The greatest BB player in A&T history

[AggieGroove]

Look at my signature below.....this is the greatest BB player in A&T's history.

A&T's recruitment of Sparrow:
1. Dryed up the NY pipeline for ball players for A&T.
2. Opened up the rest of the MEAC to NY prep players.
3. Diminshed the dominance of A&T BB within 10 years....

My thoughts.......and the younger folks may disagree but tell me who more of an impact on A&T ball than Sparrow

[aggierattler]

In my opinion, these were better players than Sparrow:

Al Carter
June Harris
Doc Anderson
Al Attles

[Aggie77]

Man, where you up all night thinking about this? But you gets no argument from me on "The Bird". There may have been better dribblers, better shooters, better defenders, but none better all round and the excitement/embarrassment factor was off the scale.

1.) I think that happen with the retirement of Cal Irwin.
2.) The NY (& Philly) pipeline was always open to HBCU's until the Charlie Scott era.
3.) I don't know what that means?

[Aggie One]

Young Bloods before your time the best all around - #1 Sparrow by a mile followed by #2 Allen Spruill, #3 James Outlaw, #4 Elmer Austin #LJ Pipkin.

[oleschoolaggie]

its hard to argue against sparrow but how could anyone possibly leave out joe binion?

sparrow was a tremendous offensive player but dude didn't play one lick of defense. his array of moves were incredible. his rainbow 3's would devastate opponents. he wasn't a high flyer as far as jumping ability but those tommy hawk one handed windmill dunks use to leave the backboard shaking.

man, those were the good ole days when we'd win the meac championship just by showing up...

[JayBee]

Wow, Bird was the man! I seem to like Allen JJ Spruill as my #1 pick. I didn't know that Bird pledged Groove Phi Groove!

[Bigboy]

Going back to the 50's and 60's we had players like Al Attles, Hugh Evans, George Mack. During the 70's and 80's we had players like William "June" Harris (best pure PG ever), James "Bird" Sparrow (most exciting ever), Ron Johnson, Joe Binon, Jim Brown Jr. just to name a few. No one from the 90's and the 2000's jump out at me at the moment. I am sure it will later.

[aggierob]

No question Bird was great. However, the best player in A&T history has to be Joe Binion.
Joe was a 3 time MEAC Player of the Year, A&T career leader in both points and rebounds and among A&T career leaders in blocks and steals. His teams won 3 MEAC Championships and went to 3 NCAA Tournments and 1 NIT.

[Aggie One]

I mny bad in forgetting about bionion or Eric boyd for that matter. Don't forget POY Claude Williams from the '88 team (22-3), our last true great power forward.

[Bornthrilla]

I'm about to ban all you clowns for talking about basketball this close to the start of football season.

Focus, people. Focus!

[oleschoolaggie]

Aug 19, 2008 11:14:48 GMT -5 aggierob said:

No question Bird was great. However, the best player in A&T history has to be Joe Binion.
Joe was a 3 time MEAC Player of the Year, A&T career leader in both points and rebounds and among A&T career leaders in blocks and steals. His teams won 3 MEAC Championships and went to 3 NCAA Tournments and 1 NIT.

man, i remember those days aggierob! for those of us who experienced those years of total meac dominance, its hard to swallow what our program has gone through in recent years. down right "hurtful", to be honest.

every year, back in the day, we use to travel all over the meac in "huge" numbers with this big azz chip on our shoulders! all the meac schools hated on us because we'd win the meac championship every single year! their was no "curse of burr gym" back in those days. we'd walk into howard's conceited azz gym every year and totally embarrass their azzes. can't do that nowadays. we haven't done it in many years, i'm afraid to check the records to see how long its been since we won in burr. living in the dc area, i'm at the point now where i may never go to another aggie game in burr gym until we finally break the curse and win a game there.

man, i hope wheels really meant it when he said his number 1 priority would be getting our swagger back! his comments really gave me hope and i'm completely re-engergized! but i will definitely keep tabs on that commitment...

[oleschoolaggie]

does anyone know if james "the bird" sparrow ever played professionally anywhere overseas? i know he didn't make the nba...

[Bigboy]

There have been many really good bball players here at A&T, but for me the best pure player (coach on the floor) was William "June" Harris. June could do it all and was always the coolest player on the court, never out of control. For those that never saw him play I am sure they may disagree but for those that witness him play, the majority of them will agree.

I know this is not about football but it is bringing back a lot of memories.

[Bigboy]

I think "Bird" played in Mexico or South America. I know that "Bird" was the only player from an HBCU to be selected by Dean Smith to compete for the olympic team. He did not make the team but he was not cut in the first round of cuts. Dean really gave him a fair look.

[AggieGroove]

Aug 19, 2008 10:54:53 GMT -5 JayBee said:

Wow, Bird was the man! I seem to like Allen JJ Spruill as my #1 pick. I didn't know that Bird pledged Groove Phi Groove!

JayBee, I pledged him and he was my roommate one summer...and BTW he wore his G's very proudly. that picture is out of my personal photo album. In those days, the Grooves rolled strongly,,,just ask me ;D. He still is the most complete player to play at A&T, bar none!