The oldest guy in the room set him straight.
"He told me, 'You keep doing that, these doors are going to close on you,'" Duren remembers.
The older man was Jameer Nelson. Five days a week last summer, Duren worked out with the former St. Joseph's star, now the Orlando Magic point guard.
"Right then and there, I began to take things more seriously," said Duren, last week's Big Five player of the week, who will be in action in a huge City Series matchup Wednesday night at Temple.
In Hoop City, nobody bats an eye that Duren goes to La Salle and Nelson went to St. Joe's. Former La Salle star Steve Smith went to the workouts, which were often at Harcum College. So did former Hawks guard Garrett Williamson. The day began with agility drills and weightlifting. The balls didn't come out until after lunch.
Over at the Palestra, Penn point guard Zack Rosen frequently went one-on-one last summer with former Temple star Lynn Greer. Current Temple player Ramone Moore would often show up. So would former St. Joe's star Rashid Bey (now Rashid Atkins).
"I think it's a gym-rat thing," Rosen said. "If you're around, if you're always around, you're going to see these people because they're in the gym. That's number one. But as you're around this thing long enough, as you start to build a reputation, those guys start to seek each other out, too."
Rosen grew up in North Jersey, in Colonia, so he has an outsider's eye and a convert's zeal to the unique aspects of Hoop City.
"It's unlike anything I've ever seen," Rosen said. "You have your allegiances. But in the summer time, there's no beef. It's like everybody is trying to help each other out."
It's also understandable from this perspective: Three of the City Six head coaches went to City Six schools, but only Penn coach Jerome Allen is at his alma mater. Drexel's Bruiser Flint played at St. Joe's. Temple's Fran Dunphy went to La Salle and previously coached at Penn.
