“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”
-Don Williams Jr.
  
Sometimes, basketball is so much more than a game.

When Antonio Reynolds-Dean stepped off the court in an aging arena in March of 2008, there were no press conferences, no articles in Sports Illustrated, no feature on “Outside the Lines.” Reynolds-Dean wasn’t an NBA star - he never even set foot in "the league." Reynolds-Dean spent his entire career toiling far from the limelight,  and played out his final game in a mid-level league 5,000 miles from home.

But Antonio Reynolds-Dean he never became a statistic: His name never marked an obituary in the morning paper, or a story on the 5 o’clock news. He never became a casualty of the inner-city.

And when Reynolds-Dean left the floor and peeled off his jersey for the final time, it marked the end of a remarkable journey by one of the most remarkable men to ever play the game.

…

Antonio de Andre Reynolds-Dean was born and raised on the west-side of Atlanta, and bore the scars of the city that bred him. Decades after the civil rights movement, Atlanta was still reeling from the effects of slavery, reconstruction, and the Jim Crow south.

“Growing up, Atlanta was not multi-cultural; it was either black or white, and there wasn’t any crossover between the two groups,” he explains in a deep baritone voice. “My high school was all black; I didn’t have white friends, didn’t know any white-people, and never interacted with anyone outside my race: I definitely grew up with a distrust of people different from me.”

Atlanta’s “west side” is the roughest and most downtrodden section of a city which boasts one of the countries highest murder and unemployment rates. As a youth, boarded up and burned out buildings, vacant lots, scuttled businesses, corner hangouts and drive-bys were what Reynolds-Dean knew of the world.
 
“I knew nothing of the outside world; I thought I was going to live and die in Atlanta,” he says.

Many of Reynolds-Dean’s childhood friends never made it out of the west side, but basketball served as his lifeline.

After starring for Douglas High as an undersized power forward, Reynolds-Dean caught the attention of several smaller Division I schools, including the University of Rhode Island. Seeing the opportunity to play immediately, he accepted a scholarship from URI.

“When you’re sixteen, seventeen years old, you don’t understand the magnitude of the decisions you make,” he explains. “I didn’t know it at the time, but going to URI was the biggest, and best, decision of my life.”

He didn’t know it at the time, but going to Rhode Island may well have saved his life.

“I don’t know what would have happened to me if I had stayed in Atlanta, but I know I would never have had a chance at the life I’ve lived if I hadn’t gone Rhode Island,” he says. “(URI) changed me as a person, and it changed me one-hundred percent for the better. It took a young kid and made him a man, and everything that I have achieved in life I owe to URI: Those were the four greatest years of my life. ”

Reynolds-Dean went to URI expecting to play right away, and he did, as his name was written in the starting lineup for first game of his career in November of 1995, the last game in March of 1999, and all 129 games in between.

Generously listed at 6’7”, Reynolds-Dean relied on incredible leaping ability, an unmatched work ethic, and a heart the size of a basketball to get the job done in the low post.

“He was a very undersized guy, but his mental toughness, and his heart, were as big as anyone’s that I’ve ever coached,” says current Boston College head coach Al Skinner, Reynolds-Dean’s head coach for two seasons at URI.

Reynolds-Dean spent much of his career at URI playing in the shadows of future NBA stars Cuttino Mobley and Lamar Odom, but it was Reynolds – whom Odom refers to as a “father figure” – who was the heart and soul of the Rams.

“Antonio gave every ounce he had every time he set foot on the floor,” remembers former URI teammate Preston Murphy, now the director of basketball operations at Boston College. “Antonio was a guy you’d go to war with. He led by example, there was never anyone who played harder than he did, and I’d follow him anywhere.”

And for one magical month in March of 1998, Reynolds-Dean shined on college basketball’s biggest stage, as he led the eighth seeded Rams to a stunning upset over top ranked Kansas, and an appearance in the “Elite Eight”.

“Antonio was the heart and soul of that team and that run through the tournament,” says Murphy. “Every time we were down, when our backs were against the wall, he pulled us together. No one gave more of themselves to that team, and that run.”

The clock finally struck midnight on the Rams’ Cinderella season 59 seconds away from a final four, as Stanford scored six points in under a minute to knock off URI. And with the loss went Reynolds-Dean’s time in the spotlight.

During his career Reynolds-Dean set school records for games played and games started (131), and finished second in school history in career blocks (235) and third in rebounds (1,028), to go along with 1,576 career points scored. And, after setting foot on campus as an unknown high-school player, Reynolds-Dean graduated as an NBA prospect. 

But his real transformation took place off the court.

The story goes that Reynolds-Dean arrived at URI without a jacket to his name, unprepared for the harsh New England winters, and you couldn’t make up a better metaphor for his college experience.

“It was a definite shock to my system,” he says. “Everything about URI was so foreign to me; it was so different from what I had grown up in. I had never been around white people before socially, or in an environment outside of the city, and at first it was really uncomfortable and hard.”

A diverse public school in the northeast, the University of Rhode Island was a culture shock to Reynolds-Dean. After living in a segregated community his entire life, he found himself surrounded by people with backgrounds very different from his.

“You had a young man who grew up in Atlanta Georgia, coming to a different environment in New England at the University of Rhode Island, and he matured and grew tremendously because of that. He matured greatly, and realized that there was more to the world than what he had experienced growing up,” reflects Skinner. “His personal growth was tremendous.”
 
“I was forced to come out of my comfort zone, I had no choice but to interact with people that I never would have before. Back in Atlanta, it was easy to just stay in your community and avoid everyone different. At URI, I couldn’t just go home and hide, I was forced to adapt. URI gave me the forum to really interact with all different people for the first time in my life. It changed my life,” says Reynolds-Dean.

Reynolds-Dean credits Skinner and his coaching staff with helping him navigate such unfamiliar territory.

“I can’t fully put into words the impact my coaches had on my life. Al Skinner, Ed Cooley, and Bill Coen (the latter two being Skinner’s assistants) were really three father figures to me: They helped me grow so much – they helped me become a man.”

At URI, Reynolds-Dean met his future wife, and four years after setting foot on campus, graduated with a bachelor's degree in Human Development and Family Studies.

“I came to Rhode Island with all these notions of how people were, and what the world was, and I left with an entirely new outlook on life.”

When his college career ended, Reynolds-Dean attended the Chicago pre-draft camp, where he went head to head with the likes of Elton Brand, Shawn Marion, and Ron Artest. By all accounts, Reynolds-Dean more than held his own against the future NBA stars despite gutting it out through an injury he suffered early in camp, but NBA scouts simply couldn’t look past his camp measurement of 6’5”.

Apparently there wasn’t an accurate measure for heart.

“His physical size prevented him from playing in the league, but it didn’t at all deter from the size of his heart, and the amount of effort that he gave every night,” Skinner reflects.

Reynolds-Dean’s name wasn’t called on draft night in 1999, but his NBA dreams lived on.

“Playing (at URI) with Lamar (Odom) and Cottino (Mobley), and seeing those guys in the NBA, I thought I had a shot. That was my dream.”.

From the summer of 1999 to the summer of 2000, Reynolds-Dean spent time in the CBA, IBA, and USBL (perhaps fittingly, all three leagues have since folded due to bankruptcy). Symbolically wearing his NBA engraved shorts from the Chicago pre-draft camp underneath the uniforms of the Idaho Stampede, Dakota Wizards, Florida Sea Dragons, and Brooklyn Kings, he chased his dreams in the dark gyms and empty arenas of the minor leagues.

“For a year I gave my dream everything I had,” he says.

A far cry from the glamour of the NBA, the minors were huge ego check for a man whom had spent his college days playing in front of sellout crowds on the national stage.

“At first it was kind of a let down, because I got cut by the CBA. I went to the IBA, which was a minor league, and I was getting paid about 250 bucks a week. It was an incredibly humbling experience,” he explains.

“I think it was good for me, being humbled helped me grow more as a person, and it wound up being fun: I fit right in after a while, led the league in rebounding, and was named the rookie of the year.”

Reynolds-Dean had lead the IBA in rebounding, averaged a double-double, was selected to the All-IBA first team, and was named league Rookie of the Year, but the NBA still wasn’t calling.

So in the end of the summer of 2000 he buried his dreams, and signed to play professionally in Spain.

“I just had to turn the page, and move on to the next chapter of my life. The NBA wasn’t going to happen, and that hurt, but I moved on – financially I had too.”

Basketball in Spain may be unknown to American audiences, but after the U.S., it’s second to none in the basketball world. For seven years Reynolds-Dean stood his ground against Europe’s best.

“Antonio Reynolds-Dean; boy did that man play hard, every single night. There were guys who were bigger, stronger, and more talented, but there wasn’t anyone in the entire country of Spain who played harder than him. You went up against him and you were going to war, and you were going to be sore for a week afterwards,” laughs Bobby Martin, a former McDonalds All-American who went head-to-head with Reynolds-Dean in Spain.

Reynolds-Dean’s best years came playing for Polaris World Murcia: Playing in the Spanish second division (known as the “LEB Gold”) during the 2002-2003 season, he carried Murcia to a league championship, averaging 16.5 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks. Reynolds-Dean earned a place in the league all-star game where he would claim MVP honors, and more importantly, he carried Murcia back into the first division.

“The fans in Murcia were starved to get back into the first division, and Antonio came in, put that team on his back, and carried them to it, and they loved him for it. To this day they still love him in Spain,” says Martin.

The following season Reynolds-Dean averaged just under 13 points and 7 rebounds per game playing in the first division (known as the “ACB”), a league regarded as the best domestic league in the world outside of the NBA. Reynolds-Dean spent the year trading elbows with a host of future NBA players, including Jose Calderon, Rudy Fernandez, Louis Scola, and Marc Gasol, as well as top international players like Martin and Lou Roe.

…

Antonio Reynolds-Dean stepped off the hardwood for the final time in aging arena in Argentina in March of 2008. Reynolds-Dean had spent eight seasons travelling the globe, and it was fitting that his basketball journey came to an end almost literally at the ends of the earth.

“Basketball took me around the world, I got to experience life in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and all over Europe. It allowed me to see things, and experience a life that I never could have without it. Without it I don’t think I would ever have gotten out of Atlanta, and I know I would never have become the man I am today,” he says.

Along the way he got married, had two daughters, and made a very nice living playing the game he loved.

The grind of seven years in Spain had taken its toll on his body and after an injury plagued 2007, he was forced to leave the country in search of a new contract. Reynolds-Dean fought through injuries during the final year of his playing career, but he was still able to lead the Argentinean League in rebounding, a testament to his sheer tenacity and refusal to quit on the court.

Reynolds-Dean didn’t make the decision to retire until a few weeks after his final game, when he attended the annual coaching conference at the Final Four. At the Final Four he accepted a position as Director of Basketball Operations at Fairfield University, serving under head coach Ed Cooley, a former assistant coach of his at URI.

Joining the coaching ranks meant a significant pay-cut from his days as a player, but to Reynolds-Dean, the timing was right.

“You never know where you can go in this game coaching, and it just felt like the right time and opportunity.”

After one season at Fairfield, Reynolds-Dean joined the staff of another former coach of his – Northeastern head coach Bill Coen – as an assistant coach.

Going from playing the game to watching from the sidelines is a tough transition for any player, and Reynolds-Dean has experienced “the itch” since retiring, and it’s not uncommon during the off-season to find him running in pick-up games with players a decade his junior.

“I still have to go out there and hurt some feelings every once and a while, and teach these young guys a thing or two,” laughs Reynolds-Dean, who lives in Providence in the shadows of his old stomping ground, and commutes daily to Boston by train.

But in the end, he’s been able to retire with no regrets, knowing that he left everything he had on the court.

“I can walk away and sleep at night, because I always respected and honored the game and my team. I was a true team player everywhere that basketball took me; I always put the game and my team above myself. And I can honestly say that I gave everything that I had in every game of my career.”

And what the game may have lost in a warrior on the court, it has gained in a mentor for the next generation of impressionable young men, as Reynolds-Dean plans to pay it forward with the lessons he learned from his journey out of the shadows and into the great wide world.

“Basketball gave me a chance to not only see the world, but to play an active part in it. My time in college, at the University of Rhode Island made me into the man I am today. No matter where I have gone it has been with me in my heart; the lessons I learned from my coaches and from college have been a part of me ever since. With everything that basketball has given me, I feel a responsibility to help young kids today through their own journeys in life” he says.

On Thursday December 10th, Reynolds-Dean's journey will have come full circle when he returns home to URI to help lead the visiting Huskies against his alma mater.

Could any parent ask for a finer mentor for their son during the defining years of his life? Could any school, or any sport, ask for a better ambassador?

(Photograph's courtesy of URI Sports Communications, and 'La Opinión')