The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Court Hathaway

Finally, it seemed as though all the nagging injuries that plagued Gerry McNamara had healed. All the dings, dents, pulls and bruises from a roller-coaster professional career were gone.

That is, until he started working the Syracuse basketball courts that had made him famous.

"I was feeling better," said McNamara, pulling up his pant leg, gesturing toward a swollen ankle. "Until I played the other night and got one of those."

But the difference is, unlike the rigors that come with a journeyman career overseas and in the depths of the NBA's developmental league, McNamara is happy now. Starting this year, McNamara will join the Syracuse basketball staff as a graduate manager, which allows him to mentor players while studying under head coach Jim Boeheim and assistant Mike Hopkins, who originally recruited McNamara in 2002.

Though McNamara has come back to visit over the years, this is his first official position with the university, since graduating in 2006.

"It's kind of funny, the day I came back, I felt more comfortable," McNamara said. "You kind of fall into your old mold and the only difference is, I live off-campus now instead of on-campus. I feel comfortable here and I'm happy here, and the reason I came back is because I love Syracuse basketball."

After helping lead Syracuse to its only national championship in 2003 as a freshman, McNamara went on to score 2,099 points and tally 648 assists in four years with the Orange.

But the honeymoon ended shortly after his final game in the Carrier Dome. The NBA Draft came and went without any mention of his name at the podium. Instead, just a glimmer of hope at the Orlando Magic summer program, which ended without a contract offer.

So McNamara packed his bags and shipped off 10 hours away from his native Scranton, Pa., and bounced around with Greece's Olympiacos BC before coming back to the states to do a year-long stint with the NBDL's Bakersfield Jam in California. Two more years overseas - one in Greece with Panionios BC and one in Latvia with BK Ventspils - followed before another unfruitful NBA training camp with the Utah Jazz in 2008.

The road was nearly impossible. He wasn't in the right places. He was a world away from the people he cared about. Those nagging injuries refused to heal.

"It was tough," McNamara said. "I had a tough time living overseas. Part of the reason I decided not to play anymore, aside from the fact I had some injuries that just wouldn't heal and for quality of life, I just didn't have a great time. I didn't have a great experience overseas, and that probably hurt the way I felt about professional basketball over there."

Continued...

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