Gerald Gittens, left, and Lloyd McCrorey, right, the recreation director at St. John’s, said the younger Gerald Gittens, center, is increasingly becoming a powerhouse on the basketball court and baseball field. Photos by Anna Gustafson
Dribbling a basketball, 11-year-old Gerald Gittens bends his knees, sets his eyes on the backboard, and throws, watching as the mound of orange rubber sails through the air and does what it often does when it comes to Gerald: Flies through the net.
Not skipping a beat, he sprints to the ball and continues this trend, his layups and slam dunks seemingly always ending in victory. Wiping a bit of sweat from his brow, Gerald takes a break to talk to The Forum and is quietly confident when asked what has driven this increasingly accomplished 11-year-old who grew up on the court since the age of three.
“I just love it,” Gerald, who recently helped lead the Howard Beach Hurricanes to win the IBL Interparish Brooklyn League Championship earlier this month and plays on a variety of basketball and baseball teams, said at the St. John’s Recreation Center in Crown Heights on Tuesday. “I like the sportsmanship, the coaches, the players.”
For more than seven years, Gerald, who lives with his mother and father in Old Mill Basin in Brooklyn, has been playing basketball and baseball – and he’s hoping that his time on a team like the Howard Beach Hurricanes and in such leagues as Spring Creek Little League and the Ozone Howard Little League could end up translating to a professional career in basketball or baseball. Additionally, Gerald also is a member of the Lester Roberts, Buddy Keaton, and Kenny Hall sports program at St. John’s Recreation Center.
If Gerald keeps going the way he has been – leading teams to victory while landing screams from fans in the stands – a sports career seems to be in the cards for the 11-year-old, one of his coaches said.
“At Saturday’s game, he was unstoppable,” Lloyd McCrorey, who has been involved with St. John’s basketball program for nearly three decades and is the recreation director at the center, said of a recent competition. “I was so proud of him. We wouldn’t have won the game if he didn’t play.”
McCrorey has known Gerald and his family for years and, pointing to a photo of Gerald as a 3-year-old posing with a group of basketball players, the coach said he has watched the athlete evolve into a player to be reckoned with.
Gerald Gittens, fourth from left, almost grew up on the basketball court. Here he is at age three, spending time with a basketball team from St. John’s Recreation Center.
“He has a real knack to rebound – either you can rebound or you can’t, and Gerald can,” McCrorey said. “He’s a very good athlete.”
Gerald’s father, also named Gerald Gittens, said the younger Gerald’s extended family is incredibly proud of the boy. The father also noted that in addition to Gerald’s star power on the court and in the baseball field, the student spends a good deal of time hitting the books as well.
“It’s a balancing act – you have to balance sports with schoolwork and homework, and he knows he has to get good grades,” said Gerald Gittens, whose wife, Diann, also helps their son focus on both school and sports. “You have to be very disciplined – you have to go home, start up your homework. It’s not easy.”
“If this is what he wants, he knows he has to do the right thing with homework,” he continued.
For Gerald, he said a life in sports is definitely what he wants.
It’s nearly impossible to pinpoint Gerald’s most successful moment on the court or in the field, though he did recently play every position in the Howard Beach Hurricane’s April 3 championship game, racking up 11 points to help the team defeat st. Vincent’s 47-45.
Gerald and his father also vividly remember an All Star Game last year, when Gerald, who had been benched for much of the game, “came in and scored 12 points in two minutes,” the older Gerald Gittens said proudly.
Such momentous occasions are the culmination of not only work on Gerald’s part, but help from family, friends and coaches – including McCrorey and Joe Russo, who led the Howard Beach Hurricanes, his father said.
“The coaches are amazing,” Gerald Gittens said. “They’ve done so much.”
As Gerald continues to wow fans, it seems there is no doubt that he could go the way of his role model, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder – who plays small forward, one of the positions excelled at by Gerald.
Gerald’s cousin Terrence Gittens, left, Gerald Gittens, his father – also named Gerald Gittens, and his grandmother, Pauline David. Gerald Gittens said support from family has been incredibly important when it comes to Gerald’s success in sports – and life in general.
