ramzy, Chris O'Connell, Steve Fyffe, Gerasimos Rigas, Amparo Anguiano, Gavin Simpson, Ben Naimark-Rowse, Matt Rodriguez, Roxanne Bartlett and Charlie Frey, Ralph Bruksos, Peter Molnar, David Hill, and Marton Dunai.

Gerald Vandeboe helped me see, many years ago, that writing could perhaps be a worthwhile pursuit. Brendan Koerner, Josh Prager, Tom Zoellner, and Paul Hendrickson gave invaluable professional advice. Jessica Blanchard explained the Seattle school system. Professor Quintard Taylor helped orient my thinking about Seattle's history. The
Seattle Times
gave me a job and experience when I needed both. The UC Berkeley journalism school provided the necessary foundation to build on. Rob Finley saved the day by digging out some old videotapes of the team and went even further by transferring them to DVD. Minky Worden has been the perfect mix of friend and drill sergeant. Bob Bernstein has been a continual source of inspiration, ideas, and jokes of varying quality.

Todd Dayton, Rob Gunnison, Adam Hochschild, and Nigel Hatton each took the time to read early drafts of this book. They provided insights that helped to reshape and sharpen the story.

My agent, Zoë Pagnamenta, has been a steady hand on the tiller, a calming influence, and the perfect guide through the world of publishing. Pete Beatty, my editor, saw the promise in the proposal and helped to midwife this book into being, from top to bottom. He also flies the flag for Cleveland with flair.

Every sentence of this book was written and rewritten while listening to Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, or Miles Davis.

Finally, it would be impossible to ever fully express my debt to Tracey Gurd. She has been my editor, motivator, and best friend for over a decade. Everything would be different without her.

Notes on the Sources

The majority of this book is derived from dozens of interviews with my teammates, almost all of which were recorded and transcribed.

I also relied on the work of scholars and other journalists. The following are some of the works that I found most influential and useful.

Books

Seattle Specific

Cayton, Horace R.
Long Old Road: An Autobiography.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1974.

de Barros, Paul.
Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle.
Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 1993.

Lyons, James.
Selling Seattle: Representing Contemporary Urban America.
London: Wallflower Press, 2004.

Morgan, Murray.
Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981.

Mumford, Esther Hall.
Seattle's Black Victorians,
1852
–
1901
.
Seattle: Ananse Press, 1980.

Taylor, Quintard.
The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District, from
1870
through the Civil Rights Era.
Seattle: The University of Washington Press, 1994.

Sale, Roger.
Seattle: Past to Present.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978.

Spiedel, William.
Sons of the Profits, or There's No Business Like Grow Business: The Seattle Story
1851
–
1901
.
Seattle: Nettle Creek Publishing, 2003.

Others

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Peter Knobler.
Giant Steps
. New York: Bantam Books, 1983.

Baker, Brian.
Masculinity in Fiction and Film: Representing Men in Popular Genres
1945
–
2000
.
London and New York: Continuum, 2006.

Baldwin, James.
Collected Essays.
Edited by Toni Morrison. Library of America, 1998.

Cobb, William Jelani.
The Devil and Dave Chappelle: And Other Essays.
New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007.

Cox, Harvey Gallagher.
Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the
21
st
Century.
Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2001.

Du Bois, W. E. B.
The Souls of Black Folk.
Library of America, 1986.

Cassidy, John.
Dot.con: How America Lost Its Mind and Money in the Internet Era.
New York: Harper Perennial, 2003.

Cookson Jr., Peter W., and Caroline Hodges Persell.
Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools.
New York: Basic Books, 1987.

Cross, Charles R.
Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain.
New York: Hyperion, 2002.

Dyson, Michael Eric.
Holler If You Hear Me.
New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003.

George, Nelson.
Elevating the Game: Black Men and Basketball.
Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.

Gorn, Elliott J., and Warren Goldstein.
A Brief History of American Sports.
Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004.

Joseph, Jamal.
Tupac Shakur Legacy.
New York: Atria, 2006.

Joseph, Peniel.
Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America.
New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2006.

King Jr., Martin Luther.
A Testament of Hope: The Essential Speeches and Writing of Martin Luther King, Jr.
New York: HarperOne, 1990.

Lusane, Clarence.
Race in the Global Era: African Americans at the Millennium.
Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999.

Messner, Michael.
Power at Play.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.

Miller, Patrick B., and David K. Wiggins.
Sport and the Color Line: Black Athletes and Race Relations in Twentieth Century America.
New York: Routledge, 2003.

Musto, David F.
The American Disease: The Origins of Narcotic Control.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Rader, Benjamin G.
American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports.
Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.

Rampersad, Arnold.
Jackie Robinson: A Biography.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Reich, Robert.
The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for the
21
st
Century.
New York: Vintage, 1992.

Reinarman, Craig, and Harry G. Levine, eds.
Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Robinson, Jackie, and Alfred Duckett.
I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson.
New York: Harper Perennial, 2003.

Wallace, James, and Jim Erickson.
Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire.
New York: Harper Business, 1993.

Western, Bruce.
Punishment and Inequality in America.
New York: Russell Sage Foundation Publications, 2007.

Wiggins, David K.
Glory Bound: Black Athletes in White America.
Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997.

Wilson, William Julius.
The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Articles

Much essential research was drawn from several hundred newspaper and magazine articles I collected over the course of several years. The archives of the
Seattle Times,
the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
the
Seattle Weekly,
and
The Stranger
were especially fruitful. Articles of particular interest are, for the most part, referenced in the text.

Web sites

BlackPast.org, the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History

Frontline,
“The Two Nations of Black America” (
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/
)

HistoryLink.org, an Online Reference Guide to African American History

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience (
www.inmotionaame.org
)

The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project (
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr
)

A Note on the Author

Doug Merlino grew up in Seattle. He began working immediately after college as a reporter for a community newspaper in Seattle before moving on to report for the
Seattle Weekly
and the
Seattle Times
. He lived in Budapest, Hungary, for three years, where he edited the
Budapest Business Journal
, and he has reported from Rwanda for the PBS show
Frontline/World
. After earning master's degrees in journalism and international affairs from UC Berkeley, he moved to New York, where he lives with his wife. Merlino has contributed to magazines including
Slate
,
Wired
,
Men's Journal,
and
Legal Affairs
.

Copyright © 2011 by Doug Merlino

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Merlino, Doug.
The hustle : one team and ten lives in Black and White / Doug Merlino. — 1st u.s. ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN: 978-1-60819-215-1 (hardcover)
1. Basketball—Washington (State)—Seattle. 2. School sports—Washington (State)—Seattle. 3. Basketball players—Washington (State)—Seattle. 4. Lakeside School (Seattle, Wash.)—Basketball. 5. Basketball—Social aspects—Washington (State)—Seattle. 6. Seattle (Wash.)—Race relations. 7. Central District (Seattle, Wash.)—Race relations. 8. Racism in sports. I. Title.
GV885.73.S43M47 2010
796.323ὑ6209797772—dc22
2010023030

First published by Bloomsbury USA in 2011
This e-book edition published in 2011

E-book ISBN: 978-1-60819-349-3

www.bloomsburyusa.com