City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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In order to discuss the success of his 2015-16 Saint Joseph’s Hawks, Phil Martelli spoke about two people not on the team.

The 22nd-year head coach, talking in front of a room of players, coaches, donors and other friends of the program, was there to help last year’s squad receive their Atlantic 10 Championship rings.

Absent was DeAndre' Bembry, down in Atlanta with the Hawks, as well as Isaiah Miles, who’s begun his professional career in France. The team’s third graduated senior, Aaron Brown, was able to attend before heading off to join his new teammates in Iceland.

But instead of delving into the play of that trio, and the rest of their teammates who won 28 games last year and advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament, Martelli turned his attention to a pair not present: one young man, one young boy.

For it was the way the team treated those two, the coach said, that emphasized what made them special.

This past weekend, the entire Saint Joseph’s community mourned the death of student Jimmy Klingus, who passed away from leukemia at the far-too-young age of 21.

Martelli, who’s one of the most vocal and active members of the Coaches vs. Cancer organization, was made aware of Klingus’ condition in March, while the Hawks were in Spokane preparing for their third-round game against Oregon, which proved to be their final of the season.

So he dialed up the Klingus home, where Jimmy’s mom put her son on the phone.

“The kid was awestruck, dumbfounded and numb, and he hung up,” Martelli recalled. “Isaiah and DeAndre' came to me and they asked if they could speak to him too. The phone rang in his home, and he spoke to DeAndre' and Isaiah.”

An hour before the ceremony, Martelli had received an email from Klingus’ sister. Among other things, she wrote of those calls: “It was the best day in a long fight...as they prepared to play Oregon, the Hawks found time to support a fan in his fight for life. We always knew that Saint Joseph’s was the classiest basketball bunch in the country. Thank you.”

The second example Martelli turned to was a collage of photographs -- including one of the head coach with a young boy, who Martelli identified as “Nathan,” an eight-year-old from Seattle.

Nathan met the Hawks in Spokane by chance, greeting the team as they entered the meal area before a film session. Martelli took a liking to the boy, allowing him to accompany the squad through meals, film sessions and practices.

By the end of the weekend, he was as passionate a Hawk fan as there was.

“When we got back from the Oregon game, everybody’s feelings were hurt; this kid was sobbing on the lobby floor in the hotel,” Martelli said.

Later this summer, at the Hawks’ day camp in Avalon, N.J., Martelli was approached by one camper, who identified himself as “the tournament kid.” It took another full day of camp for it to click -- and sure enough, when Martelli checked his camp list, there he was.

“At a day camp in Avalon, New Jersey was a kid from Seattle, Washington,” Martelli marveled. “Thursday, I went to camp, he was the first one there, his mother and father were there. Whole family, head to toe in Saint Joseph’s gear...I was amazed, I said ‘where did you get all the Saint Joseph’s gear?’ On Wednesday of camp, they drove from the shore to the bookstore (on City Ave.) and bought the bookstore out.”

“He is a Saint Joseph’s basketball fan because of the way these players treated him,” he continued. “That speaks volumes about the way they’ve been raised.”

Martelli’s message was simple: without the team’s personality, without its selfless attitude, led by those seniors, there is no Atlantic 10 championship in 2016. No NCAA tournament appearance, no shot at anything close to 28 wins.

With the program’s four new freshmen and 2017 commit Taylor Funk there, amongst the rest of the 2016-17 roster and many others, it was clear who to whom Martelli directed that message most directly.

To give out the rings, Martelli enlisted the help of former Hawks champions Rodney Blake, Bruiser Flint, Pat Carroll and Daryus Quarles, representing several of the best teams in SJU history: 1986, 2004 and 2014.

Last to receive his ring was Martelli himself, earning his fifth as a member of the Saint Joseph’s organization: four for Atlantic 10 championships in 1986, 1997, 2014 and 2016, the first as an assistant coach and the last four as head coach. He’s also got a ring from the 2003-04 season, when the Hawks won a school-record 30 games and advanced to the Elite 8.

“I'd like to get five more,” Martelli said to cap off the evening. “Make it an even 10 before I finish.”