Time machine: DeMarcus Nelson

Sometimes you know that you are watching greatness.

Though most of my career as a sports reporter was in the Napa Valley, I spent two very enjoyable years covering the Vallejo and Benicia beats from March 2001-May 2003 for a startup internet news service called GetLocalNews.com. Between myself, Brian Cornelius and Chris Navalta, we made an impact on local sports coverage in those communities. Unfortunately, the momentum we generated was curtailed because of a staff-wide layoff. I liken our success to the 1997 Florida Marlins winning the World Series and the team getting broken up. It was an unfair death but that’s another story for another time.

My main beats were Vallejo and Jesse Bethel High Schools. With covering the Vallejo Apaches (now the Redhawks thanks to the politically correct mongers), witnessing the greatness of DeMarcus Nelson on the basketball court was a treat.

From Vallejo High to Sheldon High (Sacramento) to Duke University and his European career that is still going, his resume could fill a phonebook. Nelson, who was known as “Markie” by teammates, coaches and peers, played three seasons at Vallejo before transferring to Sheldon as a senior.

While I will always remember his spectacular talent on the court, what I recall most about Nelson is that at a very young age, he had a celebrity status that came with much scrutiny. Nelson handled that scrutiny with more grace and dignity than anyone I know. Lesser people would have allowed the attention to have a negative impact. There have been professional adults that didn’t handle fame with the grace he did as a teenager and that was before social media.

While I do not know the quote unquote real reason for Nelson having transferred, I do know there were some underlying issues. I would go as far to say that some, if not many, had a jealousy complex against Nelson regarding the success he achieved and the attention he garnered. I do not know if that enviousness played a role in his transferring but it didn’t help. As for the real reason, we can speculate but let’s keep things in perspective, it is high school and at that level I will never expect anyone to air their dirty laundry.

The community of Vallejo as well as Vallejo Unified School District has frequently had a negative reputation because of its urban poverty, crime and academics. Nelson was a tremendous athlete, well-grounded human being and intelligent young man that was not only a great representative for the school but for the community. Was he infallible? No but who is. However, Nelson was mature beyond his years.

While basketball is a team sport and the then-Apaches had some other key contributors on those teams such as Madison Butts, Warner West and Amos Carter to name a few. Nelson also benefited Vallejo High athletics as well as opposing teams at the gate because Nelson’s presence alone would pack the gym.

What’s easy to forget about Nelson is that besides starring on the basketball court, he was the quarterback of an Apache football team that went 10-2 as a sophomore. In May of his sophomore season, Nelson was playing in a tournament in North Carolina. Mike Krzyzewski, as in the legendary head coach at Duke, was in attendance and offered Nelson a scholarship. Nelson became the first high school sophomore to get offered a scholarship. I’m normally against such early signings given the overhype that recruits receive but when Coach K offers a sophomore a scholarship, who am I to argue? After inking his scholarship, Nelson opted to forgo football.

The numbers Nelson accumulated speak volumes. He holds the California state high school record with 3,462 career points. The most misguided idea about Nelson was that he was selfish and a ball-hog. Prolific scorers often get that label but with Nelson, nothing could be further from the truth. For further proof, he ranks in the state’s Top 10 in career rebounds (third, 1,522) and assists (ninth, 791). Those numbers demonstrate that any notion of him being selfish were ignorant. Nelson was named Mr. Basketball in the state of California and second team Parade All-America as a senior after averaging 30.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game.

Nelson could undeniably do it all on the court from passing to shooting to penetrating to playing defense. His biggest Achilles heel was shooting free throws, specifically in college arena backdrops.

He could make the routine plays as well as the spectacular plays. I remember a CIF Sac Joaquin Section Div. I playoff game against Lodi at the Spanos Center at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. The 6-foot-4 Nelson had the most ferocious slam-dunk I have ever seen in a high school game. You think of a dunk in a high school game coming on a fast break where no defender is in position to make a play. In this instance, Nelson fielded a pass on the left wing, drove by a Lodi defender, took off just south of the free throw line and threw down a rim-rocking dunk. I remember sitting next to Vallejo Times Herald sports reporter Tom Zulewski. We looked at each other and said, “Did we REALLY just see that!”

Nelson went on to play four years at Duke and was the team’s lone captain as a senior. He had a brief cup of coffee in the NBA with both the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls in 2008-2009. Since then, he has played on various Europeon teams and achieved Serbian citizenship in 2014. Nelson currently plays in the Turkish European League for team Unicaja.

From his talents on the court to his grace away from it, Nelson is hard to forget.