Legend Grows: Jones Boasts a High Mark in Basketball

Horizontally, sure.

But vertically?

Just about everybody knows that Marion Jones can run from Point A to Point B as fast as any prep sprinter in history. Shoot, she’s run 200 meters in a national-record 22.58 seconds, leaving a trail of scorched earth in her wake.

Sure, she can jam.

Others are acutely aware that she is the best player on the undefeated Thousand Oaks High girls’ basketball team, that she goes from Point A to Point B in a flash and scores plenty of points in the process.

But she can jam ?

Last month at the Sports Arena, during a press conference for high school athletes scheduled to compete in the Sunkist Invitational indoor track and field meet, curiosity got the better of a track coach in attendance.

“I have a question,” he said. “I heard that you can dunk a basketball.”

All conversation ceased.

“I have to have my steps down to do it because I can’t palm a basketball,” Jones said. “But I can dunk.”

Some were incredulous. Jones, a 5-foot-10 1/2 senior forward, definitely would be in elite company if she were capable of the feat. The number of high school girls who have dunked can probably be counted on one hand. If not one palm.

Jones, who is scheduled to compete in the girls’ 50-meter dash in the Feb. 20 Sunkist meet, said that she could dunk a tennis ball on a 10-foot rim as a freshman. It has been only recently that she has been able to dunk a basketball, she said.

In light of the success of the Thousand Oaks girls’ team--the Lancers are 15-0 and considered a favorite to win a third consecutive Southern Section Division I-A title--it is unlikely that fans will see Jones slam one through in a game.

“I’ve dunked in practice, but I doubt I’ll try it in a game this season,” she said. “The only time I’d dunk in a game is if we were up by 50 points.

“But if we were up by 50 points, I probably wouldn’t be in the game.”

On the fence: The way City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness explains it, his response depends on his mood at the time.

To stay or go: He vacillates daily, if not more frequently.

“Hourly,” Harkness said.

Harkness, the City athletics commissioner since 1986, is considering retiring from the Los Angeles Unified School District when he turns 55 in September.

Who can blame him?

Over the past few years, the City athletics program has had its budget pared and been forced to deal with a move to a year-round academic calendar, a huge logistics task. A school board member has called for the elimination of all athletic funding. Two members of the athletics office were let go last spring, leaving Harkness and two secretaries to deal with a litany of complaints and problems from 49 district high schools.

Pay cuts for district employees have become an annual affair. Another teacher walkout looms. The district faces a deficit in the millions and economic projections indicate that things will get worse before they get better.

Harkness admits that he has changed his mind several times about whether to retire, and sometimes it depends simply on how bad his day has gone. “I hope to decide by May or June,” he said.

Second coming: First things first. He isn’t bald. He has no sky hook. No goggles. But he definitely has the right pedigree.

For those who scrutinized the linescore from Tuesday’s Delphic League opener between Faith Baptist and Brentwood, a name may have seemed strangely out of place. And the point total associated with it also seemed a bit low.

Yet there it was, in black and white, and it was no typographical error: Abdul-Jabbar 6. Yup, it’s the former NBA star’s son. What’s more, the 6-foot-3 junior forward also is named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

According to Brentwood Coach Bob Ingram, the younger Kareem transferred to Brentwood as a sophomore and played last year for the junior varsity. He does not start for Brentwood (10-3), which spanked defending league co-champion Faith Baptist, 64-46.

“He’s a great kid, but he’s still developing as a player,” Ingram said.

One of Lucius Allen’s sons, Bakir, is a standout at league rival Crossroads. Lucius and the elder Kareem played together at UCLA and later in the NBA, with the Milwaukee Bucks and Lakers. Bakir, a 6-4 senior swingman, has signed a letter of intent to play at UC Santa Barbara.

Downer: As the kids would say, Dick Crowell is bummed.

“I’ve had such high expectations and been so disappointed,” said Crowell, the San Fernando basketball coach.

Entering the season, San Fernando (6-5) was considered among the best City Section teams from the region, perhaps second to North Hollywood (14-1) in talent and depth.

Three of Crowell’s players combined to average 45.6 points a game last season, and all returned for 1992-93.

Yet things are very much amiss.

“There’s definitely talent on this team,” said Crowell, in his 11th season. “But we’re having chemistry problems like I’ve never experienced before. Jealousy, all kinds of things.”

To underscore the point, Crowell said he called a team practice last month, shortly before the Tigers were scheduled to begin play in the Hart tournament. Two players showed.

“It isn’t any one kid,” he said. “It’s a combination of things. One day, this team meets all your expectations, and the next day they look like cartoons.

“Realistically, we should be 9-2 right now.”

If not better. Said a rival coach: “That team should be 10-1.”

San Fernando will reopen practice Monday. Crowell said he plans to emphasize that the important part of the season remains--conference games begin Jan. 20--and that there is still time to right the foundering ship.

“Will they respond? I don’t know,” he said.