Magley’s hard work pays off big

BRADENTON — March 10 will be a special day for David Magley.

Magley will reflect on how his older brothers, Pat and Bill, ruled with iron fists to make him one of the best high school basketball players the state of Indiana has ever seen.

Of how his father, Bill, worked tirelessly so his four children who lived across the street from a playground could spend countless hours playing basketball, baseball and tennis to help elevate their lives, so they would not have to work in a factory like he did for 35 years.

And Magley will more than likely recall how his prep basketball coach, who he’s still very close with today, saw something special in him and allowed Magley to develop into Indiana’s 1978 Mr. Basketball.

And of how his mother willed her way to watch him play hoops, sitting in a wheelchair courtside, at South Bend LaSalle High as she battled cancer, a disease she would succumb to before the end of his senior season.

On March 10, Magley will enter the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, joining a hoops fraternity that includes NBA greats Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird and George McGinnis in the annals of Indiana basketball lore.

“Any honor that ever comes my way, my first thought is that my parents would be proud,” Magley said.

“When my children are born or when my children succeed or I do something good, I always think my mom would be proud. My dad’s chest would be bursting, because he would be so proud of me.”

In Magley’s senior season, he averaged 24 points a game while playing with a brace on his separated shoulder and led his team to the state quarterfinals for the second consecutive season. The 6-foot-8 swingman was an effortless scorer who had every shot in his arsenal.

Remarkably, on the day Magley’s mother was laid to rest, he scored 40 points in the first half of a game and didn’t play in the second half.

He went 18-for-20 from the field and 4-for-4 at the free-throw line.

“The school record was 41, and I didn’t play in the second half,” said Magley, who went on to star at the University of Kansas.

“I didn’t play in the second half because my coach doesn’t care about records. He is about dignity, and he didn’t want to make it seem like we were trying to blow the team out.”

Magley, who has elevated the Bradenton Christian boys basketball program to one of the best in the state in Class 1A, was taught by his brothers to go hard on the court.

Old brother Pat Magley said he saw gifts of a high basketball intelligence and an uncanny scoring ability in David, who played in the CBA and the NBA, that David couldn’t see in himself at an early age.

So, Pat took it upon himself to teach his younger brother the game in sort of a rough manner.

“Michael Jordan’s older brothers beat on him in the driveway until he became Michael Jordan,” said Pat, who runs a youth ministry basketball camp in Indiana. “When you are older, you see the basketball potential and you see the basketball IQ, and David has a phenomenal basketball IQ. David was in eighth grade, and I took him to a basketball tournament up in Kalamazoo, Mich., and he scored 25 points against guys who were all out of college. David just had a nose for scoring.”

And Magley’s prolific scoring ability has enabled him to have his name placed in history. He was voted into the Hall on his first nomination.

Magley’s high school coach, George Griffith informed, him he had been selected.

“It’s one of those good calls,” said Griffith, a member of the Hall of Fame himself. “We are such good friends, and he is one of those persons who is very deserving of the honor. David just always wanted to be the best.”

That attitude stemmed from his childhood.

Growing up, Magley never heard what he couldn’t achieve. He had no clue he couldn’t become one of the greatest high school basketball players in the state of Indiana.

“Look, I probably wasn’t the best basketball player in my high school class of Mr. Basketball,” Magley said. “Randy Wittman was a heck of an NBA basketball player. Ted Kitchel played on the national championship team. Landon Turner, if he doesn’t get in a car accident and get paralyzed, is probably an NBA player. We had 11 guys get drafted out of my high school class of seniors.

“Having said that, I was the best story.”