Franklins Bring Electricity to Taft : Brothers Keith, Kevin Light Up the Basketball Court

As usual, Keith and Kevin Franklin were shooting baskets outside their Los Angeles house. As they shot, they discussed the game they had played a few hours earlier for Taft High’s basketball team.

The brothers had a great deal to talk about--Cleveland 91, Taft 48.

“They kept the ball out of my hands,” said Kevin, the team’s leading scorer, about a Friday-the-13th debacle in which he was held to six points. “It was tough to accept that I didn’t help the team more than I did. It hurt so much.”

Finally, the two had talked enough. Kevin turned to Keith and said, “Let’s play.”

For nearly five hours, the Franklins played one on one. When Keith, the older of the two by a year, would win one of the games, Kevin would demand they play another round. When Kevin was the first to 26 points, Keith would want to go again.

Around 11:30 p.m., when they finally finished, Keith had won 12 games, Kevin 8.

“They’ve always been competitive,” their mother, Gradyjean, said. “Since they’ve been about 13 or 14, they’ve been out in the backyard playing for hours, yelling, ‘I won. You cheated.’ ”

The third and fourth children of Larry and Gradyjean Franklin are arguably the top two players for the Toreadors. Kevin, a 6-2 junior guard, has one of the deadliest jump shots in the Valley. He is averaging 19.9 points a game, shooting 58% from the field. Keith, a 6-1 1/2 senior forward, is the team’s top defensive player and is third on the team in scoring (14.8) and second in rebounding (7.5).

“They are different types of players,” Taft Coach Jim Woodard said. “Kevin is a scorer. Keith is a skin-your-knees, all-around type of player. We need them both very much.”

Said Quincy Watts, a teammate of the two: “Kevin can get us going when he’s got his jumper going. And Keith, he can get you flowing with his defense.”

It is not always easy when your younger brother is the offensive star. Case in point: The night Keith Franklin got his season-high in points (23 against University), he still didn’t lead the team in scoring.

Kevin registered a career-high 39 points, the most by a Taft player since 1971.

“I know that offensive players like Sean Higgins or Trevor Wilson or Kevin, they make the headlines,” Keith said. “Sometimes, I’m a little disappointed because I’ll have a game like 15 points and 10 rebounds and Kevin will have 21 points, and they’ll put his name in the paper and probably won’t put mine in.”

And Kevin has been making the headlines.

Following his 39-point performance against University, he scored 30 in an upset of Fairfax and 31 in a win over Hamilton. The next game, he had 28 through three quarters before sitting out the final eight minutes in a rout over Reseda.

During that stretch, Kevin shot 68% from the field. Over another period of games, he made 26 straight free throws.

Coaches around the league are impressed with both Keith and Kevin, but the superlative adjectives start flying when Kevin’s name is mentioned.

“I think Kevin Franklin will be a big time off-guard,” El Camino Real Coach Mike McNulty said. “He really has a lot of talent. He is one of the top two or three shooters I’ve seen this year.”

Said Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell: “Kevin, boy, he is a pure shooter.”

Keith admits that the lack of recognition is, at times, “frustrating.”

“But,” he added, “I’m glad Kevin’s there because that means at least one of us is in the paper.”

Keith, 17, said he is happy with his numbers. “They’re not really exciting numbers,” he said, “but they’re solid. And that’s what the team needs. My brother is the high point man. He needs to shoot. My job is basically to rebound and try to bring up the slack.”

On the few occasions when Kevin has not been hitting from the outside (he has shot under 50% from the field only twice in league), Keith has been able to provide the offensive spark.

When Kevin scored only six against Cleveland, Keith had a team-high 19. When the two teams met for a second time, Kevin missed his first four shots. Keith countered with eight points in the first quarter, finishing with 14.

Kevin awoke in the third quarter and hit five long-range jumpers. He had 20 when he fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Keith followed him the bench soon thereafter with five fouls and the Toreadors lost, 65-59, after leading by five entering the fourth quarter.

“It’s funny,” said Braswell, “the first time we played, Keith tore us apart. The second game, Kevin was unconscious against us. It seemed he was going out there 28 feet and making them.”

Kevin, 16, said he feels comfortable shooting as far out as 25 feet.

“I don’t have to strain from there,” he said. “I have confidence that every time I shoot, I feel it should go in. I work on it every day. Every night, I go home and shoot.”

The Franklins usually get home about 6 p.m. from the Woodland Hills campus. After resting for about a half hour, Kevin is outside--shooting. Keith isn’t out there every night, but when the two do start playing, their mother often has to call to get them back inside.

Until when do they play?

“Usually until I yell at them that the neighbors are trying to sleep,” Gradyjean Franklin said. Quitting time, she said, is usually around 9:30 p.m.

“Kevin shoots his jumper about 500 times a day at home,” Keith said. “He doesn’t think he shoots that much, but one day I was watching him and just started counting.”

During a recent rainstorm, Kevin decided he still needed to practice. So he did--outside.

“I was in the living room and I thought he was in the den,” Gradyjean said. “When I heard him playing, I was furious. I went to the door and screamed at him to come inside. He came inside.”

The Toreadors, 12-7 overall, are fourth in the Valley 4-A League with a 5-5 record. With two games left (including tonight’s 7 p.m. game at home with Kennedy), Taft is already assured of a playoff spot.

When the playoffs begin Feb. 21, the Franklin brothers will be making their first post-season appearance. Taft made the playoffs last season, but the Franklins, who both were on the varsity for the first time, couldn’t play.

Both were academically ineligible under the City Section’s C-average/no-fail policy. Keith failed an algebra class, while Kevin got an F in a biology class, forcing the two to miss the last three games of the season.

“It was painful to watch the team play, wishing you could be out there, and not being able to do anything,” Keith said.

Said Kevin: “It made me want to work harder. I didn’t want to get a scholarship with a low grade-point average, then flunk out.”

When they became ineligible, their parents set down some rules.

“We cut their allowances,” Gradyjean said. “And TV was out. There really was no need for them to fail. It was just that they did not take the time to study.”

As a sophomore, Kevin was named to the Valley 4-A League’s first team. He averaged 17.5 points in league and 15.3 overall. Keith was named to the second-team after averaging 14.3 points a game.

As for the classroom this season, Woodard said there have been “no problems.”

Keith said he would like to increase his GPA from his current 2.3 to about 2.7 or 3.0 by the time he graduates. “I have to crack down on the books, get A’s and Bs,” he said.

Keith has received letters from several Pacific 10 schools. “My heart’s at Arizona State,” he said. “Any of the Pac-10 schools would be fine.”

Woodard believes both of his Franklins have a future outside high school. Kevin figures to be one of the top players in the Valley next season.

“I’ve been giving college a lot of thought lately,” Kevin said. “I’d love to play in the ACC.”

And what if Keith ends up at ASU?

“I was thinking about how it would look if the Franklin brothers stayed together,” Kevin said. “I told him, ‘If you get in there, I’ll consider going there.’ ”

Keith was born March 14, 1968. Kevin was born March 12, 1969.

Keith’s first introduction to basketball came when he was about 5. His older brother, Larry Jr. (who played at Crenshaw High and briefly at Fresno State) was outside playing with some friends.

“He asked me, ‘Do you want to shoot?’ ” Keith said. “It was fun, but to me, I thought it was a dumb sport.”

Football was Keith’s first love and he intended to put on shoulder pads and a helmet when he first attended Taft. But after watching the players go through Hell Week, he decided football “wasn’t for me.”

It wasn’t until last season that Keith really became serious about basketball.

Kevin began playing seriously by the time he was 12. “A PE teacher I had in junior high school told me I had a future in basketball if I really went to work,” Kevin said.

Since the two began to play the game in earnest, they have spent a great deal of time playing one on one. They also play 21, a form of one on one that involves free throws.

Keith, the stronger of the two (he weighs 180 to Kevin’s 160), has the upper hand. That means he often gets to use the phone or forces Kevin to do the dishes. Those are a few of the things that are on the line when the two go head to head. But Kevin, the better outside shooter, has the advantage in 21.

So who’s the better Franklin, they are asked.

“It depends,” Keith said. “If you’re looking for finesse, it’s Kevin. If you’re looking for rebounds and defense, it’s me.”

Woodard isn’t worrying about who is better.

“Taft High,” he said, “has been very fortunate to come up with the Franklin brothers.”