Randolph-Clay grad, former NBA player Donnell Harvey takes in Battle of the South Day 1

ALBANY — A marathon day of basketball at Monroe High School began at 9 a.m. Saturday with teams competing in two different gyms in the Battle of the South men’s double-elimination basketball tournament.

Basketball teams made up of former professional, college, high school and current high school players battled to try and get to Sunday’s championship game.

“Nobody wants to go home, they don’t want to get eliminated today,” said one of the game officials.

But some of them did, including one of the closest and hardest-fought games of the day.

Former Lee County star MJ Taylor hit a long 3-pointer with his team, the Undertakers, down by five with less than a minute to play. Moments later Taylor swished two free throws to tie the game at 50-50 and send it into overtime. The Undertakers, coached by Upson-Lee girls basketball coach Monte Kilins, had already lost the first-round game and were trying to survive. Unfortunately for the Undertakers, they lost in overtime 64-59.

In the crowd Saturday afternoon was former NBA player Donnell Harvey, who has played in the tournament in years past but was a spectator Saturday. Harvey played professional basketball for 15 seasons after starring at the University of Florida and Randolph-Clay High School in Cuthbert. In 1999, the Shellman native was named the consensus high school national player of the year and won the Naismith Award as the nation’s top high school basketball player. He was a first-round draft pick of the New York Knicks in the 2000 draft but was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. After Dallas, he also played for the Denver Nuggets, the Orlando Magic, the Phoenix Suns and the New Jersey Nets before going overseas to play in Greece, Turkey and Italy.

“I grew up in Shellman in a population of about 1,200 people,” Harvey said. “My mother was a factory worker and my father was a farmer. Basketball just kind of fell into my lap.”

What he meant by that was that he was just playing basketball and got invited to play some AAU basketball and some coaches noticed him. That led him to all of the accolades and success that he enjoyed playing basketball.

“I was 19 when I got my first $50,000 check. I was just 19 years old,” he said. “Sometimes all it takes is to get someone to notice you. It is important that parents give their children the opportunities to be noticed.”

Harvey still has a home in Shellman but also has a home just south of Atlanta in Peachtree City, where he splits his time. He did coach basketball at Randolph-Clay, but now is focused on his non-profit foundation called “Reconstructing Youth.”

“I’ve been fortunate enough to travel with teams to Europe and Asia and see different parts of the world. The kids I’m working with haven’t had that chance but I’m trying to help them see there is a big world out there and help them learn how to succeed in that big world — things like teaching them how to write a check and things they don’t understand.”

The website for the foundation, reconstructingyouthfoundation.org says it is a non-profit, nationally recognized, youth organization geared towards providing resources and information essential to assist in the development of America’s youth specifically pertaining to community development, health, education, arts and culture, physical activities, food, financial literacy, and all tools that would aid in the development of a community and at-risk youth.

Joe WhitfieldJoe Whitfield