Teaching self-respect with humor

Ogdensburg — “At one point in my life 90 percent of my friends were either in jail or six feet underground,” said Derek “The Wizz” Murphy during a motivational program for the kindergarten through fourth graders at the Ogdensburg School Friday morning. “Stay on the right track. Listen to your teachers.” An All American basketball player and graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, Murphy studied marketing and accounting before taking a job with the Philadelphia Bulletin. After 30 days in the newspaper business he received a letter inviting him to try out for the Harlem Globetrotters. “I have travelled around the world eight or nine times playing basketball,” said Murphy. Now he travels around the Northeast United States encouraging students to make positive choices in life. “Respect your parents, teachers and friends,” said Murphy to the students gathered in the school gymnasium. ”Don’t bully your classmates. Bullies camouflage their poor self esteem or personality weaknesses by acting tough.” Murphy picked some eager volunteers to help with some basketball handling tricks. Some students were not as nimble fingered as Murphy and dropped out of the game as they fumbled the ball. The assembly ended with howls of laughter as Murphy himself dropped an easy pass from a student. All the players received an autographed certificate. There was a second assembly at 11 a.m. for grades five through eight.