On Sunday, Greensboro honored one of the best basketball players to come out of North Carolina.
Bob McAdoo, who turns 74 this week, stood on a larger-than-life mural covering the Benbow Park basketball court where he honed those skills. McAdoo and his family were surrounded by basketball greats and players, including former Duke star Gene Banks, UNC great Phil Ford, UNCC legend Cedric “Cornbread“ Maxwell, and childhood friends and fans. The park is at 1901 S. Benbow Road in Greensboro.
McAdoo, who currently works as an NBA scout for the Miami Heat, was joined by his wife Patrizia, children and dozens of relatives.
He was nearly in tears at seeing all the faces.
“I happened to drive by the court when I first got to Greensboro, and I texted a friend and I said, ‘Man, I can see this from the side of the court,’” McAdoo said in his remarks to an audience of hundreds. “And the friend of mine said, ‘Mac you crazy. You can see that thing from the moon.’”
The Smith High School graduate would go on to play for the UNC Tar Heels before winning NBA championships with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the Los Angeles Lakers.
His reputation is cemented in the NBA Hall of Fame and as a member of the NBA 75th All-Star Team.
And by those who called him the same humble guy who grew up in Greensboro.
Childhood friends
Fred Cundiff and Wayman Holt traded stories about McAdoo while waiting for their friend to be honored.
“We were all on the court and football back then,” Holt said. “It’s good seeing what he accomplished.”
The court, unveiled as the Bob McAdoo Basketball Court, has a storied history as a magnet for the best players in the area, including Curley Neal, who would play for the Harlem Globetrotters. Legendary games happened there, and crowds gathered to see them.
“Bob always talked about Benbow Park,” Banks said. “This is the way you honor someone, and it’s while they are still here.”
Later, McAdoo took a first ceremonial shot and missed. The second jumper connected to cheers from the hundreds in the crowd and high fives all around.
This day had been years in the making.
A few years ago, as part of discussions about the Benbow Historic District, the idea was floated to name the park after McAdoo. Greensboro City Councilperson Sharon Hightower and community organizers had been meeting with city staff and A&T landscape architecture faculty to discuss improvements to the park and ways to fund it. For some involved, it’s reliving history being on those basketball courts. Others appreciate seeing someone from Greensboro like McAdoo reach such heights.
“It ensures that every child who steps on this court knows they are walking in greatness that began here,” said Mayor Nancy Vaughan, before she and Hightower presented McAdoo with a key to the city.
Even this weekend, as he always does on visits, he took the long drive to get here.
He passed the family home on Ross Avenue, past the homes of Black professionals along the way, including Jimmie Barber, the former city councilman and namesake for Barber Park, who lived next door. Benbow Road had the trees that seemed to cross over the street, and every lawn was manicured.
McAdoo, who also plays the saxophone, had other interests. He would play in the orchestra at Smith, earning the first chair and making all-state.
He also made all-state in track and field.
But for McAdoo, basketball had top priority.
‘We could hear that ball’
Before Benbow had its park, neighborhood kids looking to play ball ended up in each other’s backyards, where there were goals or makeshift courts of their own. The parents always knew where they were by the bouncing balls.
Back in the day, the roughly 94 feet long by 50 feet wide slab of concrete with hoops on each end wasn’t much to look at.
Once, when McAdoo wasn’t home by the time the porch light came on, as had been the rule, his mother sent his father out to find him.
His dad drove by the court, where he spotted his son shooting baskets. Without a word, McAdoo’s father circled back home and told his wife not to worry — their son was at the basketball court.
From that point on, he didn’t have a curfew.
McAdoo would make thousands and thousands of shots from every spot, often with the street light in the distance.
“We knew he was out there,” Holt would say, “because we could hear that ball.”
A final four and an NBA legacy
By his senior year in high school, McAdoo would lead Smith to the state semifinals. College coaches had been writing to him since his sophomore year.
McAdoo later helped the Tar Heels reach the 1972 Final Four.
Later, he would be considered the greatest shooting big man in the history of the NBA.
He came back to his old stomping ground to put on basketball camps. Sometimes, to get in a few games.
“It wasn’t nothing for us to be sitting on the hill and (see) Dr. J (Philadelphia Sixers superstar Julius Erving) walk by,” said Ike Hayes. “Guys who could really play, like Mac and Curly Neal and the Williamson brothers — we had great seats over there on that hill.”
McAdoo has kept ownership of the house his father built here. At the ceremony, he told all the young people to continue to dream big, even when it seems tough.
He also mentioned that some of the best players who played there didn’t make it to the NBA, and others chose careers out of that limelight.
”This,” he had said earlier, looking at the Smith High School band and the young children and people he hadn’t seen in decades, “means more than I can say.”
Nancy.McLaughlin@greensboro.com
336-373-7049
@nmclaughlinNR
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