December 29, 1998
By Catie DeVito
MU Sports Information
For each person there is one skill, one talent, that he or she excels at and feels destined to do for life. For freshman guard Clarence Gilbert, that talent is playing basketball.
He says that, for as long as he can remember, he could play basketball. Gilbert cannot really even recall how he learned how to play, it is as if he has always had a ball in his hands, "It was natural I guess, I just picked up a basketball and knew how to play...some people are like that," he says.
One person in particular had an influence on the young Gilberts basketball skills, his neighbor Smokey. Gilbert fondly remembers looking up to Smokey and his abilities. "I wanted to come out to the park and win games like him and dominate like him," Gilbert says. That is how he learned the game, by watching his friend playing at the park. The admiration is clear, as he recalls those days of watching his neighbor out at the courts.
Smokey "is good," he says, but he is another guy with those natural skills who "should be in the NBA, but gave up on basketball." While Smokey plays around at the park and with mens leagues, his protege Gilbert has other plans for his post-playing days. Simply watching his mentor playing ball at the park helped Gilbert, both on the court and off it. Gilbert wants to go one step further than his childhood role model. He will let basketball take him as far as it can and have his education take him the rest of the way in life. He wants to succeed in getting his education and playing ball, and he knows that to do so he must not give up.
When he was young and first playing on the playground, Gilbert was bigger and better than the kids his age, so he went and found competition...with the big boys.
"I was always playing with the bigger kids," he says. Playing at the park near his home, he often played against men two and three times his age, facing guys who were 23 and 24-years old, when he was just 13. He learned a few lessons along the way, "I used to lose a lot," he says with a laugh, but he accomplished something new with each game.
As he got older, and the kids his age finally started to catch up, and then surpassed, him in height, Gilbert learned another lesson -- about heart. He says that size has nothing to do with how one plays, "its how big your heart is."
The days when he plays against the bigger guy, learning and teaching simultaneously, are far from over. This time, though, the sharp shooter from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., plays in front of a more unfamiliar audience -- a crowd where his family is absent. The familiarity and comfort of his parents, sisters, and aunt not being in the crowd makes playing at Mizzou so different from high school, and maybe a little harder to get used to. Gilbert says that they are happy for him and want him to do well, no matter where he is or what he is doing. "They are always behind me 100 percent," he says of those important supporters back in Florida.
Gilbert says that when anyones family and biggest supporters are in the crowd cheering, that person will play at a higher and more intense level, and he is no different. He plays so much better, he says, because of a desire to play well and do well in front of family.
Gilbert is not alone here in Columbia, his best friend and long time backcourt mate, Keyon Dooling chose the Tigers too. The two have been friends ever since their AAU days. "Tudy" as Gilbert is called by those close to him, said that his long-time friends signing was not why he chose MU, though.
He wanted the opportunity to come in and play as a freshman, and to try and help make a difference early. Nevertheless, seeing a familiar face everyday, this far away from home, must bring a little reassurance to Gilbert.
Regardless of who he is playing against, who is in the stands, or who is on his team, Gilbert will play with the talents he feels he was destined to have and show them to whomever is watching.
There is one thing that he knows and will always take with him, and that is his will to play and to succeed. He does not want to be one of those guys who played the game and gave up, gave up on their dreams of college and the NBA and on succeeding in this game they love. So down the road, maybe a little boy or girl with those natural skills comes around and does not give up because there was another person just like him or her for them to admire.
That role model gave them a reason to keep on playing and learning. They will learn to have faith in themselves and their talents. They will learn that heart is what counts. Maybe Clarence Gilbert will be that role model.