High School Legend Dies

Lewis' legend will live forever
Feb. 13, 2001
By Rob Miech
SportsLine.com Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES -- Wherever Raymond Lewis appeared, he was soon gone. A Philadelphia paper even nicknamed him "The Phantom." That applied to his quickness on a basketball court as well as his station in life, which he let the game rule.

Jerry Tarkanian said Lewis might have been the best prep player he has ever seen. That promise, however, turned into a series of sorrows as Lewis lacked the discipline to excel in the sport.

The final sorrowful chapter of Raymond Lewis was written Sunday, when the legendary Los Angeles sports figure died at the age of 48 from complications following the amputation of an infected leg.

Bob Hopkins, a New York Knicks assistant coach in the late 1970s, summed up Lewis' celebrity in his hometown best for Sports Illustrated when it ran a 10-page feature on Lewis in its edition of Oct. 16, 1978.

"In Los Angeles, he is a legend," Hopkins told the magazine. "You say Raymond, they say Lewis. You say Lewis, they say Raymond."

A former UCLA assistant coach and Pepperdine head coach, Lorenzo Romar has often related tales of Lewis' exploits and stunning abilities to most of the players he has coached.

As a freshman at Cal State-Los Angeles, when freshmen weren't eligible, Lewis led the nation with 38.9 points a game. David Thompson of North Carolina State was second. He torched UC-Santa Barbara one night for 73 points, then went for 40 in a stunning upset of a UCLA freshman team -- featuring David Meyers and Pete Trgovich -- that had won 26 consecutive games.

As a sophomore, in his first season of varsity play, Lewis averaged 32.9 points, second in the nation. That's when Romar watched Lewis for the first time, on television, in a college game. Lewis spanked Long Beach State, coached by Tarkanian, for 53 points in a double-overtime thriller.

"That was the famous game, when I realized all the hype was true," said Romar, 43. "As much as I have talked about him, it wasn't as if every day I thought of Raymond Lewis. You just think, OK, he's doing all right. He has a little apartment somewhere, a family. You don't dream of hearing that he's dead."

Lewis was so talented. Fremont, Locke and Jordan high schools were all after his talents in junior high. He enrolled at all three, spending some time at each, before settling in at Verbum Dei, a private Catholic school in the middle of Watts, as a sophomore.

Verbum Dei coach George McQuarn had hired Caldwell Black, who introduced Lewis to the sport in an organized youth league, on his staff to gain an edge on the others, a ploy that would come in handy to another coach.

From 1969-71, Lewis led Verbum Dei to California Interscholastic Federation division titles, and he was named his division's player of the year his last two seasons. Tarkanian, at Long Beach, lost him to Cal State-Los Angeles when CSLA coach Bob Miller hired Black onto his staff.

In 1973, however, Lewis, claiming hardship status, left CSLA after only one season for the NBA Draft. A year later, Moses Malone made a similar claim and was drafted by Utah of the ABA out of Petersburg (Va.) High.

Lewis was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers near the end of the first round, but he never played a minute of professional basketball.

The 76ers had also drafted Doug Collins with the draft's first overall pick, signing the ex-Olympic star to a $200,000 annual salary. Lewis, according to the 1978 Sports Illustrated article, signed what he thought was a three-year deal for $450,000.

It was actually for $190,000; a $25,000 signing bonus, $50,000 for the first season, $55,000 for the second and $60,000 for the third. In signing the deal, Lewis agreed that he would get the remaining $260,000 in the late 1980s, upon him staying in the NBA.

Lewis wowed everyone when he began outplaying Collins in practice. Reporters wrote that Collins talked a good game but Lewis played a good game. Coach Gene Shue, though, resisted pitting Lewis against Collins.

Lewis played a tug-of-war holdout game after seeing those stories, attending a couple of days of 76ers practices, flying back to Los Angeles, then flying back to Philadelphia when 76ers officials did enough begging.

Ultimately, 76ers assistant coach Jack McMahon tracked down Lewis at O'Hare Airport in Chicago for an exhibition game in Normal, Ill., and filled him in on the team's offense. But coach Gene Shue did not plan to use him, and Lewis left at halftime.

A year later, Lewis sat on the bench of the ABA Utah Stars, awaiting to play his first pro minute, when Philadelphia management threatened the Stars with a lawsuit. Once again, Lewis' career was on hold.

In 1975, Philadelphia general manager Pat Williams gave Lewis $15,000 to have his original contract torn up and invited him to play on a 76ers' summer-league team in southern California. The 76ers had "The Phantom" -- then they didn't.

Near the end of that summer, Lewis had left the 76ers, again.

"Apparently, he disappeared during (a) ball game," Williams told SI. "He went down the floor, didn't get the ball on the fast break and, disgusted, kept right on going, right out the door. They never saw him again."

In September 1978, Shue, who had resurfaced as the coach of the San Diego Clippers, invited Lewis to fall camp with that team.

Lewis acknowledged bringing a lot of his problems upon himself, by leaving college early to chase money. He said he had paid for his mistakes, that if he had cheated anyone that that slate was now even. He wanted a roof over his head, for his wife and daughter, that he could call his own.

"The Lord will decide through certain people if I will play pro ball," Lewis told SI, "but I don't think my life will be complete if I don't."

Ten days later, Lewis was cut.

Romar, now coach of Saint Louis and a native of Compton, Calif., was raised on the legend of Lewis. Romar's brother called him Monday morning with the news of Lewis' death.

"You hoped he could land on his feet," said Romar, 43. "To hear that this is how it ended? No. With all he went through with basketball, you hoped that, one day, he could land on his feet."

Tarkanian, the coach at Fresno State, said Monday that he, too, was full of sorrow for the man who had been so full of potential.

"I feel really sad that he didn't do more with his life," Tarkanian said. "I haven't been in contact with Raymond in years, but my memories are that he was about the best high school player I have ever seen. It's just sad what happened. Just sad.

"He was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. I followed him throughout high school. I'm sorry things didn't go better for him. He had more God-given talent than anybody, and it's just a shame."

Cal State-Fullerton coach Donny Daniels was awed by Lewis daily during practices at Verbum Dei High. Daniels said he just dropped his jaw Sunday when he was informed of his former teammate's demise. Daniels called Lewis an early day Allen Iverson.

Daniels was reunited with Lewis in an uncomfortable manner in the early 1990s, when Daniels was an assistant to University of Utah coach Rick Majerus and that pair was recruiting guard Andre Miller at Verbum Dei.

On Monday, Daniels acknowledged a scene out of My Life on a Napkin, Majerus' 1999 biography. As Majerus and Lewis entered the Verbum Dei gym to scout Miller, Lewis hit Daniels up for $20.

Daniels had first-hand evidence that Lewis' life hadn't been going well.

"Unbelievable, especially with the cause," said Daniels, 46. "Complications with (the leg amputation) caused his body to shut down? I guess, for some reason, he decided not to take care of himself.

"But, you know, he never got a chance to really play at the level he was supposed to play at. People really missed a special, special player. Everyone gets advice, and maybe he didn't get the best advice. But the basketball world missed a very special guy."

In high school, he had a cocky, demeaning, in-your-face style that honed his one-on-one edge. But he favored being a loner, even skipping some banquets because he was uncomfortable eating with strangers.

In his brief stint in the ABA, he refused to dress for practice with the rest of the players, whom he didn't know. He became more guarded, but he displayed that talent when he spent the summer of 1981 playing against Romar.

Romar had just finished the first season of an NBA career that lasted four years, and Lewis burned Romar repeatedly. Games were 11-4, then 11-2. When Lewis got mad, it would be 11-zip. Romar flashed back to those games Monday.

"It wasn't like he didn't make the NBA, and then he became a lawyer. He didn't make the NBA, and then he didn't really have an alternate career," Romar said. "At that point, all you can do is dwell on it. Since he was 20, everything kind of went downhill, from that Philadelphia tryout. That was the peak, right there."

The career never got started, but Raymond Lewis' legend will follow him forever.


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When we tire of well-worn ways, we seek for new. This restless craving in the souls of men spurs them to climb, and to seek the mountain view.
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox