FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2010
KLMNO PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL MIKE WISE
Jogging memories of war puts basketball into perspective
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across South Texas, was given the following choice by a Corpus Christi judge: “Jail or the Army?” That’s how the son of a millionaire ended up in the Tet Offensive, pulling the trigger as an infantryman alongside poor kids whose fathers’ connections and money couldn’t get them out of Vietnam.
“I think it gives her a more worldly view of where I was at her age as opposed to where she is now,” Holt said. “It helps with perspective, no doubt about it.” It’s been a grim week or so in the sports-owner business, a week that needs a story not about a feud in Cleveland or funeral for the Boss in New York or even Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban. We need one about an original Texan, how he continues to make sacrifices four decades after he served his country. Holt called to say he was personally pledging $1 million to the construction of an education center to be built beneath the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall, an $85 million project that will give the names on the wall a human face and identity beyond the chiseled granite. On Wednesday, he asked fellow Texans to meet that pledge in order to honor their 3,416 names on the wall, the third-most Vietnam casualties by state. The goal is to display all 58,267 photos, along with stories, letters and many of the more than 100,000 mementos now stored in a Bethesda warehouse by the National Park Service.
“Some will be of them in football uniforms or with family members before they left,” Holt said. “We don’t want them remembered as just fighting and dying in Vietnam. We want people to know that this was someone’s cousin or uncle or brother or grandfather. They’re going to be immortalized in a way they haven’t before.” According to the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial Fund, about $26 million has been raised for the museum — meaning, as chief fundraiser, Holt has his work cut out for him. In this economy he knows not all the other 49 states can go to www.
buildthecenter.org to match his pledge. But he’s hopeful people will not forget, either. Holt was in country by September 1967. During the spring of 1968, a fragmented bullet lodged in the base of his neck. He had volunteered with two other soldiers to rescue his fellow soldiers from a burning tank in the middle of a large cemetery. Holt played dead for seven hours, using the bodies of two comrades to blanket himself until the North Vietnamese eventually pulled back. As he saw the Americans roll past, he stuck up his arm and was pulled to safety. “We got ambushed and I had no place to go,” he recalled. “It was an open field. We were on one side, and they were in a tree line on the other side. It was daylight and there was no cover.” There were other firefights, and in Holt’s unit, only one other soldier who originally came in with him returned home alive. He personally knew 54 soldiers from his company whose names are on the wall. He was later awarded the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart.
During his tour of duty, no
one ever knew he was the son of a millionaire, or that his old
man later told Holt’s commanding officer at a reunion that he could’ve gotten his son a deferment but that, “Peter wanted to pay his dues.” “They didn’t choose to go,”
Holt said, through a slight drawl. “And we did the best we could when we got there.” During his trip back with
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, 11 other veterans and his wife and daughter this past January, Holt finally met the enemy face to face during a lunch and reception in Ho Chi Minh City, still known as Saigon. “They call it the ‘American
war’ over there,” he said. “Some of the men were amputees. Some were wounded in other ways. Look, we were invading their country. At the end, we were talking soldier to soldier, two guys who had gone through similar experiences, thankful we were survivors and still sad many of our friends weren’t.” Gifts were exchanged. Tears were shed. No one was “Charlie” anymore. When I spoke to Allen
Wetzel, Holt’s commanding officer, several years ago, he described his radio operator as “this lanky Texan with a baby face and that silly grin, a 19-year-old, sharp-talking kid with a hard mouth, to be honest. But Peter was a good soldier, a real good soldier.” Holt chuckled at first. Then he added solemnly, “I know the reason I came home is because some of the people I fought next to didn’t. We kind of all know that.” It’s why the last two days of his trip to Vietnam were spent on former battlefields, south of Saigon, where vivid recollections he never expected returned and his daughter saw Vietnam in ’68 through her father’s pain. “It brought back the obvious
sort of memories, but also the memories of the individuals themselves,” Holt said. “Not so much the battles, but the faces of the people I was serving with. I got very emotional.” It’s why, when he came home,
Holt became more driven than ever to bring back those faces, the portraits of the kids he kept seeing in his head before they were killed in action. I am sitting in front of my computer typing this the night after an encore presentation of “The Decision,” LeBron and ESPN’s prom night, which got the country heated and fueled so much of a scorned NBA owner’s animosity that Jesse Jackson felt the need to weigh in.
And all I can focus on is that question Holt asked me when he first called. “What’d you think of the
LeBron-a-thon?” After hanging up with Peter
Holt, I think, like a lot of things in life, it doesn’t matter any more.
wisem@washpost.com
Cavs’ West accepts plea deal Sentence for
two weapons charges permits him to play
by Ruben Castaneda Cleveland Cavaliers guard De-
lonte West pleaded guilty Thurs- day to two weapons charges and was sentenced by a Prince George’s County judge to eight months of home detention, two months of probation and 40 hours of community service. The sentence, which was part of a plea bargain and begins July 26, will allow him to play this NBA season. West had been charged with six weapons offenses and two traffic violations. He pleaded guilty to carrying a dangerous weapon — an eight-inch bowie knife — and illegally transport- ing a handgun. At a court hearing in Upper
LAURA RAUCH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“[The Wizards] just want me to be tough, aggressive, bring a lot of energy and bring some character to the team,” said Trevor Booker, center, who is averaging 8.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in summer league.
Carving his own niche
Wizards rookie Booker is making a name for himself alongside Wall
by Dan Steinberg
las vegas — The Washington Wizards almost immediately dubbed top overall draft pick John Wall the “Game Changer,” a moniker that hangs from Verizon Center’s facade on Sixth Street NW and is plastered on the team’s promotional materials. Wall, though, isn’t the only Wizards rookie taken in the first round with a catchy nickname. And while the name scouts have quietly given Trevor Booker — “Grown-Ass Man” — won’t likely make its way onto official post- ers, it’s just as descriptive as Wall’s. The left-handed Booker, who stands a chiseled 6 feet 7 and 240 pounds, looks like an adult. He isn’t growing into his body — that already happened at Clem- son, where Booker added 25 pounds over four seasons. He has a college degree, and is the first Wizards first-round pick to have spent four years in college since Juan Dixon in 2002. More importantly, while the
team’s recent top draft picks have occasionally been cited for inconsistency and an unwilling- ness to do the dirty work, Booker can’t stop talking about those very things. “They just want me to be tough, aggressive, bring a lot of energy and bring some character to the team,” Booker said Thurs- day afternoon, before the Wiz- ards played their third NBA Summer League game. “Players are brought into the league for different things, and I know my role, so that’s what I’m gonna do.” Booker was mostly silent
RONALD MARTINEZ/GETTY IMAGES
San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt made an emotional return to Vietnam in January.
Thursday night, but led by Wall, the Wizards defeated the Dallas Mavericks, 88-82, to run their summer record to 3-0. Washington scored the game’s first 17 points and never trailed,
with Wall finishing with 21 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds. It was the rookie’s second dou- ble-double of the week, though he made just 4 of 19 shots. Car- tier Martin led the Wizards with 23 points, and JaVale McGee added 18 on 9-of-10 shooting. The summer league is rarely a
perfect laboratory to measure NBA skills, and Booker certainly hasn’t stolen Wall’s headlines. He averaged 8.5 points and 3.5 re- bounds in his first two games, making all eight of his field goal attempts, including a pair of flashy dunks. But during a scrim- mage with Portland on Wednes- day, Booker got teammates out of their seats not by scoring, but with a couple of gritty plays, tear- ing down a rebound with one arm and swatting a layup at- tempt out of bounds. “He’s a guy who can give us a lot of energy, and that’s what we need,” said Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell, who is coach- ing the summer league team. “We didn’t have a lot of energy on our bench last year, but this year we’ve got a couple guys who can bring that energy for us.” Virtually every member of the front office has said something along those lines after the team traded two picks to Minnesota for Booker, who was selected with the 23rd pick. Coach Flip Saunders has talked about changing the culture on a team that was occasionally “pushed around” last season, and Presi- dent Ernie Grunfeld told season ticket holders the team added “some more physicality” with Booker, Kirk Hinrich and others. It isn’t as if Booker is un- skilled, of course. Over the course of a school-record 134 straight starts at Clemson, he be- came one of just eight ACC play- ers to rank in his school’s top five in both scoring and rebounds. He also joined Tim Duncan as the only ACC players with 1,500 points, 1,000 rebounds, 200 blocks and 200 assists. “He can pop and shoot, and
he’s athletic, so when he gets around the basket he can finish,”
Wall said. That athleticism led to an eye- rubbing performance at the pre- draft combine in Chicago. Book- er spent several months working two or three times a week with Lilian Abdelmalek of DSA Train- ing in Atlanta. She tutored him on both his running form and his explosiveness — having him run while dragging two 45-pound plates on a sled behind him, for example — and he impressed the trainer with his dedication. “When I said go, he went,” Ab- delmalek said. “He wouldn’t sit around. He’d get there, and we’d constantly work.”
When he arrived in Chicago,
Booker excelled. His 3.10-second three-quarters-court dash was tops in the combine, just ahead of Wall’s 3.14. He bench-pressed 185 pounds 22 times, behind only Luke Harangody’s 23 reps. His vertical leap was 36 inches, tied for ninth of about 40 prospects (Wall was second), and his per- formance in the agility drill also tied for ninth (Wall was first). The San Antonio Spurs told Booker that in their overall ath- letic calculation coming out of the combine, he ranked first. It’s an usual blend of speed and strength for a 6-7 forward. “No doubt about it,” Cassell
said. “In college he was just more athletic than everyone, and 90 percent of the time he’s faster than everybody on the team as a power forward. But right now he’s learning.” Booker’s father had always
played football, but Trevor never wanted to follow suit, joking that he would have gotten heat stroke. (He did play baseball un- til he was 14, finding success as a left-handed power pitcher until encountering shoulder pain.) But he said administering con- tact is “part of my game,” and said that may have contributed to his newest nickname. “I guess [it’s] because I’m just so tough out there on the court,” he said. “Since I came to college, everybody’s been telling me I’m so tough and aggressive.”
steinbergd@washpost.com
McCarville, Liberty put end to Mystics’ four-game win streak by Vin A. Cherwoo
new york — Janel McCarville admitted she had abandoned her inside game this season. After getting some encouragement to improve the New York Liberty’s post play, she changed her focus. Cappie Pondexter scored 17 points, McCarville had 16 points and 12 rebounds for her second double-double of the season, and the Liberty beat the Washington Mystics, 75-67, on Thursday. “I’ve been playing more out- side, kind of settling for jump shots,” McCarville said. “When I have put the ball on the floor, it’s
kind of been out of control and it hasn’t always ended in a positive note, so I kind of stopped doing it.”
However, with Coach Anne
Donovan and Liberty President and General Manager Carol Bla- zejowski urging her to focus on her inside play, McCarville has listened. “I’ve kind of had Carol and Anne in my ear . . . saying, ‘Go to the basket and stop taking jump shots,’ and I think it’s kind of sunken in at this point,” said McCarville, who shot 6 for 11 from the field and matched her season-high scoring total. “I’m really going to try and go to the
basket and create more and look a little bit more for my shot as well.”
Rookie reserve Kalana Greene added 11 points and Nicole Pow- ell had 10 to help New York (9-9) win for the fifth time in seven games. The Liberty shot 46 per- cent (26 for 56) from the field four days after making 35 per- cent in a 57-54 win over Chicago. Crystal Langhorne had 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead Washington (12-6), which snapped a four-game winning streak and lost for just the sec- ond time in 10 games. “She just does whatever we need her to do,” Mystics Coach
Julie Plank said. “She is the first one in the gym and the last one to leave. She is totally unselfish and gives our team a lot of confi- dence.” Monique Currie scored 12 points, Katie Smith added 11 and Lindsey Harding 10 for Washing- ton, which dropped a game be- hind first-place Atlanta in the Eastern Conference. Playing for the first time since
July 3, the Mystics got off to a sluggish start. They missed six of their first seven shots and turned the ball over six times over the first 7 minutes 41 seconds. Washington shot just 7 for 24 (29 percent) from the field in the
first half, but were 12 of 17 from the free throw line as the Liberty was whistled for 12 fouls. Currie’s layup with 1:50 remaining in the second quarter tied the score at 28 going into the break. After the Mystics cut a 14- point deficit to five midway through the fourth quarter, the Liberty went 13 for 16 from the free throw line to seal the win. The Mystics won the teams’
first two meetings at home by an average of 16.5 points and out- scored the Liberty in the paint by a combined 72-40. They had the advantage in inside scoring again this time, but by 32-26. — Associated Press
Marlboro, West’s attorney, C. Todd M. Steuart, said his client was taking the weapons from his mother’s home in Brandy- wine to his house in Fort Wash- ington when he was stopped by a Prince George’s police officer on the Capital Beltway in the Landover area, miles away from either home. West was carrying two hand- guns, a shotgun, the knife and more than 100 shotgun rounds. West told Circuit Court Judge
Graydon S. McKee III that he felt remorse for the incident. “I want you to know how apologetic I am to you and all the other pro- fessionals in here who do the right thing,” he said. West said he often speaks to Washington area youth who have been in trouble. “I’m able to share my ex- periences with them,” he said. “I’m able to relate to them. If I never dribble a basketball again, I think I found my calling.” Following the hearing, State’s
Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said the sentence will allow West to trav- el to Cleveland for his job with the Cavaliers. West will be al- lowed to attend practices, home games and away games, Ivey said. Prince George’s prosecutors
typically ask for a year in jail for defendants convicted of a weap- ons offense. Judges usually sen- tence defendants with no prior convictions — such asWest — to probation or home detention, Ivey said. The terms of West’s plea bargain ensure he is being treated no differently than any other defendant in similar cir- cumstances, Ivey said. The judge also ordered West to undergo counseling and alco- hol screening, and West also will be in unsupervised probation for two years. West also will have to wear an electronic bracelet, and officials did not know whether he would be required to wear it during games. West pleaded guilty in con-
nection with an incident that oc- curred about 10 p.m. Sept. 17 as he was traveling north on the Capital Beltway on a three- wheeled motorcycle. Authorities said West cut off a
county police canine officer, who pulled him over near Route 214 in Prince George’s County. As the officer approached,
West told him he had a handgun in his waistband, officials said. The officer called for backup and searched West and his vehi- cle.
Three guns were found — a 9mm Beretta in West’s waist- band, a Ruger .357 Magnum strapped to his leg, and a 12- gauge shotgun in a guitar case slung over his back, authorities said. West also had additional shot- gun shells in a backpack, investi- gators said. It was not clear why West was
so heavily armed. Shortly after his arrest, West’s father, Dmitri West, said in an interview his son was “looking behind his back and protecting himself.” West is a 6-foot-3, 180-pound shooting guard. He graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt in 2001, the same year he was named The Post’s All-Met Player of the Year. West played at Saint Joseph’s and was drafted 24th overall by the Boston Celtics in 2004.West was traded from the Seattle Su- perSonics to the Cavaliers in 2008. Last year, West got married and purchased a $1.05 million home in Fort Washington.
castanedar@washpost.com
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