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    Phil Sellers, Whose Basketball Stardom Was Short-Lived, Dies at 69

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    He led Rutgers to an undefeated 1975-76 regular season and into the Final Four, where the Scarlet Knights lost in the semifinals. But his N.B.A. career was brief.Phil Sellers, a brash, high-scoring forward who helped transform Rutgers University into a national basketball power in the 1970s, but whose N.B.A. career lasted only one season, after which he led a quiet life in business, died on Sept. 19 at a hospital in Livingston, N.J. He was 69.His daughter, Kendra Palmer, said that she did not know the cause, but that he had recently had a stroke, an intestinal perforation and other health issues. A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $100,000 to cover the health costs that his insurance did not.Sellers was recruited to Rutgers in 1972 after averaging 33.2 points and 22.6 rebounds a game at Thomas Jefferson High School in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. He was considered the best high school player to come to a New Jersey college since Bill Bradley arrived at Princeton University from Missouri a decade earlier.“Phil Sellers is the biggest catch in Rutgers history,” Dick Weiss, a columnist for The Courier-Post of Camden, N.J., wrote soon after Sellers agreed to play there.He rarely disappointed. He was called “Phil the Thrill,” and, with Sellers leading a team that also included Eddie Jordan, Mike Dabney and Hollis Copeland, Rutgers kept improving. During Sellers’s junior year, when he averaged 22.7 points and 9.4 rebounds a game, Rutgers had a record of 22-7 and played in the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, losing in the first round.Rutgers was undefeated in 26 games during the 1975-76 regular season, Sellers’s senior year. Late in a conference tournament game against St. John’s University that preceded the start of the N.C.A.A. tournament, Sellers clashed with his coach, Tom Young.“Give me the ball,” Young recalled Sellers saying when he described the incident to The New York Times in 1983. “I said, ‘Phil, we’re going to run our offense.’ He said it three times, ‘Give me the ball.’”Sellers scored six points in the next 90 seconds, and Rutgers won.Rutgers then won its first three games in the N.C.A.A. tournament, despite subpar scoring performances from Sellers, to raise its record to 31-0. But the Scarlet Knights lost the semifinal game to Michigan, 86-70, with Sellers scoring only 11 points against the strong defense of Michigan’s Wayman Britt.Sellers’s college career totals of 2,399 points and 1,115 rebounds are still Rutgers records.It was the end of his glory years.Sellers in 1983. His basketball career ended abruptly, but he understood and accepted that he had another, more everyday life ahead of him.William E. Sauro/The New York TimesPhillip Alexander Sellers Jr. was born on Nov. 20, 1953, in Brooklyn, to Phillip and Rita (Bacon) Sellers. As a teenager, he played so much basketball, he told Sports Illustrated in 1975, that “people used to tell me I was going to turn into a basketball.”He was heavily recruited by colleges nationwide and signed a letter of intent to attend Notre Dame, but his concerns about his academic skills led him to back out of the commitment. Instead he chose Rutgers, whose lead recruiter was Dick Vitale, the future ESPN broadcaster, who was then one of the team’s assistant coaches.“Dick Vitale was there all the time,” Sellers told The Courier-News in 2010, referring to his high school games in Brooklyn. “He was an Italian guy; he could talk more trash than the guys who lived there.”Vitale recalled in a text message that Sellers had a “fierce competitiveness that separated him from many,” was “a man playing vs. boys” and “always competed with a chip on his shoulder.”Vitale’s assessment was borne out: At Rutgers, Sellers was a strong rebounder, despite not being very big for a forward — he was 6-foot-4 and weighed 195 pounds — and he played with a confidence that seemed like arrogance at times, and with a scowl on his face. Sports Illustrated wrote in 1975 that he was “always jawing at referees, teammates and opponents,” and “taking dramatic falls during games.”As he explained it: “I get involved when I’m playing. Sometimes I just get carried away.”Sellers became the cornerstone of a strong Rutgers team.“We weren’t a premier program on the East Coast, but when we got Phil he changed everything,” John McFadden, a Rutgers assistant coach, said in a tribute to Sellers posted on the school’s athletics website.“We weren’t a premier program on the East Coast,” an assistant Rutgers coach said, “but when we got Phil he changed everything.”Rutgers AthleticsSellers, a consensus second-team all-American in 1976, was chosen in the third round of the N.B.A. draft by the Detroit Pistons. Converted from forward to guard, he played in only 44 games, averaging 4.5 points a game.“I couldn’t play guard,” he told The Times in 1983. “They had doubts. Even me, I had doubts. There was no way I was going to be too sure of myself. That’s probably where the arrogance went.”He was released before the start of the 1977-78 season but continued to play for a short while, for the minor league Jersey Shore Bullets and for HV Amstelveen, a team in the Netherlands.After he stopped playing, he was a Rutgers assistant coach for four years and worked at various jobs, including records manager at Chemical Bank and the mortgage banking firm Margaretten; bus driver for New Jersey Transit; and, for about a dozen years, assistant to the chief executive at Northeast Sequoia Private Client Group, a real estate investment firm, where his roles included chief of staff, bodyguard and driver.In addition to Ms. Palmer, whose mother, Patricia (Robertson) Sellers, married Sellers in 1999 and died 20 years later, he is survived by a son, Phillip III, from whose mother, Jean Edmonson, he was divorced; a sister, Diane Deas; a brother, Tyrone; and four grandchildren.Although his basketball career ended abruptly, Sellers recognized with clarity that he had another, more everyday life ahead of him.“I’m not going to be one of those guys sitting in the park saying, ‘I’ve been there,’” he told The Times in 1983, when he was back living with his parents. “Kids ask you, ‘What do you do?’ I tell them, ‘I go to work every day, shirt and tie.’ People see me. They say, ‘Phil’s working.’” More

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      Arella Guirantes' Killer Sidestep Is Clearing a Path to the WNBA

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      Arella Guirantes, the star Rutgers guard, hopes to be drafted by her hometown team, the Liberty, this week. But no matter where she ends up, she said she’ll be ready.Arella Guirantes has seemed destined for the W.N.B.A. ever since she stood 4 feet 7 inches tall as a fifth-grader on the varsity team in summer league at Bellport High School on Long Island. Her basketball skills have always been steps ahead of her peers’, and her ambition to be the best against any level of competition has pushed her to the next level.Guirantes, 23, remembers a game from her senior year at Bellport, not for scoring 58 points, but for what she didn’t do. She was alerted with around 2 minutes left that she had scored 50 points, but she wanted 60. She’d missed her team’s first blowout loss against that day’s opponent, Kings Park High School, for showing up 20 minutes late to school.“I just like mentally took a note,” Guirantes said. “When I play them again, I’m going to kill them.”Guirantes brought that competitive fire to Rutgers, where she led the Big Ten in scoring as a redshirt junior during the 2019-20 season with 20.6 points per game and topped that number in the 2020-21 season with 21.3 points per game. Now she appears on the brink of her W.N.B.A. destiny, with the draft on Thursday and Guirantes projected to be one of the top picks.“I mean, every day in practice, she was always that one player that you knew that was just going to compete,” said Kelley Gibson, a former recruiter and assistant coach at Rutgers. “You know, players show up and just sometimes work hard in practice, but Arella competed.”Guirantes is foremost a scorer, and an efficient one at that. In her redshirt senior season, she shot 41.6 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from 3-point range on 4.3 attempts per game. She also had per-game career highs in assists (5.2) and steals (2.2) steals. She was named first team All-Big Ten for the second consecutive year and awarded All-Big Ten Defensive Team honors.No. 11-seeded Brigham Young upset Guirantes and No. 6-seeded Rutgers in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament with a 69-66 victory.Chuck Burton/Associated PressOne of Guirantes’s signature plays is the jaw-dropping sidestep she uses to create space away from her defender off the dribble. She absorbs contact with her strong frame to fade away and shoot off either foot, moving in either direction using constant changes in speed.“You know what, now that you mention that, she did hit me with a couple of those,” said Dennis Smith Jr., a point guard with the N.B.A.’s Detroit Pistons, who has trained with Guirantes.Guirantes’s individual moves are stellar, and her series of jabs, in-and-outs and spins led her to finish in the 86th percentile of all scorers in isolation situations, according to Synergy Sports. But W.N.B.A. front offices are just as excited by her success in pick-and-roll situations. She ranked in the 90th percentile of all players as the ballhandler during the 2020-21 season, according to Synergy Sports.Scoring isn’t the only reason Guirantes’s name has shot up draft boards. Defensively, she’s a hawk, plucking passes and stripping ballhandlers. She’s also a bully down low, afraid of no one. “Oh, yeah, one thing I can tell you for sure,” Smith said. “She ain’t ducking no smoke. That’s a promise. She ain’t ducking no smoke.”Despite standing six inches shorter than the 6-foot-5 Charli Collier of Texas, who some think could be drafted first over all, Guirantes recorded more blocks per game. She credits many of her defensive instincts to her time playing middle blocker in volleyball. “I think I have a good just I.Q. for the game to understand where people on offense are going, when they’re going to put the ball up,” she said. “I have good timing.”The W.N.B.A.’s 2021 draft class isn’t heralded as a strong one, but an experienced scorer like the 5-foot-11 Guirantes could be an immediate-impact player for a contender. She’ll be up against the likes of Aari McDonald from Arizona, Dana Evans from Louisville and Rennia Davis from Tennessee to be the first guard taken off the board. Unlike those three, her team, a No. 6 seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament, was upset in the first round, by No. 11-seeded Brigham Young, 69-66. Fortunately for her, scouts have had five years to assess her talent.“I don’t know if she’s separated herself,” said James Wade, head coach and general manager of the Chicago Sky. “I think when you talk about big guards, you can mention Davis in the same breath. I think it’s more of what you’re looking for and how they kind of fit into your team and the players that you have.”He continued: “I do think that she is a high-quality guard because of all the things that she can do — her strength, the fact that she can create her own shot. I think she has certain qualities that separate her from the bunch, but at the same time it depends on what you’re looking for, versatility defensively or versatility offensively, which I think she has a lot of offensively.”Detroit Pistons guard Dennis Smith Jr., who has trained with Guirantes, said she’s not afraid to challenge anyone. “She ain’t ducking no smoke.”Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star, via Associated PressWade said he believed Guirantes would be selected within the first six picks, three of which belong to the Dallas Wings. Mock drafts place Guirantes as high as No. 3 to the Atlanta Dream. Guirantes said she will be happy no matter where she lands, but the Long Island native is making it no secret that she’d love to play for the Liberty, who hold the No. 6 pick.“That would be a dream come true,” said Guirantes, who grew up going to Liberty and Knicks games at Madison Square Garden with her family and friends from the Boys and Girls Club. The Liberty now play at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.“The Garden has a special feel, but the transition to the Barclays I can’t say is a bad transition,” Guirantes said. “I’d really love to play at the Barclays Center.”The W.N.B.A. draft will be held virtually for a second straight year because of the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, and Guirantes will be lying low until then, working on her game and training. She plans to watch the draft with her family and sweat out the moments until her name is called. In the meantime, she’ll try to avoid looking at mock drafts and people critiquing her game on social media. Maybe playing with Donkey Kong in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate video game on her Nintendo Switch against Smith will pass the time.Wherever Guirantes lands on Thursday night, she’s going to be ready.“My short-term goal is to really come in and make a quick transition,” Guirantes said. “I know it’s a lot easier said than done. But I want to make a huge impact and be in the running for rookie of the year. I think if you’re not going for rookie of the year, then you’re not really trying to help your team as much as you think you are.”She knows about starting strong: In only the second game of her college career, with Texas Tech before she transferred to Rutgers, she sank a buzzer-beating shot to force overtime against Texas A&M.“I really want to make a strong first impression in the W.N.B.A. because the way you start your career is important,” Guirantes said, adding: “That translates to overseas, too. They’re watching. A strong first year in the W.N.B.A is important.” More

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      C. Vivian Stringer Is the Thread Between the W.N.B.A.’s Emerging Stars

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyC. Vivian Stringer Is the Thread Between the W.N.B.A.’s Emerging StarsThe Liberty’s Betnijah Laney and Erica Wheeler of the Los Angeles Sparks are coming into their own after winding paths with a key intersection: Stringer’s coaching at Rutgers.Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer is known for her “55” defense, with all five players involved in full-court pressure.Credit…Gail Burton/Associated PressMarch 1, 2021, 12:01 a.m. ETErica Wheeler still remembers vividly what Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer, standing in the Wheelers’ home, told Wheeler’s mother would happen if her daughter came to play for her.“She told my mom, ‘She won’t just be a basketball player,’” Wheeler recalled of the conversation between Stringer and Wheeler’s mother, Melissa Cooper, who died in 2012. “‘She’s going to know how to speak in front of the camera, she’s going to know etiquette, she’s going to know how to carry herself, and she’s going to be a young woman when she graduates college.’”Wheeler, who turns 30 in May, has worked to become the woman Stringer promised Cooper she would be. She has shown a toughness that has carried her on her professional journey to 14 teams overseas after she wasn’t selected in the W.N.B.A. draft, to regular playing time with the Indiana Fever and now a multiyear deal with the Los Angeles Sparks.A parallel story unfolded in the life of Betnijah Laney, 27, in her case a second-generation Stringer player. Laney’s mother, Yolanda Laney, took Stringer’s Cheyney State program to a pair of Final Fours, playing at a level Stringer said would have made her the top pick in the W.N.B.A. draft had the league existed when she graduated.Instead, Yolanda became a lawyer and poured her basketball knowledge into Betnijah, who came to know Stringer like a second mother and chose to play for her as well, at Rutgers. Betnijah Laney, like Wheeler, struggled to find a foothold in the W.N.B.A., getting cut twice before blossoming with the Atlanta Dream in 2020 and winning the league’s Most Improved Player Award. This off-season, she signed a multiyear deal with the Liberty, and she is expected to take on a key role for a revamped team featuring guard Sabrina Ionescu and the newly acquired center Natasha Howard.That’s not to say that Laney’s familiarity with Stringer — from basketball camps where Yolanda coached and visits during family vacations — protected Laney from what she described as “moments she’s testing you mentally.”Betnijah Laney blossomed with the Atlanta Dream in 2020 after struggling to gain a foothold in the W.N.B.A.Credit…Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press“You’re either going to come along,” Laney added, “or get left back.”That’s part of the bargain, too, one that both Laney and Wheeler credit for giving them the strength to persevere through some early setbacks in their professional lives. It’s a common Rutgers story: An overlooked Stringer player sticks around and proves herself in the league. Such was the case for Chelsea Newton, picked 22nd over all in the 2005 draft before making an all-rookie team and, two years later, an all-defensive team, and for Tammy Sutton-Brown, who was picked 18th in the 2001 draft and became a two-time All-Star.But Stringer isn’t certain whether a Rutgers player is born or made. She didn’t even set out to recruit Wheeler, before getting a close look at the 5-foot-7 sparkplug in the huddle at an A.A.U. tournament. Wheeler’s teammates had their heads down after the opposing team made a run, but Wheeler was in their faces, reminding them of what they could do.When Wheeler took her official recruitment visit to Rutgers, Stringer wanted to make sure that A.A.U. version of Wheeler would be a part of the package.“I said, ‘Can you speak truth to power?’” Stringer said. “‘Because you’re going to be a freshman. Can you say the things you need to say, as a member of this team?’”Wheeler assured her that she could. Soon, Wheeler’s mother called Stringer while the coach was on vacation at Walt Disney World, and delivered the news for her daughter, asking Stringer to “make her tough, so that she can tackle the world.”It was different for Laney, who had all but decided to play for Sherri Coale at Oklahoma instead. But a phone call from Stringer, Laney said, reminded her: “I know this woman. I’m sure that she’ll take care of me, that she’s going to be everything that I need in a coach.”Laney and Wheeler played together under Stringer for two seasons. Laney knew what to expect because of her mother’s experience, but Wheeler had a rough adjustment period. Stringer asked Wheeler, a longtime shooting guard, to learn to play the point in her sophomore year. Playing time was scarce as she struggled with the new position. Wheeler said she considered transferring.Stringer is known for setting high standards for her players at Rutgers.Credit…Benjamin Solomon/Getty ImagesBut both Wheeler and Laney spoke highly of Stringer’s trademark intensity, and her approach to helping them overcome physical and mental barriers — “breaking them down to build them back up,” Stringer would say, meaning constantly questioning them to make them think and to act with purpose.Stringer recalled Wheeler vociferously objecting to a rare time that Stringer went easy during conditioning drills. Wheeler insisted that she and her teammates finish. And Laney offered to switch positions from the 3 to the 4, simply because, as she explained it to Stringer, “she was the one who could get those 10 rebounds a game we needed.” And she did, averaging 10.7 per game in her senior year.Wheeler and Laney have stayed in close contact since college, with the two texting each other encouragement throughout their free-agent processes, and connecting by FaceTime after each one signed a new contract. And they are there for current Rutgers players. Guard Arella Guirantes, who Stringer said should be the top pick in the 2021 draft, said she hears from Wheeler and Laney all the time.“We like to call it a secret society,” Guirantes said. “Because we understand: You come here, you hold yourself to a standard, really. And those who we have in the league now, we always have our sisters.”That standard led to the Sparks signing Wheeler this off-season to take over starting point guard duties, after she increased her assist percentage for three straight seasons. But Wheeler did not play in the 2020 season after learning she had Covid-19, with complications leading to fluid around her heart. She tested positive for the coronavirus in the spring but wasn’t cleared to resume playing basketball, she said, until October.Erica Wheeler was named the most valuable player in the 2019 W.N.B.A. All-Star Game.Credit…Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesIt was Stringer’s voice in her head reminding her that she could overcome this as she had so much else. Stringer’s voice, too, reverberates in Laney’s head every time she gets into a defensive stance, the fruit of years of drills and operating in Stringer’s famous “55” defense, where all five players are engaged in full-court pressure.The coach’s voice is clear in their minds off the court, too. Wheeler said she could hear Stringer when she achieved her goal last year of buying a house by the time she turned 30. And she channels Stringer whenever her foundation, the Wheeler Kid Foundation, holds another basketball clinic.Is she as demanding of the young players as Stringer is on Rutgers players?“No, I’m not that hard on them,” Wheeler began. But then she sounded an awful lot like her former coach. “I do demand a certain presence when you’re in my camp. When you’re not willing to work, or you want to joke around, you can get out of my gym.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More