The Town Where the Shots Go Up, and the Records Fall

Dec 26, 2018 · 17 comments
Full Name (New York, NY)
Probability of earning enough money to retire comfortably on in the NBA or overseas is low. So go to class at Syracuse (really? why not Duke? Academically much better on a resume) get a good education. Enjoy playing ball, for sure. But...
lfk (brooklyn)
Maybe having a prolific scorer ends up making you an assist leader. That's a important stat and could put you in the record book also. Good luck JG3 and teammates
MC (Upstate New York)
Congratulations to Joe Gerard III, his family and Glens Falls, NY. What a spectacular record Glens Falls has for a small town in northern NY. We live in nearby Saratoga Springs and after reading this article hope to get to a Glens Falls basketball game this season. We are so happy to hear JG3 will remain in NYS for college and play for Syracuse University. Go JG3! Go Orange!
Cal Prof (Berkeley, USA)
Great fun, and a lifetime of memories already. Being from upstate NY and living not far from Sacramento I watched Fredette at BYU and then the NBA Kings. Lack of defense, only average ball handling, ok but not great court vision and less than a super quick shot release are what sent Jimmer to China. It's not life and death but if Girard has his heart set on an NBA career he should de emphasize scoring for a while and work very hard on being a complete player. He could wind up with a JJ Redick or Steve Kerr type of career.
nano (NC)
"“There are times when you say, ‘Jesus, that’s not a good shot,’ ” Rob Girard, the coach, said. “But when he hits four out of six of them, what can you say? You go with it.”" This is bad -- shot selection is as important as having the Steph Curry touch. This is why Luka Doncic is objectively better than Trae Young. Europeans are doing one thing correctly: they teach kids, however talented they may be, to always make the right choices. Euro coaches are usually very hard on players. If you hit 10 jumpers but you're mediocre in defense, you get scolded. If you hit a tough 3 but you could've passed for an easier shot with enough time left on the shot clock, you get scolded. I honestly hate how brute force the game has become.
Lowenburg (Stroudsburg, PA)
He’s obviously talented but it remains to be seen what will happen on the next level. I remember watching the younger Ball brothers on YouTube a few years ago, when they each scored 70 points in a few games. The kids they were playing against were not even close to their level. It was like watching a game at a family picnic with 10 year olds against high school kids. Any time a high schooler puts up numbers like this it’s an indication that he or she is not playing against equal talent. So this young man is wise when he responds to an admirer predicting great things by saying, “we’ll see.”
saabrian (Upstate NY)
@Lowenburg He's going to play in the nation's pre-eminent Division I college basketball conference. So I think he'll get a good challenge there.
Mickey Kronley (Phoenix)
Jim Boeheim the coach at Syracuse has a rather weak record of getting players ready for the NBA. Carmelo Anthony was there a year then left to be an NBA enigma, but certainly Boeheim’s best pro. The rest were pretty much journeymen, over four decades. Good luck to Joe. Syracuse is a fading power in college basketball and could use some excitement. Let’s hope the kid can provide a spark.
ShermCraig (Manhattan)
Fading power with 2 of their 6 final fours in the last 5 years.
cosmo (CT)
When the team mantra is "Get the ball to Girard", regardless of whether he is double or triple teamed, so he can continue to pad his numbers is a distortion of the concept of a 'team sport'.
Milton Lewis (Hamilton Ontario)
There is a long way to go. Certainly the great potential of Fredette was never realized in the NBA. Joe Girard is an exciting young player. But it is a long road to NBA success. And this young man is no LeBron James when it comes to dominating his peers. Hopefully he will achieve success in all his athletic and non athletic endeavours.
Allan Wexler (Toronto)
@Milton Lewis Averaging 50 ppg means, to me, that he is dominating his peers
DM (Campbell, Ca)
Thank you. What a fun/enjoyable read.
RH (Wisconsin)
Whenever I read a basketball story about a scoring machine player, I wonder what his teammates think about it. To score that many points, his teammates must not get much opportunity to contribute themselves. I would not like that. At all.
CBH (NY)
@RH The last game referenced stated he scored 57 points and the rest of the team scored 39 (96 total). in 32-minute game with no shot clock, 39 points for the supporting cast doesn't seem out of the ordinary. His teammates might wish they took more shots, but not necessarily.
Will (Brooklyn)
Maybe. But as a former role player on my high school basketball team, I knew when I was in the presence of a much more talented teammate, and for us to be in the best position to win, we had to get him the ball. It's easy to think of scorers as self centered megalomaniacs but often times teammates know and accept who the number one option is, and it can still be a lot of fun to play a supporting role
RJSHAN (Syracuse Ny)
His grandfather was the best of them all when he played for St Mary's in the late fifties !@RH