Cleamons, Aliyy ‘understood the value of friendship’
Jim Cleamons and Ahmad Aliyy, formerly known as Edward “Skip” Young, lost only five games in their final two basketball seasons with Linden Mckinley, something he remains proud of 55 years later.
But Cleamons remembers the third loss of the 1966 season vividly, sitting in the locker room with Aliyy at the end of their junior season, vowing to each other that as seniors, Linden Mckinley would take home a state championship.
“We understood the value of friendship,” Cleamons said. “We understood that nothing would come easy, and neither one of us was afraid to go after what we wanted in our hearts and minds.”
As co-captains for Linden Mckinley’s 1967 team, Cleamons and Aliyy achieved that goal, leading the Panthers to the first of the team’s three state titles between 1967-77.
Aliyy, who went on to become a Florida State athletics Hall of Fame member after helping lead the Seminoles to a 5820 record from 1968-71 and set the team’s career assists record (320), died Sunday. He was 73.
Cleamons said he and Aliyy developed a “wonderful relationship that lasted up until Sunday morning,” remembering his former co-captain as a hard worker and competitor that spurred him on well past their days together
at Linden Mckinley.
While Aliyy and Cleamons were members of the same high school class, Cleamons knew Aliyy was in a different place athletically than he was, starting for Linden Mckinley as a sophomore.
“I was a neophyte,” Cleamons said. “He was teaching me how to do things. I was learning by watching him play. But the one thing that we did have was our competitiveness individually and collectively. We both had that same mindset that we were going to win and we were going to be successful. And we were trying to make our mark.”
Cleamons, who grew up in the Milogrogan neighborhood before moving to Linden, and Aliyy, who grew up on the east side, began to understand one another as players and as young people.
“When I tell people about him, this brother was first-team All-state in a year where the athletic basketball talent
in the state of Ohio was off the charts,” Cleamons said. “I was so very proud of him. He chose to go to Florida State. He had all these offers that you sit back and your mouth flies open.
“With Skip, he had a specific skill set that you knew he was a guard. And he’s a damn good guard. He’s first-team Allstate. I was just happy when he chose Florida State he had some place that wanted him, and I think at that time he wanted Florida State in the worst way. “
Cleamons was drafted in the first round of the 1971 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, starting a nine-year playing career that included stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks and Washington Bullets.
He then became a prominent NBA assistant coach, including a stint with the Bulls under Phil Jackson from 198996 after a five-year assistant coaching post at Ohio State.