Duquesne's Shawn James often watches NBA classic films on television, and one particular sequence sticks in his mind. Three times an opposing guard penetrated the defense and had his shot blocked by Boston's Bill Russell. The fourth time, Russell backed away and the player's wild layup crashed high off the backboard.
James grins when he talks about Russell.
"I hope my presence can make someone do that," said James, a 6-foot-10 junior who recently set a Duquesne record with 64 blocks in a season and is on pace to block more shots than anybody in the history of college basketball if he plays four years.
"You have to play mind games. You pick your spots because you can't try to block every shot. You have to know which one you can go for, but you have to make your opponent think you're going to go after every one of them."
Asked what he enjoys most about blocking a shot, James answered with a smile: "I like to see how it energizes my team. It's all about what I can do to help the team win."
James led the country as a sophomore with an NCAA-record 6.53 blocks per game and was second at 5.44 as a freshman at Northeastern before he transferred to Duquesne two years ago.
Duquesne, as a team, has blocked 10 or more shots in a game eight times in 634 games since the NCAA began keeping shot-blocking statistics 22 years ago. James has done it nine times, including a Duquesne and Atlantic 10 record of 12 against Oakland (Michigan) earlier this season. He has blocked at least one shot in all 70 games he has played at Northeastern and Duquesne.
For his 21st birthday in 2004, James was given a book with a picture of Russell trying to block Wilt Chamberlain's layup on the cover.
"I haven't played basketball for very long, so it's important for me to know how it all started," said James, who didn't get serious about the game until he was 17. "I need to know where the game's been so I'll get to know where I want to be headed."
Because James was such a prolific shot-blocker at Northeastern University in Boston, he was compared to the legendary Russell.
"That's too much for me to even think about [the comparison]," said James, who sat out last season after coming to Duquesne. "To even have people think that way about me is an honor."
James was born in Guyana, a small country in South America and moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., when he was 7. At 16, he was rail-thin at 5 feet 7. His younger brother, Delroy, now a sophomore forward at Rhode Island University, said Shawn didn't play sports because "he didn't like to show his legs. That's a fact."
When told of his brother's comment, Shawn nodded and said with a laugh, "When you're 15 and 16, you're really self-conscious. Back then, I was really skinny. I couldn't play basketball and I didn't want people to laugh at me."
By the time he turned 17, James was 6-7 and began to show an interest in basketball. He played a little as a senior at Brooklyn's Redirection High School, but it wasn't until that summer when he raised some eyebrows with his shot-blocking prowess in all-star and AAU games.
James went to Notre Dame (Mass.) Prep, where his coach was Bill Barton, a current assistant at Duquesne.
"His metamorphosis as a player has been night and day," Barton said. "He was all of 6 feet 9, but he weighed probably 180 pounds. He had a rudimentary understanding of the game and was a very, very raw talent. He was not a very good rebounder and didn't have many offensive skills, but he could block shots."
James worked diligently in practice against a couple of bruising 270-pounders and, by the end of the season, he was playing about 20 minutes a game. The only Division I schools to offer scholarships were St. Peter's and Northeastern.
In addition to blocking shots, James registered four triple-doubles in points, rebounds and blocks in two seasons at Northeastern before following coach Ron Everhart to Duquesne. The Dukes never have had a player record a triple-double. James was the 2005 defensive player of the year in the America East Conference and 2006 defensive player of the year in the Colonial Athletic Association. Northeastern switched conferences after his freshman season.
"I don't know a better person than Shawn James. He's the most selfless, kind kid I've ever met," Everhart said of James, who now weighs 220.
"He's not a good person. He's a great person. At times, he's too nice on the floor. He competes hard, but, at times, he could take the competitive nature to a different level. I have to remind him of that every day."
Less than three weeks after arriving on campus, James was one of five Duquesne basketball players wounded in a shooting after a dance. He had the bullet surgically removed from his left foot two months after the shooting and was in a cast and on crutches for a month.
The pain is gone, but the impact of being shot remains.
"Coming from New York, I was always in a New York state of mind," said James, 24. "In New York, you always need to know what's going on around you, what's happening on your right and what's happening on your left. Here I was in Pittsburgh, thinking I was in Disneyland, and I let everything down."
He added after a pause, "I'm very cautious now, way more than when I came to Pittsburgh."
James, who averages 14.0 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.3 blocks, will return to New York to play a college basketball game there for the first time when Duquesne (11-4) plays Fordham (7-8) tomorrow. The New York Times sent a reporter and photographer to Pittsburgh earlier this week to do a piece on James and the Dukes a year after the shooting.
A number of NBA scouts have made the trip to Palumbo Center to watch him play this season.
"Shawn James is an unknown to the general public, but he's not an unknown to aficionados of pro basketball," said Marty Blake, the director of NBA scouting. "We all know Shawn James, we know his game. The league always can use guys who are specialists. What makes him interesting is he is a tremendous shot-blocker. He reminds you a little bit of Bill Russell. Saying all James can do is block shots is like saying all Pavarotti can do is sing. He will get a chance to play in this league. It doesn't matter how old you are."
James, or his coach, can contact the NBA after the college season is over and get an evaluation of his status by the league. He can apply for the NBA draft and hope to get an invitation to the Orlando predraft camp. Even after the camp, James could still return for his senior season at Duquesne if he doesn't like where he might get drafted or discovers he isn't projected to be drafted.
His plans do include a wedding -- James is engaged to Melissa Kowalski, whom met at Northeastern.
"Playing in the NBA was never my dream growing up because that's not what you dream when you don't play basketball," James said. "My dream as a kid was to get into culinary arts, do something with cooking."
He laughed. "I can't cook to save my life."
But dreams can change.
"If I feel we haven't accomplished our goals and lived up to our expectations of making it to the NCAA tournament and doing something, I'm thinking I'm coming back," said James, a communications major on schedule to earn an undergraduate degree in 2009. "After the season, I'll sit down with coach and with my family and we'll talk about [the NBA] and see where my head's at."
First Published: January 18, 2008, 10:00 a.m.
