Jonny Flynn knew he was going to the hole as soon as he caught the pass. He knew he had the ability to take flight and throw down a dunk on Michael Beasley that millions would see on ESPN.

The only question was whether or not he would survive.

‘When the pass came to me I was thinking, is he going to jump and knock me out,’ Flynn said. ‘I might jump and he might jump, and 5-10 going against 6-9, he might floor me and put me right through the ground.’

When it was all over, Flynn was the one left standing. A big smile remained on his face as he shouted in joy toward the crowd.

The dunk wowed many of those watching in attendance, with such athleticism coming from the smallest player on the court, but it did not shock Flynn’s future teammate, Donte Greene, who joined him on the East team.

‘As soon as he went on the baseline, I knew he was going to dunk it,’ Greene said. ‘That’s just Jonny. He’s been waiting to get one all week. When I saw the opportunity I knew he was going to chase it.’

It wasn’t the first time Flynn triumphed in the face of tall odds. It also certainly won’t be the last time he has to earn respect through his actions on the court.

Next season Flynn will be one of the five heralded recruits to join Syracuse. While Greene could be poised to make the starting lineup, with vacated slots across the frontcourt, Flynn will likely have to wait behind three returning contributing guards.

But Flynn doesn’t see this as a problem.

He sees it as an opportunity to learn from someone who has already been baptized by the fire that is Big East basketball.

He sees it as something he’s done before.

Back home in Niagara Falls, N.Y., Flynn always had a step up on his peers on the court. He played junior varsity for the high-school team when he was in seventh and eighth grades and averaged more than 20 points per game.

But when Flynn moved up to ninth grade, he entered a whole new world. He had to make a decision.

He could keep playing junior varsity like every other ninth grader and continue to have his will with the competition or he could move up to the varsity team – something few freshmen had ever done at Niagara Falls High School – and probably spend most of the games on the bench watching older players.

To Flynn the decision was simple.

‘I would have rather played varsity than go on J.V. and just dominate,’ Flynn said. ‘I wanted to get better as a basketball player and I felt that was the only way. Even if I was just sitting on the bench, I would have been learning so much from (SU’s) Paul Harris and (Connecticut’s) Rob Garrison, and players like that.’

Flynn’s high-school coach, Giulio Colangelo, said the experience helped make him the player he is today. Flynn was still able to see time on the court, but he did not have to worry about shouldering the load at such a young age.

‘He learned a lot from those guys about being competitive and learning how to win and just improving his game over the years,’ he said. ‘Had Jonny stayed at the J.V. level, he would have dominated completely, and that really wouldn’t have benefited him down the road.’

Now just 5-foot-11, Flynn was even shorter in ninth grade, and his father, William, said he was not quite physically ready to play at that high of a level. But William Flynn said his son had the perfect opportunity to grow into his body while learning from some of the best high-school players in the region.

Even more than being able to grow into his frame, Jonny Flynn was able to watch parts of the game from the bench that he had never seen before. For the first time in his life, he was not the go-to guy, on the floor in every key situation, and he was able to learn from how other players handled those spots.

‘Sitting on the bench, he got a chance to see things from another perspective,’ William Flynn said. ‘It made him hungry, too.’

Three years later, Garrison and Harris were off playing Division I basketball and Jonny Flynn was the top dog at Niagara once more. He didn’t disappoint, averaging 28 points, four rebounds, six assists and five steals per game, and validating the scholarship to Syracuse he received heading into the season.

Even during his monster senior year at Niagara Falls, Flynn wasn’t convinced he would be an All American.

After his team beat Niagara Wheatfield on Jan. 9, Colangelo pulled Flynn aside and told him he had something to show him. Flynn’s coach gave him a birthday present wrapped in a FedEx envelope.

That’s when reality hit.

‘I just started going crazy running around,’ Flynn said. ‘That was a pretty good birthday gift.’

Colangelo said while some players let up once they know what school they are going to, Flynn was able to play some of the best basketball of his life in his senior year. The All-American selection validated all the effort he put in on the court and in practice.

‘I was very happy for him,’ Colangelo said. ‘He’s worked very hard to get to where he is. The McDonald’s All-America game is the best of the best. For him to be one of the 24 players in the country to be selected, that’s a great honor.’

Now that the McDonald’s game has come and gone, Flynn can focus on what he has to do to contribute at Syracuse.

Flynn finds himself in a similar position to his freshman year in high school as he prepares to start his career at SU. The point guard is coming off a season where he toyed with his opponents, like he did at the junior varsity level in Niagara. Now he is starting over with the more experienced players ahead of him once more.

While he was able to score at will in high school, Flynn is prepared to step back and learn from his teammates at SU.

Even when he is on the court, Flynn is willing to be more of a distributor than a scorer. His goal is to make sure Eric Devendorf, Andy Rautins, Greene or anyone else who is on the court has the ability to put up the numbers.

‘I believe they recruited me to distribute the rock, play defense and hit the open shots when possible,’ Flynn said. ‘We’re going to have plenty of scorers out there, so I just think my job is going to be getting those guys the ball in places where they can score.’

Humility is something Flynn learned from his father, a minister at the Higher Ground Christian Center in Niagara Falls. Flynn said William has been one of the biggest role models in his life.

William reminds Jonny that he is a regular kid, someone who has to take out the garbage, clean his room and do all the things every other teenager has to do. But he doesn’t have to keep his son from getting a big head with all the hype surrounding his basketball skills.

‘He’s a humble kid,’ William said. ‘He doesn’t let this go to his head. That’s one thing I like about him. It would be easy for him to let this all go to his head and become somebody who he is not.’

Even with that humility, Flynn does not just want to watch his team play next year. He wants to lead, whether it’s on or off the court.

The challenge will be to get his teammates to listen to him when he doesn’t have nearly as much experience as they do.

‘I just like to get on people that need to be talked to,’ Flynn said. ‘It’s always going to be a challenge because people might be looking like, ‘What is this freshman doing trying to tell me something?’ but hopefully I can win my teammates over and they will respect me.’

Flynn is already starting to earn the respect of his soon-to-be teammates.

During the All-American game he jumped to receive a pass on the right side behind the 3-point line. The ball left his hand before his feet even touched the floor, and Greene was waiting on the other end, ready to put the ball away with a big alley-oop dunk.

The experience gave Greene confidence that the two could have chemistry for years to come. His hope is the two will hook up for many more dunks at Syracuse.

‘That’s part of our game, the high-flying stuff,’ Greene said. ‘A dunk in a game can change everything; the momentum of the game how the crowd gets into it, the energy. It changes everything.’

Even Greene, who competed in the slam dunk contest at the McDonald’s game, was impressed with Flynn’s athleticism and ability to jump off the floor, saying he hadn’t seen someone jump like that since Spud Webb.

The two share stories about their big dunks and are already planning to compete in contests against each other in practice when they are at Syracuse next season. While Greene thinks Flynn can jump higher, he is confident that he has the more creative dunks.

And Greene is sure that in practice, Flynn will not be able to make him look like Beasley in the All-American game.

‘No, that’s not going to happen,’ Greene said. ‘He’s not catching me. I’m not going to allow that.’

With Greene’s height advantage – nearly 1 foot – he would impose a significant challenge to Flynn in the dunking department. But challenges are what have driven Flynn throughout his career.

‘I’m a competitor,’ Flynn said. ‘That’s what competitors do. They like challenges. Any kind of challenge, whether it’s tic-tac-toe or connect four, they always like the challenge of winning. I set high goals for myself and I like to reach them.’

Published on April 11, 2007 at 12:00 pm