Raymond Lewis: LA Legend (2022 Ryan Polomski)

Just got around to finally watching this documentary on the sad, remarkable legend that is Raymond Lewis. It was worth my time, totally.

As I was a kid, following the Lakers with West/Goodrich/Wilt/McMillan/Hairston, etc, and reading the LA Times assiduously, studying box scores like a child Talmud scholar, I'd also happen onto articles about LA high school and college teams and players. UCLA was always a thrill back then. And I remember reading a lot about a high school player out of Verbum Dei, Raymond Lewis.

And, skipping ahead, I followed his career as closely as child basketball fanatic can follow a guy - talkin' Ray Lewis here - who was only in HS, then college.

Now realize: I'm a kid in the San Gabriel Valley who had no chance of actually seeing a game Lewis played: no car, no dad willing to drive me to Watts or CSLA. And I was naive AF: I didn't really understand how corrupt recruiting was back in the early 1970s. My gawd was it corrupt. Yes, Jerry Tarkanian appears (his last interviews before his death.)

This stuff was hinted at, and Howard Cosell, of all people, hipped me to a lot of this. I still couldn't quite grasp it: why was it so important to buy a kid like Lewis fancy cars, when he was right out of HS? It took me years to realize how $$$ worked.

And man, reading Sports Illustrated - my mom bought me a subscription - I slowly pieced it together, as my own moral/ethical social brain developed during my teenage years.

Raymond Lewis was a guy who was a legend, who'd put up 50, 60 points in HS and college games. His game just assassinated teams all over the LA area.

And then: the NBA draft, and Doug Collins taken in the first round by the 76ers, coming off their all-time NBA worst season. Golden Boy Doug Collins, who just got gypped out of a Gold Medal by the Olympic officials. And Lewis was taken by the 76ers late in the 1st round. And, by all accounts, he demoralized Collins in camp. (Collins "declined to be interviewed" for this documentary, and it's not hard to imagine a bunch of reasons why.)

Now, here's the thing: Ray didn't understand the wolves in front offices, or the institutional racism that went on then. Ray, it appears, was as naive about this world as he was wizened on the court. He very very unwisely represented himself in contract negotiations. And he got rooked - pun intended, I guess - royally. By 76ers GM Pat Williams. Actually, a lot of people treated Ray unfairly.

Ray didn't like the conditions he later played under: a very small amount was guaranteed, and he was outplaying everyone. He demanded his contract be renegotiated . The 76ers refused. Ray walked out. It's a long, long, sad, maddening story, but Raymond Lewis, who had a proto-Kyrie Irving style game, was blackballed. He'd get tryouts into his 30s with NBA teams, play well, but then get cut. He also had developed a really bad attitude, but then again he had every reason to have a bad 'tude.

The documentary has a lot of footage of Ray playing in HS and some Cal State LA games. It makes a very good case that we should think of Ray when we think of Curt Flood, Jackie Robinson, Ali, Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, and Oscar Robertson, et.al. It's just that Ray never got to play a game in the NBA. He died alone, alcoholic, depressed, penniless, at 48 years old.

Gene Shue comes off particularly bad, I thought. Kudos to him for even agreeing to speak before the cameras though. There's a section near the end where, Ray has gone back to just playing in pick-up games and semi-pro games around LA. And new Laker Michael Cooper - who appears in the film - was going to guard Ray. Some people said, "Ray can't score on the already legendary defense of Coop. Coop's gonna bring him down to earth." (my paraphrase of what some were saying) And right off the bat, Coop blocks Lewis. Then Ray goes on to drop something like 68 points on Coop and his team.

Caveat: clearly, Raymond Lewis was one of those playground legends at minimum: his friends and family, interviewed in the film, only mention his offense. Lewis was obviously what we called a "gunner" when I was a kid. This metaphorical description has largely been dropped long ago, due to the glaring sorrows brought about by gun violence, especially in areas of our largest cities. No one mentions Ray's defense. Therefore I suspect it was not great, but who knows? I doubt it was any worse than all the high-scoring phenoms we've all seen whose defense is, was and will be sub-par. Still: his scoring was SICK! No doubt about it.

He was good. Really really good. And yea, Raymond Lewis made some mistakes - he didn't know guys like Harry Edwards personally or things may have gone very differently. But Ray made a difference. He paid a massive price. He is deserved of his legendary status, though. Man...what a reality sandwich his life story was. Dead at 48, destitute.