Scarlet Daily Digest: Coach Greenberg's Top 10 Basketball Players
February 8, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2011
BOSTON - We asked Kelly Greenberg, head coach of the Boston University women's basketball team, to take a shot at naming her ten favorite basketball players of all time. In keeping with her playing experience as a point guard, she showed good vision and selectivity while distributing names from all over the court.
I enjoyed thinking back to my earliest memories of basketball. Fortunately for me, I grew up in Philadelphia, where basketball was kind of my life. My uncle was a legendary high school player; my father was a great player at La Salle, so I was always there. I've been going to games since I was three. So I thought, `Who was my first memory of my first favorite player?' And it was definitely my older sister, Carol. She played at Bishop McDevitt [High School] when it was six-on-six. So I was only five or six years old, and I still remember the crowd chanting "Carol and Annette!" because they were the best two players on the court.
My first big memory of seeing college basketball was seeing Ernie D[iGregrorio] play at the Palestra [home of Penn] for Providence. We're going way back to '72-'73, something like that. I just remember walking away saying `Wow! That guy, he was great!' Obviously, he went on to be one of the best college players ever, so seeing him in person was a real thrill for me. To get a ticket for the doubleheader games at the Palestra was nearly impossible. So my family had 11 siblings, and at Christmastime they would mix up who would get a ticket to a Big Five game in our stocking, and that year it was me and one of my brothers. So we got to see Ernie D in person, which was fantastic.
Then I was thinking that one of our first female college players going back to when games were first on TV was a girl by the name of Kim Mulkey. She played for Louisiana Tech. They had the short-sleeved jerseys, and Kim Mulkey was 5'3 or 5'4--a little guard who ran her team, and they won two or three national championships. That was really the first female athlete I saw on TV that wasn't a tennis player.
Another female basketball player on my list is Shelly Pennefather from Villanova. In her day, she was the premier basketball player. She was a great story because she went on to become a cloistered nun and still is to this day. She's still probably the greatest player to come out of Philadelphia's Big Five.
Then obviously being from Philadelphia, I always have my favorites from the 76ers. Charles Barkley: Always loved him and still do this day [as a commentator] on TNT. He played with such fearlessness. I use him as an example quite a bit with my team. He was undersized; he was overweight at times, but there was no one more tenacious on the court, and I just loved him.
Mo Cheeks is another great, great point guard. You always heard about Julius Erving and Charles Barkley, Darryl Dawkins and Bobby Jones, but Mo Cheeks was just a real quiet leader and steady. I just loved him--always loved his demeanor on the court.
Then probably my favorite college point guard of all time is Bobby Hurley. I'm not a Duke fan, but during his years at Duke I just loved him: again, so small, undersized, and just fun to watch win against all odds and lead his team to I don't know how many national championships.
Right there with Bobby Hurley as one of my all-time favorite college guards is my brother, Chip. I grew up watching him play at La Salle High. He was one of the best players out of the Philadelphia area at that time, and went on to play at La Salle. It was a thrill for my family and me because he was recruited by everyone. He visited Arizona State; he visited Georgia Tech and Bobby Cremins. He could've gone a lot of places, but I'll always remember that he picked his hometown school. As a coach, you always look back at memories in life, and I really learned a lot about loyalty from my brother's decision to stay home and attend there.
Probably my second-favorite player of all time is Kevin Garnett. I use him all the time in practice with our players too. Even last year when he was hurt and not as good a player as he always has been, he always plays with such personality, and he competes. There are two things that I preach constantly to our team: `You've got to play with personality, and you've got to compete!' Whatever it takes to win, you've gotta do it. And Kevin Garnett is really that.
My top player of all time is Chris Mullin from St. John's. I just loved him. He played in the Eighties, when I thought the Big East was at its best. You could tell that he spent all his time at the gym--just shooting and getting better. I always loved the way he played the game--his facial expressions, which sometimes never changed and sometimes changed a lot. I thought he really dominated the game of college basketball in his time.
