Pee Wee Kirkland
From Hoopedia
Richard (Rick) "Pee Wee" Kirkland (1947? - ) is a former streetball player from Harlem, New York City, United States of America.
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Early Years
As a young man, starting at age 13, by his own report, Kirkland became involved in various illegal activities, chiefly drug dealing and gambling. He was successful enough to earn the street name "The Bank of Harlem."
Kirkland played at Charles Evans Hughes High School, where he was an All-Cith guard. He won an athletic scholarship to Kittrell Junior College (North Carolina) and averaged 41 PPG. He then played college basketball at Norfolk State University, teaming up with later NBA star Bob Dandridge. His teams had phenomenal years. The Spartans won the CIAA title in 1968 with a 25-2 record; they lost in the second round of the NCAA Division II Men's Tournament. The next year their record was 21-4 and they lost in the first round of the D-II tournament.
Adulthood
In 1969 he was picked by the Chicago Bulls in the thirteenth round of the NBA draft. Offered a contract by the Bulls, Pee Wee rejected it, reportedly saying, "Hey, I could make more money in a couple of days on the street." At the time, the opportunities offered to him outside of the NBA were far more lucrative, in terms of financial gain and public recognition.
Kirkland returned to the streets of New York and the activities he knew best: basketball and hustling. He tore up Rucker Park, his neighborhood court, and perhaps the most storied streetball court in the world, in 1970 and 1971. His arch-nemesis was Nate "Tiny" Archibald. Archibald called Kirkland "the toughest opponent I've ever faced."Convicted on drug-related conspiracy charges in 1971 he landed in the Federal maximum-security prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
At Lewisburg Kirkland played on a prison team which competed in the Anthracite Basketball League, a semipro league in central Pennsylvania that included prison teams. Some say it was the greatest prison team ever assembled. In 1974, Kirkland scored 135 points in a 228-47 victory against a team from Lithuania.
In 1975 he was released from prison and moved out West. In the early 1980s, when he was living on the West Coast, Kirkland played point on some of the Los Angeles Laker Showtime teams, along with the likes of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and Bob McAdoo.
Kirkland returned to the Federal prison system in 1981, doing a stretch for tax evasion in La Tuna, Texas until his release in 1988.
Redemption
In 1994 Kirkland returned to New York. Now a reformed man, Kirkland travels the country speaking to youth about decision-making and pathways to success, in addition to self-esteem and other various issues plaguing the inner-cities of America. He started the School of Skillz Basketball Camp, which he runs every Saturday at Harlem's Central Baptist Church. Kirkland coached the boys' team at the Dwight School. He has taught classes in the Philosophy of Basketball Coaching at Long Island University.
In 2000 Kirkland received a master's degree in human services from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania). He has started his own recording label, So Gangsta Music (SOG).
In a 2007 interview, Kirkland explained why he now works with young people, trying to help them avoid the mistakes that he made: "I was caught the way young people are caught today in the matrix. With me it was all about the hood. 'F**k the Chicago Bulls!' I was about playing at Ruckers. It was all about street basketball. It was all about what I thought, keeping it real with the hood."
