Show RON HARPER EXCELS AT MORE THAN BASKETBALL HE BROUGHTA CHILD OUT OF THE SHADOWS KwiiRimsf!lN4 his bare Rsa Hare mentioning the social skills are slower than other chil- dren’s His parents are white and rural “1 good penile who are not well-o- ff him He never could understand Kevin" Ron said “I talked about the was a handicapped kid myself" When he was growing up in Dayton fact that Miami's record went from Ron Harper's stutter aggravated his nat13-in 1982 the ural shyness He had trouble commuyear he arrived to nicating and had fallen far behind his 24-- 6 in 1983 (His grade level when a high school coach Neal Reichelt took him in charge By the team pro bevel land Cava- - his senior year lien has done less high school Harp- - HARPER well: It did not er wasi getting A’s make last season's and 's—and at' tention from sevNBA playoffs although Ron came eral colleges“Oth-e- r schools talked in second to Chuck Person as Rookie to me about basketball" he said of die Year) The stutter that “Miami was the hasplagued Harp- only school that er since childhood talked about what also cropped up grades I could get when he talked and how they could about himself But help me" In speech therwhen he started talking about Kevin Reeves he told a apy at Miami Unsweet mellifluous story iversity Harper learned to control “I was in a junior-yeeducation class and we had to do field work with handiOF MYSELF capped kids" he recalled “They brought in a group of kids with different learnformation the stuting disabilities Everyone in the class ter still can surface chose a child to work with and I noticed still demands conKevin He was a little shy and he sat in centration and efa corner all by himself I went over to fort to overcome him and picked him out" Unlike the But now Harper other children who chattered in excitegives interviews ment about their new experience Kevin —something that didn't say a word— and that made Harpwas unthinkable in his freshman year er determined to help him “I saw a College also gave him something that little hit of myself in him" Ron said he loves as much as basketball “The Ron Harper is large athletic and physround ball won't last forever" he said His determination and his “After my playing career I want to work ically gifted glittering agile style on the court brought in education him from me black inner-cit- y Kevin Reeves gave this future teachschools of Dayton Ohio to 10 sewing records er a chance to prove his talents “It took and four selections Kevin time” Harper recalled “We would get Reeves is small for his age his coorditogether and play and I would try to nation is underdeveloped his verbal and make him feel comfortable around me" coaches and teach- en who had helped 15 I—I I I I f REEVES ISA yyEVlN striking little boy kIX fX blond and active and endowed with a seetn- ingly unquenchable grin— the lcind of kid who leads you by the hand around his classroom and snows you the pictures on the wall the plants the class is growing and the four tanks full of guppies off in a comer “The babies are in that tank’ he explained seriously his eyes widening to express the gravity of his statement when I fust visited him at Kramer Elementary School in Oxford Ohio “You have to take them away from their mother or she'll eat them" The other children in Mary Lou Barry's class had gone home and Kevin had taken over the classroom lecturing his visitor with as much poise and assurance as any in the country could muster You have to strain your imagination I X LJ XXA first-grad- er to believe that less than two yean ago Kevin was too shy to talk in class speak to his fellow students or even eat lunch with them in the school cafeteria You have to strain it further still when you leam that Kevin’s life was turned around by a modest young man named Ron Harper who seems too shy to be what he is: one of the highest-scorin- g playcn in the National Basketball Association Six and a half feet tall wearing an electric-gree- n jogging suit and leather Nikes (a reminder of his endorsement deal with the shoe company) Ron Harper would stand out on or off a basketball court Yet he politely introduced himself when 1 walked into the office just off the basketball court at Miami in Oxford Ohio where he reto finish the turns in the few courses he still needs to receive a d bachelor's degree He grinned with abashment when talking about himself and made a point of Uni-veni- ty off-seas- on hard-earne- BY MICHAEL ar SSS'iT Y A N NflC JUNK 2S 1N7 MMK MMttMC |