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Commentary: Westchester's team downs 1-man show
By John Klima, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/09/2008 03:01:37 AM PST





We sometimes forget that basketball is supposed to be a team game, but when you have your own documentary filmmaker getting close enough to smell the sweat dripping off a player's shorts, you know something is amiss.
It's probably not a good idea to use the word "amiss" when you talk about a basketball player, though it's better than using brick.
These are words not often associated with Westchester's basketball program, but after a regular season in which losses to Taft and Fairfax (again) threw its control of L.A. City Section basketball further into question, Westchester turned in a performance Wednesday night in a 71-70 double-overtime victory over Fairfax that was one for its video archives, if not those of Fairfax junior center Renardo Sidney, whose personal cameraman follows him conspicuously. Sidney has entered the realm of handlers and hustlers. He's not a high school player, but a prospect on loan, performing here as a perfunctory measure, while he is groomed to be somebody's meal ticket. Appearance counts more than effort, and all you had to do was watch him saunter up and down an NBA-sized court Wednesday night to realize that quick guards at the next level will drive circles around this ice-cream truck if he doesn't learn how to run.

Continued.....

Sidney still scored 25 points and had 10 rebounds. He still almost beat Westchester. But for one night at least, Westchester's team game defeated the one-man show, and that counts for more than one when your confidence is compromised by show business instead of showing up for business.