Fab’s cool about his old enemy

Nov 16 2007 The Journal

WHEN Fabulous Flournoy steps out on court this evening, he will come toe-to-toe with an old enemy. Because sauntering his way back to Tyneside is old-foe Skouson Harker – the man who tried to bring criminal charges against Flournoy two seasons ago following an incident which spilled off the court into the locker rooms.

At the time Harker was a Birmingham player, a team familiar to the Eagles’ play-caller who spent his formative years with the Bullets. But when top meet bottom tonight, Harker will be trying to avoid his seventh loss on the bounce as the new player-coach of the Worcester Wolves.

The charges were subsequently dropped by police, and Flournoy has insisted he will be able to keep his temper under wraps tonight as the North-East franchise seek their ninth consecutive win against a lacklustre Wolves roster.

“There’s no issue there for me,” said the BBL veteran. “That was two years ago and just a distant memory. I don’t know how he sees the whole thing, but I have moved on.

“At the same time, there’s no love lost at the moment. But I do wish him the best of luck with his new position at the Wolves and I hope they do well.”

The Eagles sit at the summit of the BBL pile having not lost a game since their opening game defeat against the Guildford Heat. But Flournoy will not allow his side to slip into complacency as they cope with the pressure of being British Basketball’s high-flying all stars.

“There is no pressure for us,” he said. “It’s a double edged sword. There is pressure when you’re not at the top because you’re trying to climb that mountain. But when you reach the top you have to fight people off and keep that spot.

“I know I would rather be at the top than anywhere else, and I want to be there when the end of the season comes.”

It has been 14 days since the Eagles last took to the court, when they narrowly beat the Plymouth Raiders by eight points. But in their down-time Fab has had to deal with a number of injury headaches.

Lynard Stewart twisted his ankle in training on Wednesday but is set to line up against the Wolves tonight. Jeremy Hyatt and Charles Smith have also entered the injury fray but are also likely to play some part in proceedings after recovering from knee and ankle injuries respectively. Tip-off is at 7.30pm.

Elsewhere in the BBL, Guildford Heat talisman Brian Dux remains in a critical condition in a Surrey Hospital following a road traffic collision on Saturday morning. The Buffalo-born point-guard was driving his club-sponsored Nissan Micra along a Chobham road in Surrey, when it left the road at approximately 8.30am.

The 26-year-old was whisked to a local hospital but has not woken since and Guildford’s Media Director, Phil Hardy, said: “Brian is still in a critical but stable condition.

“There’s no real up date that I can give because he is still unconscious. As far as anyone knows the whole incident is a mystery. It was a single car accident and there were no witnesses.”

The accident happened just days before Paul James’ men collapsed to their second ULEB Cup defeat when they lost 61-95 to Spain’s Joventut Badalona at the Spectrum Arena.

The entire Heat roster wore headbands with the number six on – the squad number of the American – but it was clear that he was missed.

Hardy said: “I think his absence on Tuesday had a massive affect on the players. “It affected Danny Gilbert particularly because they are very close friends – they grew up in Buffalo together. That being said, it was the most glorious day in the club’s history. Just to see that calibre of basketball in our own town was outstanding.

“But Brian lives for this game and when he wakes up he will want to see that his team-mates have not been slacking off – so we’ll continue to work hard.”