City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Darrien Grady grew up playing all over New York City, the Bronx native honing his basketball skills everywhere from Rucker Park to Coney Island during his early years. When he moved to South Jersey eight years ago, he kept those basketball dreams, but didn’t find the experience he was looking for as a freshman at Moorestown Friends. 

A transfer to the Shipley School two years ago, to play for head coach Phil D’Ambrosio, seemed to be the answer for the young hooper. D’Ambrosio, after all, had helped develop Sam Sessoms into a Division I guard, among other college products, and the 5-foot-10 Grady liked the rest of what the Bryn Mawr school had to offer. 

Then, after just a five-game, COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, Shipley and D’Ambroio parted ways. The new coach was Alvin Williams, the former Villanova guard who’s spent a long time in the NBA as a player, coach and broadcaster.

Grady said he wasn’t familiar with Williams prior to the hiring. It didn’t take long for him to be sold.

“To know he was a point guard too, I already knew I would be able to pick his brain,” Grady said. “It’s just what I needed to take my game to the next level: watch film with him, ask him questions every day in practice, just get to know the game more.

“I loved Phil as a coach but it was exciting to start a new chapter with a new coach, and I know we have a few new additions,” he added “It was kind of like a fresh start with the COVID year [...] it’s more or less like my first year.”

Shipley’s 2021-22 season got off to a rough start, with five losses in the first seven games. But the Friends’ League opener against Germantown Friends was a sign Grady’s picking up something from his new coach. The junior guard was strong on both ends all evening long, leading the Gators to a 71-62 win.

For a program that’s going to be fighting for one of five playoff spots in perhaps the deepest Friends’ League field ever, against another team that’s in the exact same boat — talented, but a tier below the powerhouses in terms of raw talent — Shipley knows that first league win was a crucial one.

Alvin Williams (above, left) and Darrien Grady are working on forming the point guard-coach bond that Williams developed as a player. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“I know we play every team in the Friends League only once, so literally every game could be the deciding factor between playoffs or not,” Grady said. “And especially being the first league game, we wanted to come out with a win.”

The 5-foot-10 speedster, who came in averaging 18 ppg, bettered that by a point, doing most of his damage in the scoring column during the game’s first three quarters. GFS couldn’t stop him from getting into the lane, where he was adept at drawing contact, going 11-of-12 from the foul line, though he also had a few acrobatic finishes.

Those were skills he developed while playing for his father, Darrell Grady, the longtime director of the New York-based travel program Above & Beyond; when Darrien Grady isn’t playing with WeR1, he’ll still suit up for his dad’s program.

“As a little guard, I have to have something to my advantage, and I know that it’s my quickness,” he said. “If I can get by somebody with my shoulders, I know I have them beat."

With several GFS players dealing with foul troubles entering the fourth quarter, Grady started feeding the ball inside to 6-7 junior wing forward Raijon Dispensa, who scored 14 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter.

“I wanted him to get his touches early, and he got their (forward) in foul trouble, and I think late third quarter or early fourth quarter, he fouled out,” Grady said. “I noticed he wouldn’t have a big [defending him], so I’d just clear out his side and let him go to work.”

“Those are examples of Darrien reading the play, knowing the situation,” Williams said. “It’s always a process and he’s going through it, but he’s doing a heck of a job.

“A point guard and coach relationship is always different, because that grows,” he added. “We’re continuously growing, and that’s a good thing as well.”

Raijon Dispensa (above, left) scored 14 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Dispensa, who’s known foremost as a 3-point shooter, scored on several post-up buckets, getting a number of second-chance and third-chance buckets (including a few of his own misses) as he piled up 15 rebounds. Junior guard Imanuel Johnson, who hit two 3-pointers and all seven of his foul shots, finished with 17 points. 

Germantown Friends (7-5, 0-1) got 21 points from junior guard Muhsin Muhammad and 17 points/four assists from eighth grader Jordan Dill, both of whom were impressive in a losing effort.

Williams is going through his own process, the first-year head coach adjusting to running a varsity program for the first time. He’s been involved with the NBA in numerous roles since being drafted in the second round of the 1997 draft: an 11-year playing career (1997-2007), three seasons as an assistant coach (2009-12) and now seven as a part-time broadcaster on the Raptors’ televised games. 

“I do understand the players’ point of view, I understand when you feel like you can do more and you want to do more and it may just not be what’s best for the team,” he said. “It’s really having that understanding and having that empathy (that) players sometimes have a little frustration and they have a little concern, sometimes they even have doubts. 

“It’s up to me in this role to help them get through that, help them understand it’s okay to be frustrated, it’s okay to lose your confidence, but I’m going to hold you accountable for when I ask you to do something, do it, and then your role will expand. That’s the process we’re going through.”

Williams said he’s also noticed that his role as a coach has influenced what he’s noticed in his duties as a color commentator. 

“The same way the professional offensive teams score, do things, and the reasons why they do it,” he said, “is the same way at this stage — only they’re bigger, they’re better, that’s their job, but the fundamentals are still there. So as a commentator, I get to pinpoint the fundamentals or the lack thereof and just commentate about that.”

Shipley won’t have much time to celebrate its league-opening win. The Gators turn around and host seven-time defending champ Westtown School on Saturday at 1 PM. The Moose feature 7-1 Duke commit Dereck Lively II as the centerpiece in a lineup full of Division I prospects.

“That’s the pro side, right, like you have a big game on Tuesday and you’ve got another game on Wednesday,” Williams said. “That’s the piece where you’ve got to make sure you take what you can take, get what you can get out of this, just making sure that we enjoy this for now, but tomorrow’s business, and you start working on that tonight, mentally.”

By Quarter
Shipley:  15  |  21  |  16  |  19  ||  71

GFS:      14  |  14  |  18  |  16  ||  62

Shooting
Shipley: 19-46 FG (4-9 3PT), 29-36 FT

GFS: 25-52 FG (4-12 3PT), 8-15 FT

Scoring
Shipley: Raijon Dispensa 22, Darrien Grady 19, Imanuel Johnson 17, Justin Powell 6, Rocco Morabito 4, Will Lange 3

GFS: Muhsin Muhammad 21, Jordan Dill 17, Amir Staten 7, Hanif Goins 7, Matt Johnson 4, Jaden Palmer-Waldron 3, Ben King 3