'89 Champs!
For the story of the 1989 EBC championship, we reached out to Dorian “Black Stallion” Graham who told us about his EBC playing experience and the two championships he won playing in three different decades in the EBC. His first taste of the EBC was in 1986 when he went to the EBC All-Star game and was picked out of the crowd to be in the dunk contest being judged by Dominique Wilkins. He didn’t win the contest but that was just the beginning of his performances in the EBC.
Watching the EBC All-Star game was the first time that Dorian ever saw basketball played the way it was in the streets of Harlem because even though he was born in Harlem, his family moved to the Bronx when he was a young boy and most of his basketball experience at the time was in the BX. He remembers seeing Darryl Mack do a dunk in the layup line that would have won the EBC dunk contest that year, Terminator throw a ball out of the park over a call and not get a tech and then seeing Rambo (RIP) throw a ball out of the park because he had seen Terminator do it. The raw emotion and energy of the basketball being played in the streets captivated Dorian and he recalls falling in love with the competition and drive to prove himself.
Two years later he finally went to the park to play after being invited to play on a team in the tournament by two brothers, Derrick and Dexter Gardner, who he knew from playing pickup basketball with at Lehman College where he played on the team. After the Gardner brothers were unable to convince their coach that Dorian was good enough to play in the EBC, Dorian was dejectedly leaving the park when he ran into his cousin Nut who played for the Ghostbusters. Dorian told him that he could probably run with his team. After speaking to player/owner Vaughn Drew (RIP), Nut told Dorian that he was going to be able to play with the Ghostbusters and Dorian started to get mentally ready. Dorian remembers being more nervous than he was for any game in his entire basketball career. He finally settled down when he blocked somebody’s shot into the stands and heard a huge ovation from the crowd. At the end of the day, even with all of the hype and excitement, the game was still the game and he realized that and went on to play well on the court with the assembled squad of Adrian Autry, Brian Reese, Jerome Holmes, James Joye, ST/Black Maxima, Troy Roscoe, Nut and Big Dre. That first year he played with the team he became a fixture on the team for his defensive skills and high energy play and when the next year rolled around he and the team were one more season ready to climb to the top.
For the next season, the previous season’s coach Beef took over the ownership duties after the passing of Vaughn Drew (RIP) and the Ghostbusters were ready to take on the competition in the EBC. At the start of the playoffs the team faced the B team of Mosley’s All-Stars whose best player was Master Rob. Going into the game the strategy was to let Master Rob dominate the ball and score as many points as he wanted as long as the rest of the team was kept in check. The plan worked as Rob had a huge game but the Ghostbusters won by double digits and advanced to the next round of the playoffs. Next the Ghostbusters faced the Pyramid All-Stars who they defeated handily.
For some reason instead of advancing to the finals, the Ghostbusters played a game against a team who was not even in their division and beat them to advance to the finals against the Future Pros team led by Malloy “Future” Nesmith. With Brian Reese and Adrian Autry away at one of the invitational camps for the best HS seniors and Black Stallion missing the first half because he was stuck at work, the Ghostbusters entered the second half slightly behind the Future Pros. Proving to be the best team all season The Ghostbusters fought back furiously and ended up winning the game going away. After winning the championship, Black Stallion remembers the feeling of enjoying the adulation from the crowd and calls the experience his most amazing basketball memory. With the end of the tournament the Ghostbusters proved they weren’t afraid of any competition and stood atop the EBC mountain.
