Chicago coach, former Hog reminisce about King Cotton
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of features leading up to the return of the King Cotton Holiday Classic, one of the premier high school basketball tournaments in the nation. The tournament is scheduled for Dec. 27-29 at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
Of all the travels in a 35-year coaching career, Pine Bluff has made an indelible mark on Gary DeCesare’s mind.
“I remember the King Cotton Classic was a great tournament, and our kids really loved the experience,” DeCesare said, looking back on leading St. Raymond High School in his native New York to the tournament’s championship in 1993. “It was a fantastic setup at the time where you played the game and you walked to the hotel. You never went outside. That was good, and that was a great experience. It was just first-class, the way everybody treated us.”
One of DeCesare’s floor generals that game was Kareem Reid, a 5-foot-11 left-handed point guard.
DeCesare directed the ABCD Camp in Ypsilanti, Mich., when Reid was playing at St. Raymond. Then-Arkansas assistant coach Mike Anderson told DeCesare the Razorbacks — who would win the 1994 NCAA championship and return to the title game the next year — desperately needed a point guard, and DeCesare pointed him to Reid and his St. Raymond teammate Eric Harris.
Following a quarterfinal game at King Cotton, Reid recalled, he ran into former Razorback and Wabbaseka High School graduate Ernie Murry in a hallway at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
“Ernie caught me in a tunnel, and he asked me, was Arkansas recruiting me?” Reid said. “I said, ‘I don’t know. I had some contact with Arkansas, but I don’t know if they were recruiting me.’”
Murry, Reid said, offered to reach out to then-head coach Nolan Richardson about looking closer at one of DeCesare’s standouts.
“I guess that’s where the pro
cess started,” Reid said.
Richardson and other coaches watched Reid capture the MVP award in that tournament. Reid then officially committed to the Hogs.
“It’s funny because I still have the MVP plaque,” Reid said.
Reid enjoyed a four-year career at Arkansas (199599), averaging 11.3 points per game and leaving as the program’s all-time leader in assists (749). Harris helped the University of Minnesota, which also starred 1994 King Cotton star Quincy Lewis of Little Rock Parkview, reach the 1997 Final Four.
“Coach DeCesare was always smart with his moves,” Reid said. “I guess that was one of his moves to get close to Arkansas. Coach played the mind games and help me with my process. I guess that’s another stitch on his shirt.”
Reid, who built a 12-year professional career and now trains younger players in Fayetteville, plans to return to Pine Bluff to check out DeCesare lead his new team, Chicago’s De La Salle Institute, in the latest renewal of King Cotton, Dec. 27-29.
“It’s going to be amazing,” Reid said. “I haven’t seen Coach, so I’m going to go over and speak to him and whatever, spend a couple of days with him and pick his brains and sitting down and seeing what he’s doing, and hopefully being a story to some of the kids he’s coaching now. I’m living proof of what can come out of listening to him and listening to your coaches.”
This will mark the third King Cotton in the last four years, as the 2020 tournament was scrapped due to the pandemic. The original tournament, founded by Travis Creed, was held from 1982-99.
“I know King Cotton disappeared for a little bit, but I always remember the name Travis Creed,” DeCesare said. “We look forward to it.”
DeCesare spent 16 years in New York, 10 at St. Rita in Chicago and the previous two years at Gulliver Prep in Miami, where he coached Ray Allen Jr. Ray Allen Sr., the two-time NBA champion guard (Boston in 2008 and Miami in 2013), is now Gulliver’s coach.
DeCesare’s not the only high-profile coach in the King Cotton field.
The father of Celtics star Jayson Tatum is bringing Christian Brothers of St. Louis to Pine Bluff. Justin Tatum is mentoring 6-5 senior guard Larry Hughes Jr., the eighth-ranked player in Missouri according to 247Sports.com and son of a former NBA star, and 7-2 sophomore Jon Bol.
David Green led Beaumont (Texas) United to a 31-0 season and the Texas 5A state championship last season. The Timberwolves are now 11-1.
And Reid’s fellow Arkansas alumnus Scotty Thurman is leading the charge at Parkview. Thurman finished his career at Arkansas in 1995, when Reid took a redshirt, and played with Reid on the 2005 American Basketball Association champion Arkansas RimRockers.
DeCesare first coached in Chicago as part of Jerry Wainwright’s staff at DePaul University and returned to take over at De La Salle.
“This job opened up, and I thought it was a really good job, and I got that, and I’m back in Chicago,” DeCesare said.
It hasn’t been easy going at De La Salle. The Meteors are 2-6 but boast two Illinois top-40 players in 6-2 senior guard DaJuan Bates and 6-6 junior wing Evan Jackson.
“We have some growing pains,” DeCesare explained. “We’ve had some injuries and some stuff, new program and new culture. If we put it together, we can be pretty good.
“We haven’t had our full team out there at one time. Don’t judge us by our record.”
Thursday: How the King Cotton brackets are set up.
“I know King Cotton disappeared for a little bit, but I always remember the name Travis Creed. We look forward to it.”
—Gary DeCesare, De La Salle Institute coach