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Who is Rafer Alston a.k.a. Skip To My Lou?
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by Mike Ball Raptor's commentator January 28, 2003 Within eyeshot of Yankee Stadium on 155th St. in NYC sits the hallowed ground that every ball player and hoops fan worth his an ounce of his ilk knows all about and dreams of dominating. It is Rucker Park, a piece of asphalt where legends are born and pretenders go to die. It is within those four lines that saw players from Earl "The Goat" Manigault to Stephon Marbury become a piece of New York folklore. NBA players have been known to refuse runs at Rucker for fear of being embarrassed by some kid from Harlem who no one's ever heard of. "He's caught me. I ain't gonna lie. When you're playing against Rafer Alston, you're liable to get embarrassed. You know it's gonna happen," Stephon Marbury told Slam Magazine. Rucker is the spot where that player ceased to be known as Rafer Alston and became "Skip to m' Lou". "One, two, skip to my . . . ." At the Rucker tournament the games are called by a couple of boisterous play-by-play men known to give players who impress nicknames and, more often than not, because the basketball world is watching and listening, the name sticks. Such is the case with Skip. He was playing in The Rucker in his high school days and the man on the mic, thought that Alston's style of dribbling up the court made him look as though he was skipping along without a care in the world. So out of his mouth came "Skip to m' Lou" and ever since that's been his handle. "There are a lot of people out there who have no idea what my name is," explains Alston. "I walk down the street (in NYC) and people just know who Skip to m' Lou is." Alston was dominating at the park all through high school, but the problem was he was spending far too much time on the blacktop and not enough in the classroom and in the structure of organized five-on-five basketball. That coupled with troubles at home caused Alston to play all of 10 games in last two years in high school, but in those games, 31.9 ppg. The college scouts cooled on Skip and he spent time at two Junior Colleges in California before the legendary Fresno State University Coach Jerry Tarkanian, who'd been following the prodigy since his early days at Rucker, gave Skip a chance. Skip produced. As a junior, his 240 assists set the Fresno State single-season record and writers and coaches named him to the Western Athletic Conference all-newcomer team. The NBA was next. Alston came out after his junior year at Fresno and was selected in the second round (39th overall) by the Milwaukee Bucks. He went to the CBA before rejoining the Bucks, but could never get the minutes behind Sam Cassell. He spent time in the Warriors training camp and the NBDL before tough times befell the Toronto Raptors and Glen Grunwald came-a-calling. "It was shocking, I thought, woah, the Raptors," Alston told the Toronto Sun. "But then I checked in the papers, and saw they'd lost nine or 10 in a row and thought, I'd better go up there and play some ball right away." Alston came in and made an immediate impact with the Raptors and a quick glance at his personal stats shows that virtually every significant career-high has come in the last month. His minutes have dwindled a little as the injury troubles begin to subside, but with Lindsey Hunter back on the shelf, Skip should get some good time in before the all-star break. So Rafer Alston has found a home in the NBA at least until April, but the question still remains - Can Skip to m' Lou be on the biggest professional stage what he has been on the biggest playground stage? It's been a long road for Alston from Jamaica, Queens to the hardwood of Air Canada Centre, but for Alston, it's like the journey is just beginning. "I'm trying to give a straight-up game and take a real businesslike approach to the NBA. Then I can help prove in the NBA circuit that I do belong." |
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