BY RONNIE GALLAGHER
SALISBURY POST

You’d think Marvin Moore would have felt totally out of place.

Here’s a professional basketball player from a small North Carolina town in Hertford County — Ahoskie, to be exact — suddenly finding himself in Stockholm, Sweden, surrounded by guys named Sven and plates full of Swedish meatballs.

Moore, a former Division IIAll-American at Catawba College, is always asked about the culture shock.

Culture shock? Not hardly.

“Every late night and every morning, I watched Oprah, man,” laughed Moore, in town last week working out with his former coach Jim Baker. “Sweden has embraced the American culture. Everybody speaks English.”

So Moore understood his Swedish coach quite well when he told Moore he was basically being fired after this past season, despite starting all 16 games he played and averaging almost 20 points.

Moore, whose dream was to play professional basketball, had received a good dose of the reality that is professional sports.

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Moore, understandably, was a little confused by the move. With the help of his agent Mark Simpson, another former Catawba basketball star, he tried to face the cold hard facts.

“We weren’t winning as much as we should and things had to get done,” Moore said. “And when somebody has to leave, it’s the Americans who go.”

But basketball is also played in every nook and cranny of the world. And Simpson knew it. In less than two weeks, Moore had another destination: France. He will now play for another club team, this time in Monte Carlo.

“After every rainy day, the sunshine comes,” saidMoore from Livingstone College’s Trent Gym, where he was watching the Blue Bears play his alma mater. “I’m leaving Dec. 26 and I’m excited.”

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Excited that his dream of the NBA is still there.

Moore’s dreams have been on the sweet side and in the nightmare category since his senior season at Catawba ended in 1999.

It has been a wild ride.

First, Moore had to immediately overcome the stigma that Division IIplayers can’t perform on any level higher than the South Atlantic Conference.

“A lot of people say it doesn’t matter that you’re Division II ... but it does,” he said. “In Europe, especially, if you’re not Division I, they think you can’t play. You just have to push through that sterotype.”

Baker seemed to realize the pitfalls of being D-IIalso. He knew Moore would need an agent to get his name out and set him up with Simpson, who got him tryouts with the Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets.

Pat Riley certainly made an impression once the Heat’s free agent camp began. He didn’t just watch. He coached hard, twice a day.

“Trust me, Coach Riley knows what he’s talking about,” Moore said. “I have so much respect for the guys on the next level.”

There were sprints, 3-on-2 and 2-on-1 drills, more sprints and more drills. Finally, the free agents would scrimmage for the last 30 minutes. And that’s where Moore, who was a two-time SAC’s Player of the Year, proved he belonged.

“Imissed out on playing that type of quickness by being Division II,” he said. “But I held my own. I was proud of myself. Guys were like, ‘Who are you and where are you from?’”

Moore recited his stock answer: A small school in North Carolina called Catawba.

“No one had heard of it,” Moore chuckled.

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Despite playing well, he would need to hone his game to get the opportunity at the NBA. He didn’t care where.

And he proved it by okaying Simpson’s deal at a job in Turkey. But just before he left, one of the worst earthquakes in history hit, practically destroying the country.

“I was skeptical about that whole thing anyway,” Moore said of a trip to the Middle East, “so when that happened, I was like, ‘Idon’t want to be there.’”

With no other options, Marvin Moore did not play organized basketball last season. He tried to work out by himself while coaching at his high school. Then, came the chance at playing for the club team in Sweden.

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Sweden is not Turkey. It is a beautiful country and Stockholm is a burgeoning metropolis of 2 million.

The perks aren’t bad. Moore received a house, a car, a contract for around $40,000 (tax-free) and — get this — 30 free meals per month.

“It was real cool,” Moore remembers. “The only thing you have to pay for is food and phone calls.”

His one free meal per day came at the club’s expense, considering it owned its own cafe.

“You ate whatever you wanted, from steak to — yes, I ate ‘em — Swedish meatballs. It was real good food.

“Everything is set up for you,” Moore explained. “They have a job, telling you, ‘We’re going to make you comfortable. Your job is to go out and win games.’”

Sweden takes it basketball seriously too, according to the 6-foot-2 point guard.

“There were always packed crowds. You have to take into consideration that this is their professional league. People embrace it.”

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European teams can have two Americans. Moore and Davidson College’s Landry Kosmalski were the two Yankees on this one.

There are two sets of rules.

“European guys know that, win or lose, they’re going to be there,” Moore said. “If we lose, we won’t be. If those guys come in and don’t feel like playing hard, there’s more presure on me and the other American.”

Moore also learned the European basketball golden rule: you better score if you’re from the United States.

“Over there, they think about scoring,” Moore said. “Assists, steals, stuff like that, doesn’t matter. If you score 30 and have no other stats, you’ve done well.

“One game, I almost had a triple-double and they gave the Player of the Game to another guy. He looked at me and said, ‘This is ridiculous.’ But that’s just the way it is.”

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Moore’s season in Monte Carlo will last through the spring. He expects to return to North Carolina May 28.

He can hardly wait to go.

“I sat out a whole year and it was terrible,” he said. “I’d sit around, saying, ‘I want to play! I want to play!’”

He’ll now get his chance. And at 23 years of age, there is plenty of basketball left.

“In two years, I’ll be in good enough shape and be good enough to go where I want,” Moore said. “That’s the NBA.”

So the next stop of that journey is France.

Moore will leave his Tobacco Road home and head to a foreign land, where he knows that once again, he must adapt to brand new — and sometimes strange — surroundings.

But we should not fret for Marvin Moore. He’ll be fine.

Monte Carlo television carries Oprah.

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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports editor of the Post.