Many student athletes emulate their favorite NBA players. Austin Witter has one sitting in the audience cheering him on.
Greg Grant, Witter’s stepfather, spent seven years in the NBA after being drafted by the Phoenix Suns in 1989. He joined the sea of yellow and green as they cheered the boys on South’s basketball team, who made an extraordinary run this year, finishing 24-4, and earning their first sectional title since 1980 with a 48-41 win over Freehold before falling in the state semifinal round to Lenape, 41-34.
Witter, the team’s 6-foot-8 forward/center, was a major part of that run, especially the 17-foot game-winning shot he hit against Hillsborough in the sectional quarterfinals. Witter averaged a double-double with 14.9 points and 11.6 rebounds and 6.6 blocks per game. And the senior has come a long way since freshman year, when his mother, Hope, met Grant when Witter attended one of his basketball programs.
Witter and Grant each have their own accolades in the sport — Grant for his professional career, and Witter, for a great high school basketball career and what is shaping up to be a promising future.
Grant was born and raised in Trenton. His mother was a nurse’s aid and his father worked in construction. He graduated from high school in 1984, and then moved to Atlanta, where he attended school and worked for two years at various jobs, the last of which was a fish store. He was recruited to the College of New Jersey (then Trenton State), where he played basketball, although the college did not offer athletic scholarships. He was a star point guard and led Division III in scoring by the time he graduated in 1989.
At only 5-foot-7, Grant was drafted right away by the Suns, and eventually went on to also play for the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Denver Nuggets.
“I believe my life and what I accomplished is a miracle — to come from where I came from, work for a fish store, and go to school, make it to the NBA, and play there for seven years,” he said. “Opportunities like that come around once in a lifetime. I owe it to myself, to God, and to my family, to give back.”
And Grant certainly has done so, as he has been active in the recreational programs in Trenton ever since. After the NBA, Grant sponsored local teams in the summer leagues and then decided to start his own company, 94 Feet Inc. He started the company with solely a training facility and running leagues, but then he transformed it into an academic sports academy. It now includes three after-school programs.
“We really focus more on academics than on sports,” Grant says. “They do the sports, but we are really trying to prepare the kids for academic scholarships as well.”
Witter is no exception. Grant says he is encouraging him to get an academic scholarship. “That’s something he wanted; that’s something we wanted.”
Witter says math is one of his favorite subjects, and aside from wanting to play basketball in college, he has aspirations of pursuing a degree in mechanical or computer engineering.
Witter moved to Plainsboro from Virginia when he was six years old. His mother works as the principal at Daylight Twilight High School in Trenton. His interest in basketball started to pick up when he made the middle school team in seventh grade. In his freshman year, he met Grant as he began serious training because he wanted to make a big impact for team while at South.
Grant recalls Witter’s transformation through high school, saying that Witter always had talent, but he lacked in confidence. When Witter was entering freshman year, Grant met his mother during the tryouts. “She was so nervous” for her son, he recalls.
But Grant worked with him to develop his jumpshot, footwork, and timing. “He’s dedicated a lot of time into me and my brother (Ryan, a freshman at South),” said Witter.
During his freshman and sophomore years, Witter grew to his current height, and he also developed the ability to not only fill the role of a guard, the position where he began, but also as a forward and center. He is looking into pursuing a college basketball career, particularly in Division I, and already has visits with North Carolina A&T and Quinnipiac lined up. Witter emphasizes, though, that he also is interested in getting a good education.
And, he also would welcome the opportunity to follow in his stepfather’s steps and play basketball professionally.
Does Grant offer any pointers from his own experience? Well, for starters, height does not matter.
“Just because you’re taller doesn’t make it any easier,” Grant points out, even mentioning Witter’s height. “At that level, you’ll find that everybody in the NBA is that height.”
And for guys like Grant, who would be considered really short for an NBA player, the same philosophy rings true — “you have to be really, really good. If you’re good, the chances of you succeeding are better.”
In fact, Grant says there have probably been only about 10 players who were under 6 feet tall ever to play in the NBA, only four or five of whom were as short as he was.
Grant says he tells Witter that it takes a lot of hard work — and an edge. “You’ve just got to be really dedicated and express yourself,” he said. “You can’t do the same thing that everyone else in your class is doing, or else you’ll wind up in the same places. Special people don’t wind up in the same place.”
Relying on height, as some young basketball players might do, will not cut it because coaches will eventually figure out that there is nothing to back up the height, he says. And, “you actually have to be just as committed as a small guy. When it comes down to it, coaches want guys who can play.”
As far as his own experience in coaching kids who may be a lot taller than him, Grant has no problems. “The one thing about this area is that there’s not many players who made it to the NBA,” he said. He says he knows of only one other player — Dahntay Jones from Hamilton — who did. And, “no matter how tall you are or how small you are, it’s pretty difficult.”
Right now, though, with thoughts of professional careers in the distance, Witter and the rest of his teammates can enjoy the feeling of bringing home the first sectional title for the school in nearly 30 years.
