Basketball trainer racks up assists
Shumpert keeps city’s pros sharp
The halls of Milwaukee South are mostly quiet, which is probably to be expected on a Monday morning in July.
A few parents are bringing toddlers in for swimming lessons at the building’s pool. The corridors are dark.
But open up the door to the gymnasium and there is plenty of activity: Four professional basketball players are being put through their paces by a trainer.
The no-frills environment is a long way from the Milwaukee Bucks’ gleaming downtown practice facility. At South, there is an industrial fan humming and tunes emanating from a portable speaker.
Milwaukee natives Korie Lucious, Bryquis “Bree” Perine, Raymont McElroy and Mitchell Carter have earned livings playing basketball for several years, hustling jobs all over the world. They need to work on their craft and stay sharp when they are back home for the summer.
For that they turn to Thomas Shumpert, a 31-year-old hoops obsessive who is making a name for himself as a workout guru in the city.
Shumpert was a point guard at South from 2002-06. He played at Cochise Junior College in Arizona and at Campbellsville University in Kentucky.
“I came back, was working out players around the city,” Shumpert said. “That was like eight years ago. It just keeps growing every summer.”
McElroy was his first client. The former South and Messmer star has since played professionally in Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
“Every time I come back from overseas, I would just call him,” McElroy said. “We’d work out five days a week,
sometimes we did two-a-days.”
Shumpert goes way back with Lucious and Perine. They grew up together at 91st and Mill Road, playing football in their front yards and basketball in the parks.
“Thomas was always good,” said Perine, who was a standout at Milwaukee Vincent and then UW-Green Bay from 2007-11. “He could always play. It’s good to see him transferring his skills over and helping other people. He’s been working with a lot of pros. Busy schedule, busy man.”
Shumpert also works as a crisis stabilizer with troubled teenagers and as an assistant basketball coach at South. His workouts are mostly at the school’s gym, though he is all around the city. His workouts are a common link between generations of Milwaukee ballers.
“It’s great for the culture in Milwaukee,” Perine said. “Basketball culture in Milwaukee. He’s not just working out pros, he’s working with elementary kids to middle-school kids to some of the best high-school talent in Milwaukee. I’m happy for him.”
Shumpert spends his time with the pros mostly going through reads on ballscreen actions. During the workout Monday, Carter, a 7-footer just back from Japan, works on the pick-and-pop. Lucious, the former Michigan State and Iowa State star, shows off his wicked crossover and side-step three-pointer.
“Most of the time, the overseas guys just want to stay sharp,” Shumpert said. “We work on in-game situations.”
Milwaukee boasts a lot of professional basketball players, though most are making a living outside of the NBA. Shumpert gives them a place to work on skills together. Longtime pros Dwight Buycks, Diante Garrett and Chris Charles also show up frequently for sessions.
“Thank God we got Thomas, who opened his doors for us to come work us out,” Lucious said.
Lucious played last season in Brazil. He’s also been in leagues in China, Poland (twice), Hungary, Canada and Cyprus. He takes a second to ponder when asked which country was the best spot.
“Country-wise, maybe Cyprus, because it was an island,” Lucious said. “Beautiful over there. I think China was the most fun I had playing. And the money was awesome, so you can’t beat that.”
Perine has also done quite the world tour — Iraq, Israel, Hungary, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Tunisia, Netherlands. He laughs about a span in which he left a team in Iraq, flew to Atlanta to visit family, then a few days later hopped on a plane after getting a call from a team in Indonesia. That situation lasted only a few games, so he checked out Indonesia’s beaches before flying back to the U.S.
Traveling through all those time changes left him disoriented.
“Missed out on days I’ll never get back,” he said.
The pros also serve as examples for the kids Shumpert works with.
“I try to tell my younger clients, this ball will take you far in life,” he said. “Get you a free education, too.”
It’s not an easy lifestyle for the pros, though, with many months spent in remote outposts far from family and friends.
Lucious is 29 years old, but still ready for his next adventure.
“Just got to stay with it,” he said. “Hopefully five more (years). But the way my body feels ... had a couple surgeries, got two kids now.
“Not ready to go sit at a desk yet. Wake up at 7:30, got to be at work at 8:30? I can’t do that yet. I’ll do that when I’m done, just not right now.”
That’s why he shows up five days a week at South, grinding with Shumpert far from the limelight.