NO BETTER FEAT THAN KEITH DAMBROT, FUELED BY LEBRON, BEATING SHANNON JR.
No one expected Duquesne in the Round of 32 in the NCAA tournament, but now that a retiring coach has arrived, he and his players can use James’ shoes and put an end to Shannon’s regretful appearance
The story of Keith Dambrot and Duquesne, a wee school on a hill overlooking one of Pittsburgh’s three rivers, gives life to college basketball’s tremors. Wouldn’t it be masterful if a coach who is retiring at 65, as his wife battles breast cancer, beats mighty Illinois and a fantastic scorer who has been charged with rape?
You know the disgraceful story of Terrence Shannon Jr. In September, he was charged in Kansas yet carries on brilliantly in the NCAA tournament. The school finagled a federal judge’s decision to keep him in the lineup, letting him enhance his NBA career if he is cleared. He won’t be speaking in Omaha, Neb., where reporters have been told he’ll “remain unavailable to the media, pursuant to the advice of his legal counsel.” In other words, those who want to know if Shannon is innocent or guilty have been told to shut up by lawyers and the Fighting Illini.
This is pure joy for Dambrot, who has been revealed not only as a delightful man but as a credit to LeBron James. They met 30 years ago in Akron, where Dambrot was a stockbroker who ran youth basketball programs inside a Jewish community center. Why did he suddenly lose his coaching job at Central Michigan?
He used the N-word as he spoke to his team. The players respected him as a hardass leader and agreed to let the slur pass, but the story was reviewed by the university’s administration, which dismissed him. One day in Ohio, he met James, who was smart enough at 13 to investigate the firing before assuming judgment.
“According to court records, he said he had used the term to connote ‘a person who is fearless, mentally strong and tough,’ in the same vein that players themselves used the term in referring to one another,” James wrote in his 2009 book. “At least eight black players on the team subsequently said that Dambrot had always treated them fairly. I believe them, because I got to know Coach Dambrot as well as anybody and never did I see him act in any way that was racist. It just wasn’t in the man.”
Knowing how James matured into a passionate man who rallied around George Floyd and pushed voters to dump Donald Trump, how thoughtful to see him readily embrace Dambrot in his teens. He pushed hard to have him hired as head coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary, where the team won state titles twice before he returned to college at the University of Akron. He reached the NCAA tournament three times with the Zips but left seven years ago for Duquesne, pronounced “Doo-kane,” where the most famous moment is when former NBA star Norm Nixon — he yelled at Magic Johnson a lot in “Winning Time,” a role played by his son DeVaughn — excelled in the 1970s. That was the last time the Dukes, with 8,200 students and in the shadows of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, made the tournament as a private Catholic school.
And then came Dambrot, whose father played for Duquesne and wanted pride for a university that never tumbled down the hill onto the Parkway. On Sunday, the Dukes advanced to the East Region. On Monday, Dambrot announced he’ll retire after March Madness. By Wednesday, a delivery came from James, who sent each player a pair of his signature Nike sneakers in white and light blue.
“Appreciate it King,” the school wrote.
“Yessir!! Best of luck guys!!” James wrote.
No one was less shocked than the coach. “It just shows how much he cares about us,” Dambrot said. “When a superstar like him calls you after a game, that means something, right?”
The NBA’s all-time leading scorer never has forgotten Akron, opening his Promise School for elementary children through his foundation. “I’m just thankful to have the relationship with him,” Dambrot said. “He’s a better — this is a hard statement — he’s a better human being than he is a basketball player, which tells you a lot. He did a lot for our community.”
The best deed would be to send the Illini back to Champaign, where Shannon can prepare for his court case. For now, after an upset victory Thursday over Brigham Young, Duquesne can further Dambrot’s career. “They just don't want me to retire, I guess,” he said. “I’m trying to get to the promised land and they're making me keep coaching. They’re going to make me an old man.”
On social media, the emoji of a padlock was on Shannon’s X account.
“5 more,” it said Thursday night.
One more, Keith Dambrot will be telling his team.
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.