He wanted to play basketball. He finally got the chance.

Good morning. Today we discover the unlikely story of how a pickup basketball star became a star at LaGuardia Community College in Queens. We'll also look at former Governor Andrew Cuomo's attempt to torpedo a state ethics commission.

Last week, Arthur Dukes Jr., a 26-year-old student at LaGuardia Community College, was named the City University of New York Athletic Conference's player of the year. It was a remarkable capstone to a year that began with Dukes working as a security guard at a Foot Locker store and playing pick-up games at a Harlem public school. It ended with him reigning as captain of LaGuardia's team and as the top scorer among all players in Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

I asked Katherine Rosman, who covered Dukes' sudden success, to explain his basketball journey.

He went through a lot before joining LaGuardia and becoming a star, right?

His collegiate basketball dreams first got tangled up in other things that undid them. He first attended Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, NY

Community college athletics can be a stepping stone to Division I and Division II schools. But the coach hardly played him. He had a lackluster freshman showing that was cut short by the pandemic in March 2020. He moved back home and lived with his parents and seven siblings in a two-bedroom apartment.

Then he made a shoot-for-the-moon move and decided he was going to the University of Kansas. It has a long history of great basketball and he received financial support. He flew there, the furthest from New York he had ever been, and after waiting and waiting for walk-on tryouts, he was told they wouldn't get any due to Covid.

So there went that dream.

He left after a semester and came back home.

During this time, he started taking Benadryl to help him sleep. He found himself addicted to Benadryl and was taking twelve pills a night to help him sleep.

His parents found him a rehab center and he pulled himself together. He then enrolled at Monroe College in the Bronx and tried out for the basketball team, but he didn't make it. He became a team manager, such was his desire to be involved in basketball. He was washing the uniforms and loading the van with equipment.

Then he decided to take a year off, and started working security and playing pick-up ball.

And that's where he was noticed?

One night last year he played at PS 92 in Harlem. There was a man named Paris Underwood. Underwood knew that a coach, Jarrett Lockhart, was recruiting players to join a new basketball program at LaGuardia Community College in Queens.

He went up to Arthur, handed him a card and said, “Call that number.” It was Lockhart's number.

What had happened at LaGuardia?

The entire athletics department was closed in 2016 after a dispute between students.

Last year LaGuardia had a new president who said they needed to revive athletics.

Maintaining athletic teams can be a challenge for community colleges, right?

Community colleges serve students who likely have full-time jobs and perhaps families to care for. Only a few students at LaGuardia are there full-time. Many take classes here and there.

But the league, the National Junior College Athletic Association, says that to play for a team that is part of it, you must be a full-time student and have a 2.0 grade point average.

Lockhart was happy to get through 2022-2023 without having to forfeit too many games when one player or the other had to miss a game, sometimes falling below 2.0. They won only one match. Lockhart was determined to recruit more players. That's where Arthur Dukes comes into the picture.

And at some point, Arthur and his girlfriend were evicted from their home and spent a few weeks in single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels?

He went to Lockhart and said, “I can't concentrate on basketball – I have a housing crisis.”

He didn't want to let his girlfriend down, and he couldn't take her to a two-bedroom apartment where nine people already lived.

Lockhart connected him with a department at the school called LaGuardia Cares, which helps with housing crises and food insecurity. He and his girlfriend were able to find an affordable apartment in the Bronx.

What is it like to watch him play?

It's very exciting, but you also realize how difficult it is for the team. The match I went to had seven players. That meant there were only two on the bench.

Arthur couldn't get out of the game the whole time. He is 6 feet tall. He's not the biggest guy on the court, but you see him throw himself to the basket time and time again.

Yet he didn't save the LaGuardia Red Hawks. They were 4-17 for the season that just ended.

Yes. They had games where he scored 50 points, and they still lost.

What's the takeaway?

I think it's about what can happen when a young person receives important attention from adults when he needs it. It can be transformative, and in this case it was. Arthur said it had been a long time since anyone had given him a chance. He felt like life was beating him down left and right.

But I don't think Arthur is the only one. I felt like Coach Lockhart was committed to all the men on his team.

Weather

Enjoy a sunny day with temperatures above 30 degrees. On a partly cloudy evening, temperatures drop to above twenty degrees.

ALTERNATE PARKING

In effect until March 24 (Purim).

The latest New York news

Lawyers for Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, were at an appeals court in Albany last week to make his case that a New York ethics commission is unconstitutional and should be disbanded.

Cuomo's attempt to scuttle the ethics commission is the latest step in his campaign to confront two officials he views as enemies: Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James. A report by James that found he had sexually harassed 11 women prompted him to resign in disgrace in August 2021. Hochul, who had been his lieutenant governor, succeeded him.

Cuomo's clash with the ethics panel, the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, goes back to his $5.1 million book deal for a 2020 memoir, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic.” The committee had considered whether to force him to forfeit the money when he filed a lawsuit. He won the first round.

The appeal judges are expected to make a ruling in the coming months.

METROPOLITAN diary

No tissues

Dear Diary:

I stayed with a friend in Murray Hill while back in New York for a 2019 visit. I came with an old boyfriend. He was a drummer and I went with him to a gig in Brooklyn.

We talked openly, honestly, and deeply on the subway ride back, acknowledging the love that still connected us.

I kissed him goodbye at Grand Central and started walking. I cried loudly. He had been the love of my life and I knew this might be the last time I ever saw him.

My face was soaked and I had no tissues. Hoping to get some napkins, I stopped at a restaurant on Lexington Avenue that I had frequented when I lived in the city.

There was a long line for tables and takeout. I told the people waiting that I wasn't going too far. I just needed some napkins.

“Hey, let her through,” a man in line shouted. “She is crying.”

The crowd gave way and I stepped up to the counter. The manager recognized me as a regular customer.

He handed me a packet of napkins.

“Some nights are tough,” he said. “It will be better.”

– Sandra Eisenberg