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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
David Greenwood, former UCLA and Verbum Dei star who won an NBA title, dies
David Greenwood adored basketball so much in middle school that he would play for three different teams in three different parks on the same day, multiple times a week. His brother, Al, would be in the car driving around with him between games while David traded in his sweaty uniform for a fresh one, repeating the process over and over. 'He was relentless,' Al said, 'because he loved the game.' At home, David would get tossed around in driveway games by the cement contractor father who was twice his size, only to keep getting back up for more contact. In practices, he shot blindfolded to perfect his form, his brother having to let him know when he was close to going out of bounds so that he could get his bearings. Greenwood, the determined Compton kid who went from a star high school player at Verbum Dei to one of the top scorers in UCLA history to an NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons, died Sunday night at a Riverside hospital from cancer. He was 68. True to the nature of someone who played through debilitating foot injuries throughout his career, Greenwood did not inform family of his illness until the end of his life. 'Everything happened so quickly,' said Bronson Greenwood, David's nephew. 'It was kind of a shock.' One of the all-time great high school players in Southern California, Greenwood and teammate Roy Hamilton were among the final players recruited by legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. They were shocked when Wooden retired shortly after their senior season of high school and was replaced by Gene Bartow. But they decided to stick with their commitments, lured in part by the pitch of a coach they would never play for in college. 'He told me if I went to USC or UNLV or Notre Dame, I'd be an All-American,' Greenwood once told The Times of Wooden's proposal. 'But if I went to UCLA, I'd be able to test myself against 12 other high school All-Americans every single day. ... It was kind of like, 'Come here and test your mettle.' ' Greenwood's work ethic continued to push him as a Bruin. His practices with the team were followed by an hour in another gym, his brother feeding him passes. Along the way, he never shortchanged himself or teammates. 'If he said he was going to shoot 100 free throws,' Al said, 'it wasn't 50, it wasn't 65, it was 100 — and he didn't stop until he got to 100.' Having been dubbed 'Batman and Robin' in high school, Greenwood and Hamilton remained close at UCLA, rooming together and biking to campus from where they lived in the Fairfax District. Hamilton remembered Greenwood as a remarkable rebounder who whipped outlet passes to him to get fast breaks started. 'We would always know how to motivate each other,' Hamilton said, 'and connect with each other on the floor.' Becoming a star by his sophomore season, Greenwood averaged a double-double in points and rebounds as a junior and a senior, finishing each season as an All-American. The 6-foot-9 forward's go-to move was starting with his back about 10 to 12 feet from the basket before faking one way and unleashing a spin-around jumper. One of his favorite memories as a Bruin, according to his brother, was a comeback against Washington State toward the end of his career in which the Bruins wiped out a late double-digit deficit, winning on Greenwood's putback dunk only seconds before the buzzer. UCLA never recaptured the Wooden glory during Greenwood's four seasons, reaching the Final Four his freshman year and a regional final his senior year. But Greenwood remains No. 15 on the school's all-time scoring list, having tallied 1,721 points. After the Lakers selected Magic Johnson with the first pick of the 1979 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls took Greenwood second as part of their massive rebuilding efforts. (Hamilton was also a lottery pick, going 10th to the Pistons.) 'He wasn't exciting, he was steady,' Al Greenwood said of his brother. 'You knew you were going to get a double-double every night out of him regardless of what the score was.' Greenwood started every game in his first NBA season, averaging 16.3 points and 9.4 rebounds while making the all-rookie team. The Bulls went 30-52, their loss total more than triple the 17 losses that Greenwood's teams had absorbed in four seasons as a Bruin. But he persevered through the losing and a series of foot injuries caused by a running style in which his heels would hit the ground before his toes. Al remembered his brother coming back to Los Angeles to play the Lakers and taking his shoes off at home, saying it felt as if they were full of broken glass. 'That was how his feet felt a lot of the time, but he just played even when he shouldn't have,' Al said. 'I always called him The Thoroughbred.' Greenwood would undergo one Achilles' surgery on one foot and two on the other, never missing a full season in the process. In October 1985, before the widespread use of cell phones, Greenwood learned he had been traded to San Antonio for future Hall of Famer George Gervin while listening to the radio. Late in his 12-year NBA career, he was a surprise playoff contributor for the Detroit Pistons when they won the 1990 NBA championship. Hamilton worked for CBS Sports as part of the production team broadcasting the Finals that year. 'Having my best friend in the world on the team and winning a title,' Hamilton said, 'that was a joy for me.' Greenwood went on to own several Blockbuster video stores and coached at his alma mater, guiding Verbum Dei to state championships in 1998 and 1999. His nephew recalled a soft side, his uncle picking him up and giving him a good tickle. Greenwood is survived by his brother, Al; sister, Laverne; son, Jemil; and daughter, Tiffany, along with his former wife, Joyce. Services are pending.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jim Harrick recalls the days of glory at soon-to-close Morningside High
Much has changed in the community surrounding Morningside High. You can see the outlines of SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome, newly built world-class sports complexes that didn't exist when the Inglewood school opened in 1951. Then there's the dramatic dip in school enrollment. Once a high school with more than 2,000 students, the latest enrollment figure has 421 students, which isn't enough to fill bleachers in the gymnasium. The school district has made the decision to close Morningside at the end of June. Students from nearby Inglewood High will move into the space until that school finishes a rebuilding project. Morningside has a long tradition of sports stars having won numerous championships and earned many trophies. The banners visible on both sides of the school gym date to 1951, from track to basketball to football. The school has been particularly known for basketball, with former Lakers Byron Scott and Elden Campbell among its alumni. There's also Lisa Leslie, a four-time Olympic team gold medalist who scored 101 points in a high school game. Stais Boseman was one of the best two-sport standouts from Morningside, leading his team to a state title in basketball in 1992 while starring as a running back in football. An ESPN 30/30 was made in 2017 about what happened to the five starters after the original documentary, "Hardwood Dreams in 1993." No one can offer better insight into the impact Morningside had on their life than Jim Harrick, who won an NCAA basketball title coaching UCLA in 1995 and got his start at Morningside as a junior varsity coach in 1964. 'I go to places in Los Angeles and people come up to me, 'I went to Morningside.' It's amazing,' the 84-year-old Harrick said. He was an assistant coach to Lee Smelser at Inglewood, taking over as varsity baseball coach in 1966 and head basketball coach in 1969 while teaching English. 'My years at Morningside were just spectacular,' he said. 'It was a learning, growing period. The most important thing you learn is how to teach in English class and make lesson plans.' He was around when one of the greatest players in California history was holding court, Raymond Lewis of Verbum Dei. 'My first summer we get into the Gardena summer league,' Harrick said. 'We go play Verbum Dei. My head is going left and right. Oh my God. I've never seen anyone like that. He's one of the top five players I've ever seen.' Harrick had one of the top high school teams in the nation in his final season in 1972, then left to become a college assistant at Utah State and begin a long college coaching career that saw his teams at Pepperdine, UCLA, Rhode Island and Georgia win 472 games. 'The lessons I learned at Morningside propelled me to have the career I had,' he said. Like many alumni, he's sad the school will be closing but the sports program has deteriorated. The football team hasn't been to the playoffs since 2013 and lost to Inglewood 106-0 in a controversial 2021 game. "It's terrible the school district couldn't keep it going," said former football coach Derwin Henderson, who was an LAPD sergeant and coached the last playoff team. "A lot of police officers came out of Morningside." The school district is putting together a project to save memorabilia. Current coaches will have to apply for coaching opportunities in the district. Harrick has lots of positive memories. He remembers holding a camp for fourth-graders, with Scott and Reggie Theus among his campers in the gym. 'We had some great players in the South Bay Area,' he said. 'Our track program was sensational.' Harrick said he studied John Wooden during those years when UCLA was winning NCAA title after NCAA title while using the Bruins' offense at Morningside. 'I thank the Lord every day for the joys of the John Wooden system of basketball,' he said. It's all part of the legacy of the Morningside Monarchs. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
