Enloe Legends Return To Their Roots
“Oh, Wow.”
These were the first words that Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan uttered as he walked into the LoeDown Studios alongside LeVelle Moton, head coach for the NC Central Eagles.
“This right here used to be the men’s locker room,” McMillan explained, a look of wistful nostalgia as he was transformed 37 years into the past. “Things have really changed.”
On February 16th, Enloe honored three distinguished alumni, Nate McMillan (‘82), LeVelle Moton (‘92), and PJ Tucker (‘03), retiring their jerseys at halftime of the men’s basketball game versus Cardinal Gibbons.
Organized by Athletic DIrector Coach Paye and football’s Coach Blocker, this “Night of Legends” was the first of its kind, lasting as, hopefully, an inaugural event for years to come. According to Coach Blocker, bringing back Enloe alumni who have gone on to the highest levels of their professions acts as inspiration for student athletes, who may share similar dreams and aspirations. ‘You got to be able to see success in front of you,” he said.
As Indiana Pacers Head Coach Nate McMillan, NC Central Head Coach LeVelle Moton, and Houston Rocket Point Guard PJ Tucker, settled in for their press conference, the magnitude of their careers and the effect Enloe had on their lives quickly became apparent.
“It’s crazy being back here man, walking through these hallways, man it gives me chills this is crazy,” said Tucker, “Me and my friends, being at Enloe, it was the dream.”
When all three legends were coming out of their respective middle schools, Enloe was a basketball powerhouse, each admitting to “fibbing” their addresses in order to be slated for Enloe.
“I wanted to go to Enloe, I didn’t want to go to any other high school. And I had to stay with my cousin in order to attend Enloe,” said McMillan.
Having graduated nearly ten years apart from each other, LeVelle Moton recalls a story that reveals how impactful and intertwined their upbringings were.
“At that time our neighborhoods became cloudy and blurred with drugs, and poverty and cops infested the neighborhoods,” said Moton. “We didn't have much as kids. And Nate (McMillan) came back and did a basketball camp and he pulled me to the side, and it was my first time ever formally really meeting him, and he pulled me to the sideline and he said ‘I heard a lot about you.’”
After spotting McMillan’s Mercedes parked outside the gym, Moton was astounded, and was soon given advice by McMillan, at the time a starting point guard for the Seattle Supersonics.
“He said, ‘Man, if you keep your head straight you can get this. No drugs have bought this car, nothing illegal has bought this car, keep your head straight and do for the community like I did, and good things will happen,’” recalled Moton.
Fast forward ten years later, and Moton was running his own basketball camp where he met a young kid by the name of PJ Tucker.
“It's amazing how the world spins,” Moton said.
Unlike Moton, McMillan was never a star player for Enloe, nor was he ecstatic about trying out for the team. Like most high schoolers, McMillan dealt with a crippling fear of failure, and an often consuming pressure to live up to other people’s standards.
“I had a huge fear of failure, as I think a lot of students have when they come to high school,” said McMillan. “There is so much pressure to be accepted, to be the most popular, to be the smartest in the class, to have nice clothes. All of these things you are judged on when you come into high school. And I didn't have really any of those things.”
Pressured by his older brother to go out for the basketball team, McMillan feared that he would not make the cut. He realizes that his brother saw something in him that he didn’t. “He knew that I had the talent to play, but knew I didn't have the confidence to go out.” Harkening back to that time, McMillan recalls three options he had:
To give in, to give up, or to give all you got.
McMillan chose the latter of the three.
LeVelle Moton may have been an arguably more flashy and highly recruited player while at Enloe (he still holds the Enloe scoring record with 51 points in one game), but he experienced his fair share of hardships as well, recalling one moment where he almost ruined his future as a basketball player.
“My Junior year I was going through a lot of stuff. A lot of personal problems and I came to practice and [Coach Frank Williams] was on me pretty hard, and he said, ‘If you don’t like it, then quit.’ And I didn’t like it, so I quit,” recalled Moton.
Storming out of practice and into the men’s locker room, young LeVelle Moton was angry, fuming with rage, realizing the magnitude of what he had just done. After having calmed down, Coach Williams came into the locker room, trying to hash out the underlying reason for young LaVelle's outburst.
“He was going back and forth with me, and I’m crying and he said, ‘You just make sure you have yourself here tomorrow!’ I said, ‘You not kicking me off the team?’ He said, ‘Na.’”
Although Moton was forced to sit out for the next day’s game against Athens Drive, he is forever thankful that Coach Williams did not give up on him.
“If it had gone wrong that day, there wouldn’t be any of this,” he says pointing to the cameras, the lights, and the media that surrounded him, “Not for me. [Nate] would be up here, but not me.”
As these Enloe basketball legends prepared to be called up at halftime, to the applause of past, present, and future generations of Enloe students, all three echoed a similar sentiment of a greater appreciation for the coaches and mentors they had as high schoolers.
“You really don’t appreciate those coaches back in the day when we were growing up, and we called coach, and we thought that’s all they did,” said McMillan. “We didn’t know they had families, we didn’t know they had a day job, we just knew they would be there for us, and we didn’t really think about that.”
From raising funds on their own for quality uniforms or football pads, to spending money out of their own pocket for equipment players could not afford, the job of a coach was often a thankless one.
“Coach McClain really provided for me, if it hadn’t been for him, I mean none of this would have been possible,” said McMillan.
As the honored legends stepped out onto the basketball court, holding up their retired jersey numbers with pride, the influence that Enloe has had on their lives was magnified. Enloe’s men’s basketball coach “Poobie” Chapman played under LeVelle Moton at NC Central, PJ Tucker’s parents went to Enloe with Nate McMillan. Enloe is a place that spurs legends, that cultivates a community, and will continue to inspire a lineage of future legends, in all aspects of life, for years to come.
