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The scrimmage ended as Junior Hairston let fly with a long 3-pointer. It missed, the Parkland High School players cheered as if they had actually won something big and the two teams got in line to shake hands.
“I was fouled. I’d have been on the line,” Hairston announced to each and every Mustang. “I’d have been on the line on that one.”
West Rowan basketball coach Mike Gurley rolled his eyes. He’d heard that stuff before from his 6-foot-7 rising junior forward/comedian.
But Gurley also laughed a little. This is summer basketball and teen-agers like Hairston just want to have fun.
Nobody seems to have more fun than Junior Hairston, Gurley’s personal whipping boy. Gurley rides him and pushes him toward the star-status that most experts see in his future.
“Junior!” snapped Gurley during one timeout, peaking a glance at his mom in the bleachers behind the bench. “Your mother is a nice, attractive lady. Don’t make me holler at you.”
During another timeout, Hairston whispered something that led Gurley to playfully pop his chest.
“They’re just good friends,” noted guard T.J. Gaither.
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They really are. Gurley has been seen taking Hairston to the store with his own son, Hayden, buying him beef jerky. He orders Hairston to sweep the floor and Hairston immediately orders someone else to do it.
Which leads Gurley to shake his head once more.
“Junior reminds me a lot of myself,” the 6-5 Gurley said. “He’s goofy. But he loves what he’s doing. And I can deal with kids like that.”
Well, sometimes. Hairston likes to imitate pros. Earlier in the year, he said, “I’m Ray Allen.” Thursday night, he said, “I’m Kevin Garnett.” But it’s when he tries to be Allen Iverson that Gurley cringes.
Hairston has a wing span that reaches from Mount Ulla to Mount Mitchell, so when he tries the Allen Iverson “freak move,” (where Iverson dribbles side to side), it is occasionally a bad impression.
“Iverson dribbles about four feet from side to side but with Junior’s long arms, he goes about 12 feet,” said Gurley. “I think I could steal the ball from him.”
So Gurley stays on him some more.
“He enjoys being a teen-ager,” Gurley said. “And he knows how I am and I know how he is. He’s a nut.”
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West Rowan plays a lot of summer basketball. The Falcons have traveled to Roanoke, Va. for a tournament. They have played against Howard West’s 4A champ Winston-Salem Reynolds squad. They’ve gone to West Charlotte.
And Thursday, Gurley invited Mike Pennington’s talented Parkland High team to Mount Ulla. A very talented team. And Gurley knew he was shorthanded when he walked into the gym.
Donte Minter is in Colorado Springs for the National Sports Festival. He can handle that. But where were his 6-7 twins, Phillip and Jason Williams?
A contractor had taken them to West Virginia to roof houses.
“He took both. The least he could’ve done was leave me one of ‘em,” Gurley joked.
So that meant Hairston was the only big guy who started last season.
But this is summer ball and Gurley knew what Hairston, the twins and Minter can do. This would give him a chance to watch others.
Like Kendall High, a 6-5, 250-pound hulk who is being heavily recruited by ACC schools. In football.
“The boxout’s there, Kendall,” stressed Gurley. “Get those big husky, all-county, all-conference, all-state football arms up in the air and get the rebound!”
When K-High did, Gurley was the first to give him a K-High-five.
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Gurley watched his little guys too. It is obvious T.J. Gaither, a rising junior, has taken his game up a notch. He hit pull-up jumpers, made crisp passes and stole the ball from the very quick Mustangs.
“I’ve been playing a whole lot,” said Gaither, who also isn’t intimidated being one of the smaller players on the team.
“In middle school, we had a big team,” he shrugged. “I was the only one under six feet. So I’m used to it.”
Gurley smiled at Blake Scearce. The redhead was red hot. And Gurley likes him. He really likes him.
Brian Avery and Darren Ramsey made moves that had the smattering of people who were watching ask, “Where have those kids been?”
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Of course, no one had to ask who Junior Hairston was. Once, when a teammate fell , Junior stopped to help him up. Meanwhile, Parkland headed downcourt for a fast break layup.
“Don’t help him up, Junior!” bellowed Gurley. “He can get up himself. Go play defense!”
Gurley stayed on everybody. You’d think the summer would be a time to relax but Gurley doesn’t want to relax.He’d try to post up his grandmother if it meant a win for West Rowan.
“The summer’s important,” he said. “This is when a player develops.”
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Hairston is raising eyebrows. Gurley has Division I coaches whispering in his ear that they want Hairston.
Playing with Scooter Sherrill helped Minter get noticed. Playing with Minter next year will help Hairston in the same way.
“It’s there for him,” said Gurley. “But he has to take care of things. He has to be a complete person. He can’t just be an athlete.”
There’s little doubt he has the potential to play big-time basketball. And he’ll do it, if he doesn’t go on the tube first.
Gurley knows former Georgia Tech star John Salley is now a comedian with his own talk show. “I thought, ‘Spider Salley ... that’s Junior Hairston,” he laughed.
So Hairston is Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett — and now, John Salley.
But he and Gurley will tell you all he wants to be right now is Junior Hairston.
And he was fouled on that last shot, you know.
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Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4256 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com
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