The 5-year-old boy was a fixture on that New York City playground basketball court. Almost every day, he and his father would go to the Booker T. Washington schoolyard on West 108th Street. They played for hours, but his father, an accomplished New York City high school player himself, insisted they stay until the boy hit 100 shots — 25 from four different spots on the court.
“Hitting those shots wasn’t hard for him,” his father recalled. “It was harder to get him to leave.”
It is an origin story befitting a fabled basketball legacy, a string of point guard prodigies emerging from the playgrounds of New York City: Stephon Marbury, Nate “Tiny” Archibald, Earl “the Pearl” Washington. That boy on West 108th Street had a cool nickname of his own: He is Johnuel “Boogie” Fland, and he might be New York City’s next great point guard.
Now a freshman at the University of Arkansas, the lowest-seeded team left in the N.C.A.A. tournament, Fland has a chance to prove that one of the most enduring basketball myths lives on.
“The New York City point guard is not dead,” said Kenny Anderson, the former Archbishop Molloy point guard from Queens, who played 14 years in the N.B.A. and is considered by some to be the best New York City high school player ever. “Boogie is keeping the line alive. He’s one of the best we’ve had in a long time.”
Fland helped the Razorbacks score the biggest upset of the tournament last week, when the 10th-seeded team beat No. 2 St. John’s in the second round. It was only his second game back after a two-month injury, but his third game is Thursday night, when Arkansas plays Texas Tech in the Sweet 16.
Nicknamed “Boogie” by his mother because, as a toddler, he loved to dance around the house, Johnuel Fland Jr., was born in the Bronx. He went to high school at Archbishop Stepinac in White Plains, and he led his team to last year’s elite Catholic high school championship. He was also named that season’s Mr. New York Basketball, the highest honor for a male player in the state.
His parents split when he was 4, and his father moved to Manhattan, so Boogie divided his time between the boroughs. He attended the Booker T. Washington junior high school in Manhattan and led the boys’ team to a championship.
By ninth grade, he was back mostly in the Bronx with his mother, closer to Archbishop Stepinac, where he immediately demonstrated a relentless desire to improve. Most mornings he was in the school gym at 6 a.m., and he would stay after practice into the evenings, while his grandfather patiently waited to drive him home.
“You’d hear his grandfather, ‘Can we leave now?’” said Pat Massaroni, his coach at Stepinac. “Boogie would say, ‘Just a few more shots.’”
Massaroni said that many players will show a similar dedication, but only sporadically. What set Boogie apart is that he did it consistently, his entire time at Stepinac.
Then, before his sophomore year, a remarkable thing happened. New York State legalized payments to high school athletes through Name, Image and Likeness legislation, which had only recently been granted to college athletes. Before that, student athletes were supposed to be amateurs, and they would lose all eligibility to play if they accepted even a penny. Now students can be paid by companies or individuals to wear their apparel and make commercial videos, and that’s what Boogie did.
The old days of under-the-table cash payments to high school stars or secret gifts to their parents were over. With the help of Julian Aiken, a sports management adviser, and a team of lawyers and financial types, Boogie legally incorporated himself as a business while still a sophomore, becoming one of the first high school players in New York to do so. And even though he played his ball in the suburbs, he was known in the city.
Fland vividly recalls the first time a stranger recognized him. He was waiting in line at a chicken joint near his home in the Bronx, and a boy said, “You’re Boogie Fland.” The kid asked for a selfie, and Boogie, who was a sophomore in high school, posed with him. He watched through the window as the boy ran outside to show the photo to his mother.
“I could see how excited he was,” Fland said. “It was a really good feeling, because you knew that the hard work was paying off.”
It was also becoming increasingly obvious that Boogie was headed for the N.B.A., and that often attracts all kinds of characters hoping to profit off the player. But Boogie and his family kept the circle tight.
“That’s when you realize that money can change people,” his mother, Shakima Smith, said. “People look at you differently and say you’ve changed. I’m the same person, but if I did change, that’s called growth. I have to look out for my kid. He’s still my baby.”
By playing for well-regarded high school and Amateur Athletic Union teams, Fland followed a path similar to the one taken by players like Anderson and Marbury, who was a sensation at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn in the 1990s. But he differed in that he almost never played at the playgrounds or summer tournaments, not even at Rucker Park, the legendary outdoor court in Upper Manhattan, where many of the greats put on memorable shows.
It is at these tournaments that so many New York players established their legend — playground stars like Joe Hammond and Earl “the Goat” Manigault, two fabulous players, known to the cognoscenti, who never made it to the N.B.A.
As tempting as it was to gain that kind of hoops cred, Fland did not want his career to peak in the playgrounds. For one thing, the flashy, one-on-one style that seemed baked into the DNA of New York point guards did not suit his game, which is based more on team success and fundamentals. His father recalled the time Boogie was offered $10,000 to play in a tournament in Long Island. He turned it down.
“I was thinking about the bigger picture,” Boogie said recently. “Playing in those tournaments is amazing, but that wasn’t me. It wasn’t easy. People would be like, ‘Just come play in this one game.’ But in New York, you’ve got to stay mentally strong. I’d rather work hard in the gym, watch film and do stuff that’s going to help me.”
When it came time for college, Fland again looked ahead. He chose the University of Kentucky because of its head coach, John Calipari, who is known for developing players for the N.B.A. When Calipari left Kentucky for the University of Arkansas last year, Fland followed him.
His college career began well. As a freshman, Fland started out as Arkansas’s second-leading scorer, with over 15 points per game, and led the team in assists. In December, he scored 20 points to lead Arkansas to a dramatic win over the University of Michigan. It was his first game at Madison Square Garden, with scores of family and friends and old Stepinac teammates in the stands.
But in January, Fland injured his thumb and needed surgery. It was doubtful he would play again during the season, but he still attended games and practices. His parents even went to games, especially his mother. And he never sulked, his teammates said.
“He still had that Boogie laugh that you hear down the hall,” said Jonas Aidoo, an Arkansas graduate student and forward on the team. “He’s a bright soul.”
Arkansas had a mediocre regular season, and with Fland considering the N.B.A., it looked as if his college career might end after only 18 games. But the Razorbacks squeezed into the N.C.A.A. tournament, allowing Boogie the time to get back in the action, even as a slightly rusty substitute off the bench. First, he went to Calipari and said he didn’t want to hurt the team by forcing his way back into the rotation. Relating the story near the team bus following Arkansas’s win against St. John’s in Providence, Calipari scoffed at that idea.
“We are advancing,” the coach said, “because Boogie is back, and he gives us eight guys.”
The season will end one way or another with this tournament, and then Fland may enter the N.B.A. draft, where many experts believe he will be chosen in the first round. It has been four years since a New York City guard was taken in the first round, and a few great ones never even got that far.
“Being a point guard from New York comes with great responsibility, great honor,” Fland said. “Those guys before paved the way, and I’m just carrying the torch for the next.”
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