Article By: Alex Mellion
Imagine walking into the Ridgeway building on the way to class and bumping into someone like Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, two of the NBA’s biggest stars. Seems pretty far-fetched, right? Well for quite a while now, walking into Ridgeway means that one may catch at least a glimpse of some NBA teams practicing on Suffolk’s very own basketball court, located in the basement of the Ridgeway building.
According to James Nelson, the Suffolk Athletic Director, the arrangement for NBA teams to hold practices before or after their games against the Boston Celtics in the Ridgeway gym came from former Suffolk assistant basketball coach and current Celtics Assistant Executive Director of Basketball Operations Leo Papile.
Papile was the assistant basketball coach from 1978-1979, and has been working for the Celtics since 1997. He wanted the Celtics to have a place to practice if the Garden was being occupied by another group or team practicing, like the Boston Bruins. Eventually, Nelson gave not only the Boston Celtics, but all of the teams that come into the city, the option to use the Ridgeway gym to hold practices.
“If the Garden is available, then that’s obviously the team’s first preference,” Nelson said. “If they are unable to practice at the Garden prior to a game, they can [also] go to the Boston College gymnasium or the gyms in the Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons hotels.”
Nelson also mentioned that sometimes, the visiting teams will just head over to the Emerson College gym and practice there because of the close proximity of the gym to their hotel, as most NBA teams stay at either the Ritz or the Four Seasons.
“The teams that do practice in our gym appreciate the privacy because the gym is 30 feet underground,” Nelson said.
In addition to the security guards at the desk at Ridgeway, most teams bring their own security personnel with them to the gym as well.
However, apparently not everyone appreciates the privacy of the basement gym, as legendary coach NBA head coach Phil Jackson once compared practicing in the gym to “working in a cell.” The “Zen Master,” best known for being a ten-time NBA champion as coach of both the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls and the Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers, made a disparaging remark about the gym after practicing there with the Lakers a few years back, allegedly quipping, “We were afraid the rats were going to get us.”
“Phil Jackson tried to be comical, but I didn’t find his comments funny and after hearing his remarks, I wrote him a letter,” Nelson remembered. “He wrote me back a letter of apology and included a check.”
When asked if he still had the letter, Nelson smiled and responded, “of course I do.”
Everyone from Bryant to Jordan to James has practiced in the Ridgeway gym.
“After he was drafted to the Cavaliers, James made his debut in a summer basketball league in our facility,” Nelson said. And while the university receives no monetary compensation, the NBA teams still draw positive publicity for Suffolk.
“When students hear that there’s a team practicing, they usually wait in the lobby or outside and get autographs or pictures from the team,” he said.
So, Suffolk students, keep working on those jump-shots in the Ridgeway gym, and who knows? The chance of rubbing elbows with some of the NBA’s biggest stars on Suffolk’s Beacon Hill campus is actually a lot greater than one would think.
