Philadelphia Weekly

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The autumn air is crisp as darkness descends on 31st and Cumberland, where a crumbling, gated playground bears one of the all too common memorials to a young man gone too soon.

On the surrounding blocks, there are basketball backboards without hoops and playgrounds where weeds spring from cracked concrete. There are churches, corner delis, hair salons and a painted wall bearing spiritual messages scrawled in shades of blue and red: "Jesus is the way for new life"; "Love in Jesus name"; "God word will stand."

As an evening chill envelopes this Strawberry Mansion neighborhood where, in the heat of summer, drug dealers often stand near women selling water ice from the steps of a nearby church, groups of roving teens ignore such messages. Instead, they take up station on nearby York Street, close to Napa.

Maureece Rice is not among them. The 18-year-old senior at Strawberry Mansion High School who, at 6 feet and 210 pounds, looks more like a running back than the all-city, all-state basketball player he is, prefers the gym to the streets. And though he is well aware of the dangers that the streets hold, he's also aware that there is more to his North Philadelphia neighborhood than what he sees.

"I think this area right here is different," he says when asked to describe Strawberry Mansion. "All neighborhoods are different, 'cause you got different people. Everybody is not the same."

Maureece Rice is among those who are different. Going into his fourth year as a varsity shooting guard with Strawberry Mansion High School's basketball team, he's on the verge of breaking the all-time Philadelphia high school scoring record of 2,206 points set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1955.

Last year the Associated Press named Rice the best player in the state. The Daily News dubbed him a first-team, all-city player. With 1,922 career points, Rice, who last year averaged 32 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals per game, will break Chamberlain's record early in the high school basketball season. National and even international media will descend.

The challenge, say those who know him, is for Rice to remain grounded and not to be consumed with the promise of fame and fortune that comes with the possibility of an NBA career. In fact, says Sonny Hill, the 76ers advisor and longtime Wilt devotee who runs his own league and has shaped many of Philadelphia's young players, any talk of the NBA is premature.

"The thing about [Rice playing] pro ball, that's all the people who are around him for the wrong reasons," Hill says. "Put that in the newspaper. It's not about pro basketball. It's about enjoying the moment. It's about enjoying the fact that he's on the verge of doing something unthinkable.

"If everything works out, maybe he'll get a chance to play somewhere and get paid for it--whether it be Europe or the NBA. But enjoy the moment."

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It has taken nearly 50 years for a player to reach the verge of breaking Wilt Chamberlain's Philadelphia high school scoring record. And it has taken Rice 18 years to become the player capable of doing it. At a mere 6 feet, Rice is undersized for an aspiring NBA player. And observers say it's amazing that a player of his stature has managed to dominate the way he has, even at the high school level.

Rice, who compares himself to another small player, Allen Iverson, isn't surprised at what he's been able to do.

"I don't think size has nothing to do with it," Rice says. "As long as you come to play and got the heart to give it your all, can't nobody stop you but you. Look at Allen. He's 6-foot, but he always comes to play. Long as you give it your all, you can't be stopped."

Rice is a player who proves he can't be stopped with the elements of his game. He can drive to the basket, he can shoot the midrange jumper, he can shoot the three pointer and he can battle underneath, despite some physical shortcomings.

"He's not as physically talented as some of the other players at this level," says Sonny Hill. "He doesn't dunk the ball. He isn't extremely quick. But he's intelligent, and he has basketball quickness."

"I'm strong," says Rice. "So I use that to my advantage ... Now that I've got a better jump shot, I try to stay outside, but I know I can go inside and get buckets if the outside ain't working."

Rice knows he'll probably be a ball handler--a point guard--at the college level and says he's working on his ball-handling skills, passing and getting the ball to the big guys underneath.

And of course, he isn't working by himself. Like other great athletes whose parents helped shape them--the Williams sisters in tennis and golf's Tiger Woods come to mind--Rice continues to get help at home. Just like he always has.