Basketball Court

Allen Iverson wants to keep his passport at home. Ten years after he ruled the NBA as the cornrow-wearing, ink-stained MVP who led the 76ers to the Finals, Iverson has his eyes on a comeback. He is determined to end a career possibly destined for the Hall of Fame in the NBA, not in some faraway country where brief YouTube clips are the only way to stay updated on the four-time scoring champion. The road back to 20,000 fans a night, national television and, yes, that one final run at the championship he still craves has already started.

A 16-year-old boy was shot on a basketball court at B and Wyoming Streets Tuesday evening about 8 p.m., police said. The bullet grazed his torso. He was treated at St. Christopher's Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. No suspects have been identified, police said. - Melissa Dribben

Although Clifton Heights Mayor Mary Natale describes the borough's proposal for Diamond Street Park as "one hoop on a five-acre piece of ground," the plan continues to spark controversy. At the Borough Council meeting Monday night, Dan Fabrizio presented a petition signed by 612 residents who want to "save the park. " Fabrizio said he wanted the park to be left in a natural state and "free of blacktop. " A similiar petition signed by 434 residents had already been presented to the council, so the total number of signatures was more than 1,000, Fabrizio said.

Bleachers - billed as "Philly's Real Sports Bar" - will offer everything from cocktails to an indoor golf driving range. It opens Wednesday in a 20,000-square-foot facility at Delaware Avenue and Spring Garden Street. The new establishment will also feature a basketball court and a game called Billi Puck, combining shuffleboard and billiards. Bleachers, located in a restored warehouse, will offer an electronic sports arcade, and there will be more than 50 television sets throughout the premises, capable of showing up to six simultaneous sporting events.

More than anything else, Ron Shelton loves jokers in jockstraps. As the screenwriter of The Best of Times, he comically examined high-school gridiron heroes 20 years after blowing the big game. As the writer/director of Bull Durham, he colorfully compared scoring romantically with scoring in baseball. Now, Shelton's White Men Can't Jump playfully looks at hoops hustlers alley-ooping on playground courts. Because Shelton has such obvious affection for guys who may not be superstars but who are nonetheless super sports, you smile just watching them.

Steve Nesmith is a walking, talking, jump-shooting commercial for Big Brothers of America. Nesmith, a former Malvern Prep and American University basketball star, is now in Ireland, playing professionally for Dawn Milk of the (Irish) National League. His numbers make him sound like the Irish version of Larry Bird: 30 points and 12 rebounds per game. Last year, as a rookie for the Tower Hamlets in London, he scored a Jordanesque 35 points a game. But basketball is just one part of this remarkable story.

Quinton Jenkins, a 19-year-old from Camden, started coming to Washington Lake Park this summer for pickup basketball games when word spread that you can get a "good, safe run" at the sprawling suburban park. "The tension is high in my area," he explained between games one night last week. Some of that tension has now come to Washington Lake Park, where the popular nighttime basketball games, played on a court christened the "NBA" by the young adult players, have been suspended.

Township Police Chief James Bell is trying to reach the children before it's too late. "I thought this was the place where I could do some proactive type of police work," said Bell, who took over the helm of the Valley Township Police Department in December. "I wanted to go where you just didn't ride around in your patrol car and wait for the radio to go off. " Bell said he thought the township was the perfect setting for such a philosophy. And what better way to establish a relationship with the youth than a basketball league?

Will Michael Jordan's comeback bring him to the heights once again - or will it be merely a sad failure to regain former glory? You knew he was coming back. He needed the competition. He needed the games, the drumbeat of a basketball on hardwood. He needed to be a hero again, to rise above the rest. And once more there's something for him to prove. His last three years have thrown his leadership qualities, his ability to make winners out of losers, into question. He was president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards.

WHILE COACH Dan Brinkley, of Prep Charter High, is positive Akhir "Geedy" Frazier would have played basketball at the Division I level, now those thoughts are secondary. "I'm much more fortunate to have met him than to have coached him," a sobbing Brinkley said yesterday. "This was one great kid. For all the people who knew him, this is hitting us like 9/11. " Frazier, 16, a rising junior combo guard, died late Wednesday night at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 4 days after removing himself from a neighborhood league game at Hank Gathers Rec Center, 25th and Diamond, and collapsing into the arms of that team's coach as he approached the sideline.

NASHVILLE - The phone rings in La Séguinière and Ron Anderson Sr. answers the call with a French lilt where there used to be a Chicago accent. "Allo?" The former 76ers forward has lived overseas for most of the last 17 years, almost all of it in France and for the last five years in this little town near Nantes and the Atlantic coast. "I know," he says. "I sound French. I don't hear it anymore. " Basketball took him overseas after a 10-year NBA career, and he chased the game and what still lay ahead of him, accepting the bargain of what he was leaving behind as well.

ATLANTIC CITY - On the basketball court, Khalif Wyatt's clutch shots seem to always come at the right time. The Temple guard just slips up when it comes to being on time for team functions. That's why he didn't start in Friday's 77-71 loss to Massachusetts in an Atlantic Ten tournament quarterfinal at Boardwalk Hall. Wyatt said he was late for a team meeting earlier this week. He was benched for the first 9 minutes, 36 seconds as T.J. DiLeo started in his place. "I let my team down," said Wyatt, who finished with a team-high 15 points, five steals, four assists, and three turnovers in 27 minutes.

MILWAUKEE - The ball appeared to be in Evan Turner's court. At least for one night. The second-year swingman was thrust into the starting lineup Monday night by 76ers coach Doug Collins instead of usual starting two-guard Jodie Meeks. Rookie Nikola Vucevic also was inserted into the starting five against the Milwaukee Bucks. He took over at center for fellow rookie Lavoy Allen, who had started 11 consecutive games in place of injured starter Spencer Hawes. It seemed to be a good time for Collins to give Turner his first start of the season.

Toenails. That's what Alonzo Lewis called it. It had almost nothing to do with basketball. It might be the most indelible facet of his revered legacy. It was the time of practice when his basketball players at Chester High would drop everything, line up along the baseline - the tips of their toes touching the paint - and listen. It was class time, lecture sessions that could last a couple of hours if Lewis felt like it. Over the last three decades, no high school basketball program in the Philadelphia region has matched Chester's illustrious heights.

SIXERS OWNER Adam Aron needed less that 20 words to announce one of the biggest acquistions in team's history: The Sixers have bought the basketball court that Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points on. Aron tweeted the news on his Twitter account, writing: "AMAZING PURCHASE. 76ers bought the actual basketball court on which Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points. Will mostly be preserved. " The purchase could not have been more timely. The 50th annivesary of Wilt's historic feat is fast approaching.

SIXERS CO-OWNER Adam Aron needed less than 20 words to announce one of the biggest acquisitions in the team's history: On his Twitter account yesterday, Aron tweeted: "AMAZING PURCHASE. 76ers bought the actual basketball court on which Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points. Will mostly be preserved. " The former Overbrook High star became the first - and only - NBA player to ever score in triple digits on March 2, 1962 when he led the Philadelphia Warriors to a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks at Hershey Park Arena.

BRANDON AUSTIN is already accustomed to experiencing success on Penn State's basketball court. In the 2013-14 season, he'll start trying for the steady-basis version. Austin, a 6-6 junior guard at Imhotep Charter, announced last night via his Twitter account that he indeed will be a Nittany Lion. "I just committed to Penn State!!!" he tweeted at about 8:30. The first return tweet came from Sammy Foreman, a star freshman at Haverford School: "S/O to my bro @blackjesus_1 on that Penn State (stuff)

"Ooh, is that Kennedy?" an admiring teenage girl said from the visitors section of Burlington Township's basketball gym Friday night. "I can't believe that's him," her friend responded. "He got so big. " Medford Tech center Kennedy Chukwuocha hasn't grown just from a 6-foot-1 freshman to a chiseled, 6-6 senior. He has grown also into "the man" for the 10-2 Jaguars. Coach Nickolas Powell tasked Chukwuocha (chuh-KWOTCH-ah) with carrying an inexperienced squad after the graduation of last year's "Fab Five" seniors, who set the school record for wins and made the first three playoff appearances in school history.

"Ooh, is that Kennedy?" an admiring teenage girl said from the visitors section of Burlington Township's basketball gym Friday night. "I can't believe that's him," her friend responded. "He got so big. " Medford Tech center Kennedy Chukwuocha hasn't grown just from a 6-foot-1 freshman to a chiseled, 6-6 senior. He has grown also into "the man" for the 10-2 Jaguars. Coach Nickolas Powell tasked Chukwuocha (chuh-KWOTCH-ah) with carrying an inexperienced squad after the graduation of last year's "Fab Five" seniors, who set the school record for wins and made the first three playoff appearances in school history.

The first time it happened, St. Basil's Erin Fenningham had just stepped onto the basketball court for her first varsity practice as a freshman in 2008. She was involved in a one-on-one drill when she went to take off after the ball was rolled to her. She immediately felt something strange in her right knee. She had torn her anterior cruciate ligament. She got back in time to play her sophomore season, averaging seven points coming off the bench as the Bulldogs won the District 1 Class AAA championship.