Perfectionist from the Bronx has no time to celebrate

Apr 9 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Fab Flournoy led Newcastle Eagles to their eighth trophy in four years last weekend but the boy from the Bronx is already turning his attention to an even bigger challenge. Chief sports writer Luke Edwards reports.

IT was a journey which began on the streets of the Bronx in New York with the murder of an elder brother, a battle with poverty and a new pair of trainers.

It is a journey which began with the nightmare of drug abuse and crime, but is one which went on to embrace the American dream.

It is a journey powered by drive, determination and dedication. It is the journey of one of the most remarkable sportsmen in the history of Newcastle sport. It is the story of Fabulous Flournoy.

At 34, Flournoy, player-coach of the Newcastle Eagles, has become the most successful play-caller in British basketball, but do not expect him to be happy about it.

When the Eagles defeated Guildford Heat on Sunday to lift their second league title in three years, Flournoy’s grin illuminated the celebrations of a team which, under his uncompromising guidance, has become the dominant force in domestic basketball. But it did not last. By Monday morning, as the players returned to training, it was replaced by Flournoy’s trademark frown of concentration.

Two years ago, the Eagles completed a domestic clean sweep of silverware, becoming the first club to do so. This year, they have led the league almost from start to finish, finished as runners-up in the Cup and Trophy and will be the overwhelming favourites to win the end-of-season play-offs for a third successive year. But it has done nothing to relieve Flournoy’s hunger for success.

“I look at things in black and white, it’s very simplistic really,” he says when asked what continues to motivate him after so much success. “I’ve got a job to do and I’m here to do it to the best of my ability everyday.

“I don’t have time to be proud of what we’ve achieved. There is so much to do. We are so far behind the rest of the world in basketball terms. One of the biggest things I say to the guys in training is that we have to be professional in an unprofessional situation. Basketball in this country is, at times, unprofessional, particularly when you compare it to what is happening in the rest of Europe. We have made a lot of improvements and we have closed the gap, but there is a lot of work to be done still.

“Everyone knows I’m a hard task master and strive for perfection. I’m always striving for that on and off the basketball court. If you look at any job, who wants to work? Sometimes I wake up and don’t want to go in, there are days when I don’t feel like it, I’m only human. There are days when I think I can’t be bothered, but I have a vision where I want this club to be and I will not stop until I get it there.”

Such hunger is common in professional sport, but there is still something remarkable about Flournoy, a hidden source of inspiration which not only gets him out of bed in the morning, but one which saved him from a life few of us have ever experienced – and which some cannot even comprehend.

“I was never a talented basketball player, I had to work for everything I’ve got,” reflected Flournoy. “I started playing when I was 15, which is late. My motivation was totally different, it was out of survival, it was a need to get better things. I wanted a pair of new trainers, I saw these kids with new trainers and they told me they got them because they played basketball. I wanted those trainers so I started playing basketball. I went to the gym to join a basketball team, but I wasn’t good enough to get in the team so I went away and made myself good enough.

“Then someone said I could get into a good school if I got better at basketball, so I worked at it until I got better. Then someone said I could get into a good college and then a good university, so I carried on.”

For Flournoy – and many other young African-Americans in inner city America – sport was an escape route, a vehicle to ride towards a better life. “I was raised by my mother alone and life was a struggle,” he adds, with no obvious hint of emotion. “I never lived in one place for more than two years of my life as a child and life was tough in the Bronx. We were squatters and my mum had to do things to survive.

“You either hustled, robbed or sold drugs in the Bronx. My older brother got shot and killed, my younger brother was shot. Basketball was the way out, it gave me my education. I wasn’t going back to that and my drive was that I didn’t want people telling me what I couldn’t have. People told me I couldn’t have a good education, but I proved them wrong. It’s a survival instinct and all I’ve done is turn that survival instinct into basketball.”

Having dominated the domestic landscape, Flournoy and the Eagles have switched their attention to a new battlefield – Europe. As league champions, Newcastle will enter the FIBA Eurocup next season, but like the desire for new trainers, Flournoy insists it is only the beginning.

He explained: “When we won the four trophies in a season I immediately thought about the next one. Winning domestic trophies is fine, but we still haven’t really achieved anything. We can win every basketball game there is in Britain, but what is that?

“How can you be a successful club in a country where people don’t take notice of basketball? We want to be the premier team in Britain, of course we do, that’s the first aim, but we have to be successful in Europe. That’s when we have arrived.”

Talking of arriving, Flournoy was half an hour late for our meeting and shoddy time-keeping, he admits, is not unusual. He added: “The most important place for me is where I am at right now. The most important thing to me right now is this interview, I have to give it my full attention and all my energy.

“I could walk out of this room and have a heart attack and the last person I spoke to was you, so I want it to be the best interview I could give. You have to treat it as though it’s the last thing you will ever do. The only downside of that is that I’m always late for the next project. Lateness is my one weakness, I’m always getting in trouble for it. I’m late for this because I had weight training and I had to give that my all ...”

It is a weakness everyone at the Eagles is more than happy to forgive him for.

I don’t have time to be proud – we’re far behind the rest of the world in basketball terms