Bates plans to meet Big J

MANILA, Philippines - The celebrated “Black Superman” intends to visit Manila, thank Robert Jaworski for his concern and confer with PBA officials on how to make the league “the place to play.”

Billy Ray Bates said yesterday he will be ready to fly over in two weeks when he graduates from a drug and alcohol center.

“After all these years, I am now finally clean and sober,” Bates told The STAR from New Jersey. “I have been in a drug and alcohol program now for a year. No. 1 favorite person is Robert Jaworski who did everything in his power to try to make me stay clean and sober but I was very young and immature. As soon as I get to the Philippines, I want to thank Mr. Jaworski for all his kindness and understanding towards me. He was someone who truly cared about me.”

Bates, 52, played on three championship teams in five conferences with Crispa and Ginebra San Miguel in 1983-88. It was Jaworski who gave the 6-4 Bates his shiningest moments in the PBA. In the 1987 season, Bates averaged a whopping 54.9 points as Ginebra narrowly missed a finals berth after losing a do-or-die game to Hills Brothers (now Alaska).

Bates said he’s looking forward to reconnecting with his Filipino fans and giving back.

“I would like to make personal appearances, meet with PBA officials to talk about new avenues to make the PBA the place to play,” he added. “I am ready for commercials, to speak with young players, do clinics, anything that will be of help to what I like to call my second home.”

Bates, who lives in Newark, said he is still married to Beverly Davis and has a 21-year-old daughter living in Switzerland where he played after his PBA career.

Bates suited up for Portland, Washington and the Los Angeles Lakers in four NBA seasons from 1979-80 to 1982-83. He hit at a 26.7 clip in six playoff games for the Trail Blazers and was a cult hero in Portland.

Bates, next to youngest of nine children, was a sharecroppers’ son who picked cotton as a boy, had no significant classroom education, lost his father Frank when he was only seven, grew up in a shack with no electricity and indoor plumbing and saw in basketball a way out of poverty. He was described by author David Halberstam in the book “The Breaks of the Game” as “a child of the feudal South.”

Bates once said he was born to play basketball. Halberstam said perhaps, he was. “He had one of the most powerful bodies of any guard in the NBA, a huge barrel chest, immense hands, strong legs that sprang from thick thighs,” wrote Halberstam. “No one had ever taught him how to jump, he could simply do it from the first day he tried. He could dunk the ball from his sophomore year in high school and he lived for those moments, sailing above the rim and then slamming the ball down.”

As a Kentucky State junior in 1977, Bates earned the nickname “Dunk” for compiling 67 slammers. Ginebra star Jay-Jay Helterbrand also played for Kentucky State.

In the Continental league, Bates tore down four backboards as a result of his thunderous dunks. When he played for Portland, Bates admitted to substance abuse and spent eight weeks at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. Trail Blazers coach Jack Ramsay also enrolled him in a remedial reading school.

“I have a few Filipino friends in New Jersey,” said Bates. “Two play in college and are planning to play in the PBA soon. One is only a junior in college and he is an All-American.”

Bates confessed to the crime that led to a seven-year prison term. In 1998, he held up a gasoline station in New Jersey and slashed attendant Philip Kettel’s ear in stealing five dollars. Bates was later arrested and sentenced to serve seven years in jail.

“I had gotten drunk one night and tried to steal some money from a gas station,” he related. “I got caught and spent seven years in prison. I was charged with armed robbery. It was the most embarrassing thing in my life. The robbery was all true. It was not the real Billy Ray Bates. I am so glad that I am now clean and sober. It is a big difference to finally be in control of my life.”

Regarding today’s NBA stars, Bates said Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are “great players” but he was different. “I brought a power game to the Philippines that people never saw,” he said. “I liked to dunk on people and I was a very good shooter. I was a showman and today, kids would rather trash talk than show what they can do.”

In a message to his fans, Bates said: “Please don’t drink or do drugs. I had so many people try to help me and then it was too late. I would tell the younger guys to try to speak with Mr. Jaworski. He is a very intelligent man with great wisdom. If I had listened to him when I was younger, I do not think I would have so many mistakes in my life. When I played with Ginebra, I was in my prime. By this time, I loved the food, women and friends I made. I miss the Philippines.”

Creasia vice president for marketing and sales Kim Sia said the other day his company is relaunching a complete line of Grosby performance and lifestyle shoes in the next few months and will consider bringing Bates to Manila as a celebrity endorser. Bates wore his own signature Grosby shoes in the PBA.