Chapter I: New York

The rain starts to fall, but that doesn’t bother Jessie Sapp. He’s going to keep shooting. The rain picks up. He shoots some more. His stepfather, that afternoon’s H-O-R-S-E opponent, runs inside to escape the downpour. Jessie keeps hoisting up shot after shot. The deluge continues, but so does Jessie Sapp.

He doesn’t miss.

Looking back six years later, Sapp points to that afternoon as critical to his development as a basketball player.

“My stepfather told me that was the best moment – that’s the best thing I could have possibly done, continuing to work on my game, no matter what,” he says. “After he told me that, I’ve always took that into consideration, like if I was playing and it was about to rain, everybody [would] be like, `I’m out,’ but I [would] continue to shoot. I guess that makes my jump shot wet.”

That day’s basketball game took place on one of the two courts tucked between the three buildings of the Woodrow Wilson Houses, the projects located at 105th Street and First Avenue in Harlem where Jessie Sapp grew up.

The court is made of a blue-green concrete with a red and orange key area. The backboard is lamb’s-wool white and the rim as red as a stoplight. These days, there is no net.

The Wilson Houses, erected in 1961, are New York City Housing Authority developments that house 1,300. The 20-story brick buildings are tall and ominous. Bars cover the windows of each of the 398 apartments, even the ones a dozen stories off the ground. A small red and white teddy bear is pinned to the ground-floor utility entrance. The area is not totally devoid of green – leafy trees sprout up in between buildings.

“It’s not like other projects,” Sapp says. “It’s three buildings, three buildings. . Other projects have like five [or] more than seven buildings and my projects only have like three buildings.

“It’s different; it’s just different in so many ways,” he continues. “Even though it’s small, I think we’re more of a family because it’s small. We have a little more of that family-oriented stuff within that neighborhood, but it’s tough. It’s real tough.”

Keith Smith, one of Sapp’s AAU basketball coaches, says, “The neighborhood he grew up in, Harlem, New York – tremendously old, rich African-American heritage. It’s also known for being crime-ridden.”

In 2001, a father stabbed his teenage son to death at the Wilson Houses. Sapp was interviewed about it by The New York Times. In 2005, according to the New York Daily News, one of Sapp’s best friends, Alonzo Milligan, was killed by a stray bullet. And a year later, Sapp’s own sister, Steveasia, was injured when a bullet struck her in the mouth.

“It made me who I am,” Sapp says of New York. “I think it was tough on me, it had its up and its downs, but it made me who I am, and I’m proud to be from there. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

For three years, Sapp has been something of a role player on a team full of McDonald’s All-Americans and future NBA studs. He has been overshadowed by the jack-of-all-trades star, Jeff Green; the 7-foot-2 behemoth who always loved Georgetown, Roy Hibbert; the little walk-on who could, Jon Wallace; the legend’s son, Patrick Ewing Jr.; and the other legend’s son, John Thompson III. But Sapp’s story and his road to the Hilltop may be the most noteworthy of all. That he is set to start his senior season as the cornerstone of this Georgetown team is a testament not simply to God-given talent, nor just to strong family ties, but rather to tireless hard work and a survivor’s spirit that was forged on the streets and playgrounds of New York.

Jessie Sapp shows his emotions on the court. When he’s happy, you see that wide, toothy grin that fans love. When he’s angry, he gives the no-nonsense stare that screams “I won’t back down.”

When Sapp holds court for bunches of reporters, he’s loud and playful and he cracks jokes. He lathers praise onto his teammates to an almost comical degree. He spares no acclamation.

But when he sits down one-on-one with a reporter, when he’s asked to mentally return to his old neighborhood, he’s quieter. He speaks slowly and evenly and he pauses at all the right moments. His introspection is clearly genuine.

As he revisits his humble origins, his eyes appear distant, like he’s picturing some almost-forgotten moment from the past. Even as he shares his favorite anecdotes, you can tell he has dozens of others that he keeps to himself.

Normally loquacious, Sapp is often at a loss for words when asked to describe something from New York.

any of Sapp’s Georgetown teammates have played AAU basketball since shortly after they could walk. Not so for Jessie. A boxer as a kid, he saw basketball as a rather informal endeavor.

“I’ve always played,” he says. “Even the people who don’t know how to play basketball always played basketball. So as I started to play basketball more and I started to really like it and I started to want to play so I just practiced. I worked at it. Rain – I’m outside shooting. Snow – I’m outside shooting, getting tough enough. I guess that’s how I got pretty good so fast.”

Each year, Harlem native DJ Kay Slay would play host to a street ball tournament on the courts at the Wilson Houses. Sapp says that the DJ’s tournament served as his official introduction to the world of street ball.

“I played against Headache [Tim Gittens]. He’s one of the best streetballers out there,” Sapp says. “Jamaal Tinsley came out, Ron Artest came out, a lot of people came out. There’s a lot of good memories.”

One year, Sapp played in two games back to back and won MVP in each. Just like the rainy game of H-O-R-S-E, his superb performance functioned as an indicator of his basketball potential.

“That’s when I kinda knew, or I didn’t know, but I kind of thought, `Hey, maybe I can really do this.'”

In those days, Sapp’s game was typical of street-ballers. He was, he says, “a slasher” with an “OK” shot.

“Back then, people were scared to jump me because I wasn’t afraid to, like,” he pauses and then whispers, “dunk on somebody.”

In addition to his exploits on the neighborhood court, Sapp began to play for a small, relatively unknown neighborhood team called the Union Settlement Wildcats.

On one occasion in 2003, the Wildcats took to the court against the AAU juggernaut New York Gauchos. After a strong performance by Sapp, Gauchos coaches Keith and Kevin Smith approached Sapp’s coaches for a sit down.

“He was outstanding, and we thought the Gauchos would be a program where he could flourish,” Keith Smith says.

After agreeing to switch teams, Sapp was sent to the Gauchos’ city-wide tryouts. According to Smith, Sapp was nearly guaranteed a spot on the team, but Smith likes to have his top players match up in tryouts anyway to show them right away how “fierce” the competition is going to be.

Also trying out that day was Levance Fields, now a senior guard at Pittsburgh.

“[Levance and I] were guarding each other that day. We were going back and forth, back and forth, going at it, going at it,” Sapp says. “I’m like, `Man, who is this guy?’ He’s like, `Man, who is this guy?’ And then we just clicked from there on. We made the team, backcourt together, and we just kicked from there on. Since then he’s been my best friend.”

Added Fields: “The first day I met him, he actually had a cut hand taped up, and we were playing, trying out for the Gauchos, both were competing against each other and we both took a liking to each other’s game because neither one of us backed down.”

When Sapp told Fields that he had played organized basketball for less than a year, Fields was shocked.

“I thought they were lying when they told me because he was just so aggressive,” Fields says. “He could jump, he could shoot, from the beginning, he did everything. He was unselfish. A lot of the New York guys get a rep for being selfish. He was not that at all, just the total opposite and very well-liked.”

Fields is not the only other recent Gaucho who has gone on to high-level college basketball. The list is quite stunning: Weyinmi Efejuku (Providence), Geoff McDermott (Providence), Edgar Sosa (Louisville), Sundiata Gaines (Georgia), Russell Robinson (Kansas), Ronald Ramon (Pittsburgh), Curtis Kelly (Kansas State, formerly UConn).

One of Sapp’s first games for the Gauchos came against Riverside, a team now known as the Metro Hawks, which featured Keith Benjamin and Terrell Biggs, both of whom now play with Fields at Pittsburgh; A.J. Price, now at UConn; and Derrick Caracter, formerly of Louisville. Sapp and Fields had not yet been united in the backcourt.

“They thought they was going to kill us,” Sapp says. “Semifinals, we killed them. I went like 7-for-7 from beyond the arc. We killed them. That game stood out for me.”

Another seminal victory, Sapp says, came against Team Texas, which featured Byron Eaton, now an Oklahoma State Cowboy, and Sean Williams, formerly of Boston College, now with the New Jersey Nets. By this point, Sapp was playing alongside Fields and Kelly. The crowd was hostile and with three minutes left, the Gauchos trailed by 12.

“Just for us sticking together and not giving up, we could have easily given up. Just for us sticking together, just being in Houston, in Texas, to beat the team in Texas with their crowd, that really meant a lot to us,” Sapp says. “That’s when we really knew we could do a lot. I think that game really prepared me for college because that atmosphere was crazy.”

Julius Allen, who coached Sapp his second year on the Gauchos, said that Sapp’s crunch-time poise, by now well-known on the Hilltop, was honed during his AAU days. While he doesn’t remember Sapp hitting any buzzer-beaters, “he hit a lot that led up to those.”

“I remember us winning games because of what Jessie did,” Allen says. “Jessie is a winner. He is not afraid to take the big shot. He is not afraid to be down 15 points. He is going to win.

“He originally got that wearing the black and orange. We instilled that in him.”

Smith remembers his team playing in the AAU Super Showcase national championship and squandering a 17-point lead against Team Illinois. It was Sapp, he said, that hit the big shots and made the big plays that got the Gauchos over the hump.

After his first year on the Gauchos, Sapp’s promise was apparent. Colleges started to come knocking and it was clear that basketball would be not just a neighborhood pastime, but a ticket out of the neighborhood.

Sapp, his family and his AAU coaches started to look at high school opportunities outside of Manhattan. Eventually, they settled on National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, Md.

“We knew that Jessie kind of needed to focus on his educational side and that it would be best for him to get in a situation where he is away from the city and all of the distractions that you can cross,” Smith says. “It worked out great for him and he was able to refocus.”

Says Sapp: “It was just a better opportunity. I wanted to be in the best position to play college ball. . That was the decision me and my family made, and I think it was the right decision.”

—

Chapter II: Fort Washington

On one of Jessie Sapp’s first days at National Christian, he strolled through the gym and saw one of his new teammates, the one dubbed “sophomore sensation,” working on his shot.

“What’s up, man,” the kid said to Sapp.

By now, his name – Kevin Durant – is well-known, but back then, he was just beginning to burst onto the national stage.

It was guys like Durant and Deron Washington, who went on to star at Virginia Tech, and Abdulai Jalloh, who plays at James Madison, who helped Sapp acclimate himself to his new surroundings. Indeed, the jump from Harlem to Fort Washington presented a real culture change for Sapp.

“I’m used to seeing buildings and concrete and all that stuff, and I get there and it’s just like trees and grass and houses, and so it was real different,” Sapp says. “They talk different than we do. It took me a while to understand the slang terminology they were using because it was different, but when I got there I clicked there with the players.

“Those guys worked hard, I wasn’t used to working as hard as those guys. They just embraced me and took me in as one of their own. We just went from there.”

Sapp averaged 12 points his first year at NCA and learned how to be a role player rather than a star.

“You know any given night, any person will be the man, and that happens to be the same thing at Georgetown: On any given night, somebody can be the man. There’s no specific person who is going to be the superstar. It helped me a lot,” he says.

Still, his one year as a complement to Durant was enough to draw attention from dozens of schools.

Rivals.com reported that Clemson, Georgia Tech, UConn, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, Fordham, Ohio State, Marshall, Maryland, Miami and Pitt had all expressed interest by May of his junior year.

That summer, Sapp returned to New York to suit up for the Gauchos, and in June, after a string of impressive performances, Sapp reportedly added Georgetown to his list. In October 2004, Sapp attended Georgetown’s Midnight Madness and by November 2004, days before the high school season would begin, Sapp’s NCA Coach Trevor Brown was openly predicting that Sapp would pick the Hoyas.

Levance Fields said that when he and Sapp first started to hear from college coaches, they plotted to attend the same school and transplant their backcourt duo elsewhere.

“That whole process – we went through it together,” Fields says, “trying to go to the same school, but obviously Georgetown presented itself better than Pittsburgh [to Sapp] and Pittsburgh presented me something better than Georgetown, so we had to go our separate ways.”

Sapp still remembers the first time he saw John Thompson III watching one of his Gauchos games.

“I was nervous, I was just like, that’s Coach Thompson,” Sapp says. “I mean, you would think I’d be like that when I seen his father.”

Soon, Sapp saw Thompson at one of his NCA games, and then Sapp attended a Georgetown open gym, where he spoke to Thompson at length. Sapp says that Thompson’s intelligence, as well as his cool demeanor, were both readily apparent.

In January 2005, he officially committed to play for the Hoyas.

“It’s the Big East, and Georgetown will give me a great education, too,” Sapp told Rivals.com. “I know they are a good program and [Coach John Thompson III] is making it an up-and-coming program again.”

As a senior, with Durant at Oak Hill Academy and Washington at Virgina Tech, Sapp became the man for National Christian. He averaged 23 points a game and moved as high as 55 – he had previously been just outside of the top 100 – in Rivals’ recruit rankings.

When the season came to a close, it was time for yet another transition, this time to Georgetown.

—

Chapter III: The Hilltop

Sapp’s Hilltop story is better known. He played 16 minutes a game as a freshman and averaged a hair under three points. He moved into the starting five as a sophomore and helped guide Georgetown to its first Final Four since 1985. As a junior, he increased his scoring from 9.1 to 9.7 points per game and hit clutch shots against Connecticut, Syracuse and West Virginia.

Sapp has developed a reputation more for his intangibles than for any one skill, like shooting or ball-handling or defense. More than anything, it is toughness that has defined Jessie Sapp. That toughness, sharpened on the streets and courts of Harlem, translates into a mental resolve that makes Sapp unflappable in crunch time and as such, one of the most respected players in the Big East.

Thompson describes Sapp’s unique quality like this: “The understanding that when we get in what most would perceive to be tight situations, that that’s when we have to have a calmness and a focus so we can execute, and we’ll let the other guys get nervous or excited, and I think Jessie has that unique ability.”

Thompson cites Sapp’s defense of Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds in Georgetown’s 58-55 win on Feb. 17, 2007. Reynolds was limited to just five points in the second half.

Kyle McAlarney, a Staten Island product who plays for Notre Dame, has played against Sapp since high school.

“He’s tough. He’s tough. He’s a winner,” McAlarney says. “If I had to label him as one word, I’d say he’s a winner. Last year, he did everything Georgetown needed him to do to win games. He’s the guy making plays and I’ve been going up against him since high school and he’s always been like that.”

Says UConn’s A.J. Price: “He stays within his game, he doesn’t really get out of his comfort zone, and that’s what makes him good, it’s just that simple. He knows his self very well.”

UConn’s Jim Calhoun, who has seen his fair share of special players during his 22-year reign as the Huskies’ head coach, feels that Sapp’s toughness has affected the rest of the Hoyas.

“I love him, I love him, I love him, simply put,” Calhoun said last winter in a Big East coaches’ conference call. “Maybe it’s a New York thing, but whatever it may be, his toughness rubs off on everyone else – and not a blatant toughness, not a stupid toughness – a competitive toughness that I love and respect. I consider him to be – and it’s really up to John [Thompson III] to determine who is the most valuable player on their team – but from an outside viewpoint there can’t be anybody more valuable. I think he can do something not a lot of other players can do – he transmitted his toughness to the rest of the team and it’s contagious. I think in the Syracuse game, he transmitted it to other players, and it’s an amazing characteristic and it’s why he’s, in my opinion, one of the more feared players in the league.”

Jonathan Wallace voiced a similar compliment of Sapp after the team’s victory over Boston College in the second round of the 2007 NCAA tournament. During that game, Sapp and the Eagles’ star, Jared Dudley, got involved in a bit of a shouting match.

“That aggressiveness that he shows kind of trickled on down to the team and let those guys know, `Hey, we’re not going anywhere. You may have got a little lead on us, but we’re still here. We’re not going to leave.'”

As Calhoun implied, many feel that Sapp’s toughness is a product of his upbringing in Harlem.

“You go through so much in this city that you prepare for everything,” Sapp says. “I think growing up prepared me for different situations and how to go about my business in all those situations.”

“When you play a New York City brand of basketball, you learn that you’re tough, you’re mentally tough,” Smith, the Gauchos coach, says.

“A lot of time they project New York City being a flashy brand, and that’s a little part of it. The toughness, that is where that comes from, and being able to keep your composure when everything is on the line.”

Thompson warns against attributing Sapp’s toughness only to the Big Apple.

“There are a lot of people that grew up where Jessie grew up that aren’t tough, and so – could it possibly be a part of it, he can answer that better than I – but he is someone who I think in terms of all his experience, who he is as a person, he is a survivor, he can adjust.”

Despite his decision to attend high school and college outside of New York, his roots in the neighborhood remain strong. His family, including his younger sister, Steveasia, with whom he is especially close, still lives there. And these days, on the Wilson basketball court, the name Jessie Sapp means something.

“In his neighborhood, they have a reunion day for the entire neighborhood, everybody showed him so much love,” Smith says. “His mom is very big in the community, they show him so much love and affection and appreciation. It’s like he’s carrying the whole neighborhood on his shoulders. We love that.”

—

Chapter IV: Today

This season, for the first time, Jessie Sapp will take the court without the calming influence of Wallace, without the big target of Hibbert, without the exuberant Ewing. Indeed, Sapp is the only scholarship senior.

“I have to have a positive attitude at all times, no matter what goes on. Sometimes that gets tough because it is not your day,” he says. “But I’ve learned a lot, I’ve grown a lot, so I just take it as the day goes.”

With the Class of 2008 departed, Sapp says he intends to make a more concerted effort to lead.

“I’m the vocal guy, I’m the lead-by-example guy, I try to do it all,” he says. “Coach be like, `Jessie, just calm down.’ I just try to be more vocal, talk to the guys in a different manner, not to try to get them down on themselves, but just to motivate them.”

Sapp’s greatest improvement, according to Thompson, has been his ability to transition his mindset from “when can I get my shot?” to “when can I get my teammates a shot?” The biggest growth for a basketball player, Thompson says, is gaining a feel for his teammates every move. Sapp, after three years in the program, has just about reached that point.

Chris Wright, who will likely start in the backcourt with Sapp this year, will look to the senior for guidance. For the Hoyas, that is likely a good thing, because they will need a steady Wright in order to have a successful season.

“What I learned from Jessie is that he’s very strong-willed, not just as a basketball player, just as a person,” Wright says. “You learn he’s a tough kid, and he’s been through it, and on the court he’s been through everything you can possibly go through. He’s been to the Final Four, he’s won the Big East tournament. Who else better listen to?”

Like most seniors, Sapp’s mind has wandered to what next year will bring – school, basketball overseas and, of course, the NBA are all options – but for now, he says he is focusing on the task at hand.

Georgetown starts this season outside the top 10 for the first time since Sapp’s freshman season. That’s just fine with Jessie Sapp.

“I’ve been the underdog so much, and I’ve achieved so much from being the underdog that I just like being there,” Sapp says. “For us to be the underdog and for me to know how much talent we have here, I think when we win it’s going to feel that much better.”

“