Tuesday night’s Leigh vs. Leland basketball game was a trip.
On one hand you had Leigh’s cadre of snipers situated strategically beyond the 3-point arc waiting their turn to launch one (they made 12).
Then you had Leland during its 53-52 CCS semifinal win, not so obvious about its intentions, but still making nine threes.
Then there was Leland’s James Kelbert. This kid is no finesse player nor “3-point specialist,” he’s a prep hoops version of Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran during his prime. He’s Joakim Noah if Noah had a better inside game. He’s the Creature from the freakin’ Black Lagoon.
Somehow, in this era of promising players being spirited away to out-of-state prep schools or when talented eighth graders just can’t resist the siren call of the WCAL, the most marvelous, throwback, backstreet brawler of a player has wound up at Leland High School and is doing major damage.
Just ask Leigh following Kelbert’s 21-point, 13-rebound effort that has sent the Chargers into a section title game for the second consecutive year. Leland meets St. Ignatius at 4 p.m. Saturday at Santa Clara University's Leavey Center for the section DII title.
The six-foot, three-inch Kelbert's effort against Leigh was typical by the way, as he’s averaging 23.3 points, 13.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.8 steals per game.
"He’s unbelievable,” Leigh coach Patrick Judge said. “He single-handedly put them on his back … His motor is just unbelievable. He’s very very good.”
Leland coach Drew Marino agreed.
“He’s the most competitive kid I’ve ever been around. In the fourth quarter I think he got every rebound. When we needed a basket, he got that basket inside. There was a play down there where there was two guys on him and he split them and scored the basket. He’s a throwback player and a competitor.”
He’s a throwback all right, like to the WCAL 1970. If this were 45 years ago and Kelbert was playing for Bellarmine or Mitty, he’d be banging around with the late Kevin Restani of Riordan and enjoying every second of it.
Even better yet, he’s at Leland, a public school that takes whomever wanders in off the street. In the Blossom Valley Athletic League, that seems to be a lot of kids who like to fire up pretty parabolas from the nether regions, some of which draw iron and some not.
Somehow, Kelbert missed the memo from travel ball coaches everywhere that to get a scholy he needs to stop banging the ball inside for lay-ins and work on his outside game. Maybe Kelbert doesn’t even care, or maybe he’s more concerned about that collection of guys he plays with that begins with a T.
“When I was a freshman I was much more of a perimeter player,” Kelbert said. “I would just shoot from the outside and go inside if I needed to. But as I got older my game transitioned to more of an inside game and less of a shooting game. I can still shoot it a little bit, but it’s more about getting it on the inside, getting the offensive rebounds and challenging people physically.”
But why? Doesn’t Kelbert know it’s 3-pointers that attract scouts and make fans rise out of their seats when they see one launched?
“I feel like it’s better,” he said. “It’s more consistent because if you’re shooting from the outside you’re not always going to be on fire. You have a much higher percentage if you’re inside the key and if you’re able to draw contact and draw the foul – you can get more points that way.”
He even calls it a “key.” I love it. How great is this kid?
And talk about “Hands of Stone” – Kelbert just crunches rebounds with those iron hands of his, often grabbing them with one hand in a style that would make John Wooden wince but is effective nonetheless.
“It comes from water polo, where you have to cradle the ball in your hands,” Kelbert said. “It really helps because you only get to use one hand (in water polo), so when you get to use two it’s easier.”
Maybe the whole team thing and Kelbert’s rough-house style bleeds over from water polo, which is a rougher game than people think. Kelbert was his league’s MVP as a senior and a starter on the US Virgin Islands 17U national team that played in Puerto Rico last summer.
If all that’s not enough, the three-sport star was announced as a state finalist for the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award and is a National merit finalist and AP scholar with distinction, being recruited by the likes of MIT and Cal Tech.
So there you go – multi-sports, smart as a whip and the ultimate team player in an era of “me” and shooting threes.
No, Kelbert has no scholarship yet, but it shouldn’t be long until the BVAL Scholar-Athlete of the Year is flicking one of those out of the air with one hand and laughing all the way to college.
John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@prep2prep.com and followed on Twitter @PrepCat.
