By Lincoln Depradine

Now that the 2013-2014 National Basketball Association season is underway, attention is being paid to how well Anthony Bennett transitions from college to the NBA.

Bennett is a product of the Caribbean. If his dream comes true, he will be the latest among many outstanding men and women born in North America and Europe, but whose father or mother – or both parents – were from the Caribbean.

He’ll be following in the footsteps of others such as Lewis Hamilton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Cicely Tyson, Louis Farrakhan, Malcolm X, Colin Powell, Harry Belafonte, and current US Attorney General, Eric Holder.

Anthony Harris Bennett was born March 14, 1993, in Toronto. His parents are Jamaicans.

On June 27, at this year’s NBA Draft in Brooklyn, New York, the 20-year-old was picked number one overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It was the first time a Canadian had gone number one in the NBA Draft. Not even Steve Nash, Canada’s best-known basketball player, was picked number one in the draft.

Bennett played at the collegiate level for the Runnin’ Rebels of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

UNLV has been the stomping ground for other NBA stars such as Larry Johnson, Shawn Marion and Greg Anthony.

In his one-year year at UNLV, Bennett played 35 games – mostly starting at power forward but occasionally also being used as a small forward.

Bennett, who stands at six feet, eight inches, averaged 16.1 points and 8.1 rebounds a game despite only averaging 27.1 minutes a game. He shot 53.3 percent from the field overall and 37.5 percent from three-point range. Many argue that he rated not so much on his accomplishment, but more on the basis of his potential.

The Rookie NBA player has good sporting genes. His mother, Edith Bennett, ran track and field and played netball as a teenager in Jamaica.

On moving to Canada, Edith Bennett worked two jobs – at a hospital and a mental health facility – and raised her son in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood, a rough and tumble area of west-end Toronto.

Jane and Finch is a larger, more crazy and way more violent version of what the Wharf in St George’s used to be back in the days when the pressures of slave and colonial life forced people to the capital searching for dock work and looking for the first opportunity to stowaway on one of the ships visiting the harbour.

Bennett says he was able to steer clear of trouble with help from the Boys and Girls Club, where he spent time in after-school programs.

But, he remembers his mother calling every day to remind him that he must get home and lock the door behind him before the street lights are turned on.

“Jane and Finch is what they say is a ghetto but it’s not. It depends on the individual,’’ Edith Bennett says. “Anyone who sets a goal for themselves and wants to achieve it, you work hard, you can accomplish anything.’’

On his first visit to Toronto after the NBA Draft, Anthony Bennett went to the Jane and Finch community to speak to children there, including those in the Boys and Girls Club.

He also spent time rehabbing from a shoulder injury that necessitated surgery.

Bennett is now part of a franchise that began playing NBA basketball in 1970. The Cavs have never won an NBA championship; it failed in the quest, even with Shaquille O’Neal as part of the team at the winding down of his career.

Forward LeBron  James, a first overall pick of the 2003 NBA Draft, was a Cavalier for eight seasons. He took the Cavs to the NBA finals in the 2006/2007 season. They were swept 4-0 by the San Antonio Spurs.

James took his game and talent to the Miami Heat in 2010 and has led the team to NBA championship titles three times, including the most recent 2012/2013 season.

Now, the Cavs are depending on Bennett to bring them that elusive NBA championship title; a young man who only began playing basketball six or seven years ago.

“I just started growing,” Bennett recalls. “And everyone said, ‘You should probably play basketball.’ So I said, ‘All right. I’ll give it a shot.’ Look where it got me now.’’

His mother believes that his work ethic will be a trump card in his NBA career.

“He’s a hard worker,’’ Edith Bennett says in describing her son.

“It’s in the family because I am a hard worker and he saw me work hard and then he said he wanted to do the same. So, it motivated him to never stop working, push to the extreme and achieve what he wants.’’

A few days after the start of this year’s NBA season, former all-star Allen Iverson officially – and finally – retired from pro basketball.

Iverson, who is expected to be a future NBA Hall of Famer, was a leader on the court for the Philadelphia 76ers and a trendsetter and rebel-of-sort in basketball.

The now fashionable tattoos adorning players’ bodies and the cornrow hairstyles were pioneered in the NBA by Iverson.

Recalling the criticism he faced at the time, Iverson said he was only being himself.

“It was just being me,’’ Iverson said at his retirement news conference. “I took a beating for those type of things and I’m proud to say I changed a lot with this culture and this game.’’

The resistance Iverson encountered from the NBA authority with his cornrow and tattoos reminds me of the late Roy St John, and other officials of the Grenada Football Association (GFA), and the challenge that soccer players had to overcome when they first started wearing Afros; and, later, when several players – including Team Grenada stars – began growing dreadlocks.

But Roy “Manny’’ St John loved good football and if you played well – with or without Afro or dreadlocks – he appreciated that.

In 1976, my GFA Premier League club, Carenage United, created its own 4-4-2 system that we called the Crack Down. The first time Manny saw the Crack Down was when Carenage, through a Barry James goal, defeated Super Honved one-nil at Queen’s Park.

After the game, Manny St John complimented Carenage United. He said: “I don’t know what system all you playing, but I like it.’’

Manny was also a fearless referee.

When the GFA could find no one willing and brave enough to go to St John or St Mark to officiate a St John Sports/Hurricane match, Manny would take the whistle and referee a complete, incident-free game.

St John died October 31 at 91. His funeral was held November 8, according to Anglican rites.

Rest in Peace, Roy St John – MBE, former Senator, former Sports Minister, Manny, Uncle Roy, Mr St John.