the fab five

Mick McCabe: Robert Traylor was fab on high school hardwood

It was January 1992, and the basketball world was only beginning to obsess over the Fab Five at Michigan.

But the state had another fab five (they didn't deserve to be capitalized just yet), this one at Detroit Murray-Wright.

Earl Moore, the football coach and assistant basketball coach, was filling in for George (Baby) Duncan, who was troubled by a bad back at the time and eventually died.

This five also was made up of freshmen who were starting for the Pilots, and I called Moore to talk about them. The first question -- what are their names? -- was the toughest. One thing about Moore, he was an excellent coach, but it took him awhile to get the names down.

"Son, son, what are the names of all them freshmen?" he yelled to his son, Earl Jr.

Eventually he listed them all: Keith Bradley, Darnell Spikes, Charles Gates, Robert Traylor and Edward Norvell.

I mentioned that I thought one was the nephew of Richard Johnson, who was 7-feet-1, played at Detroit Mackenzie and had been Larry Bird's teammate at Indiana State.

"Yeah, that's Traylor," Moore said. "His name is Johnson, but he doesn't like to be called Johnson. He wants to be called Traylor, so we call him Traylor."

That is when I first learned of the existence of a Robert Traylor, who died last week of an apparent heart attack. He was 34.

As a freshman, Traylor was a factor in every game he played and seemed to be averaging a double-double. "He's 6-6, 250, so he's a wide body," Moore said. "He wears a size 18 shoe, and he had to get a pair of shoes from Bill Laimbeer."

The Pilots won only two games that season, but Moore knew he had the making of something special.

"They're just too young to compete in this league right now," Moore said. "But once they develop that winning attitude and stop turning the ball over so much, they're going to be fun to watch."

Traylor always was fun to watch, and he established himself as the top player in his class as a junior when he led Murray-Wright to the Class A state championship, knocking off two-time defending champ Detroit Pershing in the finals.

Kicks On Court Weekly Recap – Fab Five | NiceKicks.com

Kicks On Court Weekly Recap – Fab Five

This NBA postseason has been exciting and surprising to say the least. Our Kicks On Court continues to closely pay attention to the sneaker selections of these players as the playoffs unfold. Kevin Durant rocked a NikeiD Zoom KD III designed by one of his Twitter followers, while Joe Johnson finally debuted one of his Jordan PEs. Both, Russell Westbrook and Lamar Odom, rocked intriguing colorways of the Nike Zoom 2011 and Nate Robinson finally received playing time while wearing a retro Air Jordan. Take a look at our Kicks On Court Weekly Recap – Fab Five .

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