City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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OLNEY — The lure is too strong to avoid. Marcus and Markieff Morris are from Philadelphia. They’re proud of it. It’s why the 6-foot-9 twins with ballerina feet from Prep Charter always find their way back home to play in the annual Danny Rumph Classic each summer.

On Saturday afternoon, at the 17th annual Rumph Classic at the Tom Gola Arena, the 32-year-olds still showed why they’re 11-year NBA veterans. Playing for the FOE team, they staved off elimination in the Rumph with an 83-82 victory over former Villanova star and current Minnesota Timberwolf Eric Paschall and CTC.

For a summer league game played on a weekend afternoon, it carried all of the intrigue of a regular-season NBA game, with players diving on the court for loose balls, three technical-foul calls and a combined 43 of FOE’s 83 points coming from the Morris twins, offsetting the game-high 25 dropped by Paschall.

But it was home.

There was no way the Morris twins were going to jog in a B-effort.

How could they?

Played in front of people who had watched them all of their lives, and many who knew of the Morris twins got to tangibly meet them for the first time, posing for pictures, getting autographs, though mostly getting to see two vested NBA veterans with nothing to gain put on a pure grind.

“It’s always great to come home and play in front of the fans,” said Markieff, who’s seven minutes older than his brother Marcus, and who is currently a free agent. “We’ve been playing for so long that this is like family here. Plus, it gives people who can’t afford to go to an NBA game a chance to meet and talk to NBA players.

“It’s why it’s always nice to come back and play here. I love it. It doesn’t bother us. When do people really get a chance to see and react to NBA players? We don’t even see ourselves like that. To us, we’re normal people and this is stuff we normally do. We’ve been playing in this for 10 years.”

Markieff and Marcus still hold residence in Philadelphia. Markieff travels back and forth from Philly to Florida, while Marcus comes back to Philadelphia every summer.

What makes this trip back home a little different is Markieff is a free agent. He’s still a very viable player. He scored 21 in the Rumph victory, 14 coming in the third quarter when he and Paschall put on a little show of one-on-one, with Markieff nailing a series of shots with Paschall on him, to be countered by Paschall showing good range on his shot defended by Markieff, hitting a number of arcing bombs.

The 76ers could use a 6-9 forward with scoring range. Markieff averaged 7.6 points a game last season with the Miami Heat playing in 17 games.

When asked if he would not mind coming back home and playing for the Sixers, Markieff said, “I’m trying. I wasn’t a priority, so we have to figure it out. I can’t wait on them.”

Marcus is set. He’s with the Los Angeles Clippers and averaged 15.4 points in 54 games. It’s the sixth NBA team he’s been with, and is aiming for another five years in the league.

“Hopefully I can get home for one of them,” he said. “I would love to play with my brother in Philly. I wouldn’t mind one day being a Sixer. I’m a Clipper as we speak, but I wouldn’t mind it.

“I love coming home. It’s why I love playing in the Rumph. It’s very important representing Philly and being home grown is the biggest thing. We’re from Philly. We don’t forget where we come from. Playing in the Rumph is sometimes better than playing in the NBA, because you’re playing in front of people who watched you grow up since you were a young child. That’s the biggest thing.

“I like being out there so young kids who might not be able to get to an NBA game could see an NBA player up close, and see and talk to you, and see what we’re about and where hard work can take you. That’s the biggest thing.”

The Morris twins did play together for three years in Phoenix, from 2012-14, and were three-time Rumph champions, one time sharing the Rumph MVP award in 2015.

“The twins are great, we all love that mid-post iso game and what makes them both great is they know how to get to their spots, and it’s something a lot of people can’t do,” Paschall said. “It’s fun competing against them. They make you work. Markieff is a free agent, but he’s going to be fine. Every team in the NBA could use a scorer like him.”

Now, that they’re 32, the Morris twins are far more aware of how to pace themselves. Marcus had ice bags wrapped around his legs after the game and Markieff was stretching during the short stints he was sitting on the bench.

What won’t change, both twins say, is their drive to win.

“That came from when we were small going against each,” Markieff said. “It’s what people saw today in this game. I wanted to win. We’re old heads now, but we wanted to beat those young guys. That’s not never going to change.”

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.