Former Brownsville star Lemon hopes to help out kids in need
Former Brownsville High School basketball star George Lemon has known the ups and downs of life, including a stint in prison, through it all he remains one of the most positive people you will ever meet.
“Everything is not PG-13, the Disney channel, it doesn’t work like that,” Lemon said. “You have bumps in the road and you have to pick up the pieces and sometimes you have other bumps in the road, sometimes you have two or three bumps in the road before you get it.”
The road for Lemon began with his rise to basketball stardom at Brownsville in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was a part of some very good Falcon basketball squads, first under Paul Hough, and then under the guidance of Pete Logan.
“I moved back to Pennsylvania from Massachusetts in 1995,” Lemon stated. “We had Bitty League back then and obviously I was the biggest kid in fifth grade, and I didn’t really know how to play, but I grew up in Hiller and was right by the high school. We just started playing and I took a liking to it. Because I was so much bigger than everybody I probably could say I got a little more attention from the coaches because of my size.
“With the attention at a young age and then I started to be pretty good, it was something that I wanted to excel at and I would practice a lot. Back then we didn’t have a lot of gyms to go to, we played outside and at people’s houses, you played anywhere you could put a hoop up and that’s what I did. From sixth grade on I played basketball every day everywhere. Anywhere I could get a game, I would go play basketball.”
The Falcons went 12-11 when Lemon was a freshman in 1997-98 and lost to Chartiers Valley in the WPIAL playoffs, 79-61. In 1998-99, the Falcons were 10-2 in Section 4 AAA and finished 20-3. They were beaten in the WPIAL playoffs by Montour, 63-59.
In Lemon’s junior season in 1999-2000, with Logan at the helm, Brownsville finished tied at 7-5 with Thomas Jefferson in section play, but lost the tiebreaker and didn’t go to the playoffs. The Falcons were 14-8 overall.
“I could have played elsewhere,” Lemon said. “But I wanted to get it done in Brownsville, I’m a Brownsville guy. Coaches Paul and Joe Hough were a big part of my development. When Coach Logan came in he kind of fit right in, he just lived right down the street from the high school. It’s a plus that he was a Brownsville guy and we could see him and that means a lot because you could get a one-on-one relationship.”
In 2000-01, Brownsville had a magical run into the playoffs and captured its first WPIAL Class AAA basketball title. Before that season, Brownsville had won only one playoff game, and had never been to a title game. In the WPIAL playoffs, the Falcons got by Ellwood City, 60-58, and dispatched West Mifflin, 59-55, Hopewell, 72-52, and perennial power, Blackhawk, in the finals, 66-63.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Lemon was the catalyst of the playoff run.
“After the disappointment my junior year, my senior year I focused on involving the guys and getting the best out of everyone,” Lemon said. “That year you could go anywhere in Fayette County and parts of Washington County and it’s like everybody knew us.
“It was huge for the area and that year was spectacular. That team was so good that Coach Logan just had to manage the time, how much time to play everybody. I cannot stress enough the guys on that team: Bob Turcic, Mark Gates, Josh Bruschi and Derrick Clements, I could get everybody to contributed. We played basketball together all the time, we were inseparable. It paid off with a championship.”
In the PIAA playoffs, Brownsville beat Indian Valley, 58-41, and lost to General McLane, 69-62.
“In my honest opinion, we were better than General McLane,” Lemon lamented. “They were tough and really well coached. We had never played four people that shot the ball that well and that’s what I think got us.”
Lemon averaged a triple-double his senior season and finished his career as Brownsville’s all-time leading scorer with 1,649 points.
“I was a slasher,” Lemon opined. “I could take somebody off the dribble and I could create my own shot. I didn’t shoot the ball that well. I shot the three decent, but I had a very fast first step and I could elevate. I could rebound on the offensive boards. I was a good passer and I always liked to hit the open man. I could post up and get it done there.”
When Lemon graduated in 2001, he was recruited heavily by Division II schools.
“I remember not wanting to go Division II, I had my heart set on playing Division I,” Lemon explained. “My counselor at Brownsville, Mr. Huffman, called Coach Mark Javens at Community College of Beaver County, and they were a junior college power, and I played two years there.”
In 2001-02, the CCBC Titans went 32-3 and lost in the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Division II national tournament to Mott Community College from Flint, Michigan, 90-73. Lemon averaged 19 points a game. In 2002-03, CCBC went 28-1 and lost to second-ranked Genesee Community College.
“It was an extraordinary experience at CCBC,” Lemon offered. “I played with some great players like Lamar Castile, and he averaged nearly 30 points a game. After CCBC I went down to Cal U and talked to Coach Bill Brown. I sat out one year and then in 2005, Drew Schifino transferred in and I left and Coach Shea Fleenor got me to play at Penn State Fayette Campus in 2005-2006 and we went 13-8 in league play, and PSU-Fayette advanced to the league tournament semifinals for the first time in over two decades. That was the last year I played basketball.”
Lemon ran into trouble with the law in 2008 and went to federal prison for eight and a half years.
“It was just a time in my life where I made some bad decisions,” Lemon stated. “You make bad decisions you have to pay the price obviously. You miss nine years of your life, it changes you dramatically. I was always positive during that time, I was never down. I used to talk to former Brownsville star Mitch Mitchell all the time. You can’t get down on yourself and adversity builds character. I made the best of a bad situation.”
“At 34, I’m going to school at Douglas Education Center, truck driving school and I have a friend, and hopefully we can invest in some trucks. It’s not what I’d like to do in the long haul. I’d like to get into guidance counseling and explain how hard life can be, but if you prepare for life how much easier you can make it.”
Unmarried Lemon resides in Brownsville.
“What I really hope comes out of this article,” Lemon stated. “My main focus is I hope it lets people in the community know it’s OK to give this guy a chance to come talk to your team. All types of kids need help and that’s what I’m passionate about.”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Monday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.