Here Dion Waiters was, once again, playing tagalong to Scoop Jardine.

Five years after he was first noticed by his future college team in a pickup game with Jardine, the younger cousin was again on the same team as the elder. Finally, Waiters joined his blood on the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center court as an official member of the one team he was always an unofficial member of. The one team he was a part of during half a decade of one surrogate basketball home after another.

Syracuse.

‘They stuck with me through thick and thin,’ Waiters said. ‘It was like my second family.’

At SU’s media day on Oct. 15, Waiters followed in Jardine’s footsteps, just like he did on that pickup team. Just like the day he was first noticed as Jardine’s little cousin inside the Neumann-Goretti gym in Philadelphia five years ago. But instead of playing the role of second-fiddle on a fast break, Waiters was cast into the role of interviewee. As Jardine was bombarded by questions from a slew of reporters, the notepads and tape recorders also converged on Waiters.

But all the freshman wanted to do was practice. How could he not? He was finally dressed head-to-toe in the SU gear he was so close to yet so far away from donning for his entire high school basketball career. He was finally sporting that Syracuse No. 3, the number he talked of and dreamt about at the National Basketball Association Top 100 Camp in a University of Virginia dorm with fellow Orange freshman C.J. Fair in 2008.

He was finally here: Dion Waiters, 6-foot-4, 215-pound shooting guard, Syracuse Orange. All he wanted to do was get out and run.

But before he could practice, before he deflected one question after another in eager anticipation of his first day, he had to reflect on what it was like to be here. With his first public words as a practicing member of the Orange, Waiters thought back to the beginning. He thought back to Neumann.

‘I didn’t think (back then) I would be here right now,’ Waiters said, staring down at the ‘Melo Center court. ‘But back in the day at Neumann…’

He paused. And then, Waiters summed up five long years of waiting.

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘It’s crazy. It’s a dream come true.’

The dream since Waiters committed to SU assistant coach Mike Hopkins in 2007 before playing a minute of high school basketball was to play for Syracuse, just like big cousin Jardine. The dream was a permanent trip to Syracuse from the ‘already ready’ streets of Philadelphia, just like Jardine and SU senior power forward Rick Jackson. With the start of Syracuse’s practice for the 2010-11 season, Waiters’ dream finally became reality.

But it was a reality that came after tribulations spread out across multiple high schools. After playing that pickup game as an eighth grader, Waiters enrolled at Philadelphia’s John Bartram High School and then transferred to South Philadelphia High School as a freshman. At both stops, he didn’t play basketball.

In 2007, he enrolled at South Kent (Conn.) Prep, where he played but was booted from the school due to ‘conduct detrimental to the team,’ according to an article published in The Daily Orange on Oct. 7, 2008. He then transferred to Life Center Academy in Burlington, N.J., as a junior, where he remained until he graduated as a nationally recognized blue-chip recruit.

But Waiters, his teammates and his coaches will all say that none of those stops really mattered. Whether Waiters be the 13-year-old on the court at Neumann or the 18-year-old on the court in Syracuse, he has always had the same Philly swagger.

‘He had the swag he has right now, and that always stood out,’ SU assistant coach Rob Murphy said. ‘Dion always stood out, and we knew how good he could become.’

To Waiters, it was simple. Even if he made stops at four different high schools and even if he was kicked out of one school after not sticking with two others, he was always basketball-mature enough for this moment.

It is because of Philadelphia. The fraternity that weeded out the weak — and even some of the strong — in the streets bordering Neumann made Waiters the ready-freshman he is today. The player Murphy describes as ‘not a freshman.’

‘We,’ Waiters said of Philadelphia basketball players, ‘are already ready.’

That tangible factor in Waiters’ game of ‘already ready’ is the reason why some pundits, and even some inside of the SU basketball program, feel he will be the best freshman for the Orange this season. Better than Big East Rookie of the Year choice Fab Melo: The 7-foot Brazilian center who has had Orange coaches drooling for a year and a half.

In fact, Waiters may be the polar opposite of Melo. Melo is the late addition SU stumbled across during its NCAA Tournament trip to Miami, Fla., in 2009. Waiters is the kid who SU pounced on three years before St. Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli even thought to talk to the hometown product.

Melo is the marquee name that reminds fans of another similar one-syllable SU legend. Waiters’ is the forgotten cornerstone.

‘He seems like he has been at Syracuse for four years already,’ Murphy said. ‘When he came up here, it was like he wasn’t a freshman.

‘Everyone always talks about Fab Melo, but (Waiters) is the leader of the class. He talks, he motivates. He leads by example when he gets out there. He is an extremely valuable player.’

Waiters and Melo are a part of a celebrated four-man class that also includes Fair and Senegal native Baye Moussa Keita, a 6-foot-10 center. Every member of the class and every member of the team will say Waiters plays the role of, yes, the elder cousin of the freshman class. After blue-chip SU recruit Tobias Harris picked Tennessee over SU last year, Waiters got on the phone with his classmates not soon after and told them they needed to bring back a championship for SU head coach Jim Boeheim. Once that practice on Oct. 15 came, they needed to ‘go hard.’

What Waiters hopes he provides on the court is nothing short of the accolade Melo received from the Big East coaches this preseason. He is not coy about what he thinks he can do, which includes, well, everything.

‘I can do it all,’ Waiters said. ‘I can shoot. I can play defense. I can pass the ball. I am going to bring everything to the table.’

Murphy concurs to a degree. In Waiters, he sees a scoring threat that will bring points — not necessarily a stroke — at the shooting guard position lost with the departure of Andy Rautins. Boeheim agrees with Murphy, calling Waiters a ‘good shooter.’

What exactly Waiters brings on the court remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain. With this group of freshmen, Waiters isn’t the tagalong. Even if he is the youngest player of the bunch.

He is ready. He has been. Just ask the one guy he followed throughout everything.

‘Dion brings a lot of strong ability to the team,’ Jardine said.

But more pertinent to Waiters’ journey and current role than the words of his cousin are the words of the coach that committed to Waiters — a player that, upon committing, was 47 years the coach’s junior.

At media day, minutes prior to when Waiters thought back to the beginning of it all at Neumann, Boeheim spoke to the media to open up the season. He spoke of the freshman class.

He spoke to all that Waiters has gone through.

Even if the 18-year-old vows he is ready.

‘We’ll see how guys fit in,’ Boeheim said. ‘I really never make any determinations on what guys are going to do based on what they did in high school.

‘That can be very deceptive sometimes.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on October 26, 2010 at 12:00 pm