From prison to scoring leader to entertaining basketball fans worldwide
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
You probably won’t ever see the “Greg Wells Story” at your favorite movie theatre or on TV.
Even Hollywood would find an inspiring fairyland-type story of a young man’s journey from a prison cell to entertaining basketball fans all over the U.S. and more than a dozen foreign countries a bit far-fetched.
But that’s the way it happened for Wells, who on Friday, Nov. 10, will be joined by former Blue Devil baseball standout Mike Hinkle as the newest inductees into the Kansas City Kansas Community College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Wells never played in an organized basketball game until he got to KCKCC at age 26 in 2002. Incarcerated on the first day of basketball tryouts his junior year at Washington High School, Wells’ considerable basketball skills were honed for nearly eight years in state correctional facilities in Norton, Hutchinson and Lansing.
Just 16, Wells was with three other men (ages 24, 22 and 18) when two of them got out of a car at the Best Western Inn on Southwest Boulevard and robbed people of nearly $500 and two automobiles. While he never left the car, he was arrested three days later, admitted his presence at the robbery and was sentenced to 10-20 years in prison.
“I knew what was going on so I was just as guilty,” he admitted.
One of the three turned state’s evidence and got three years; another 45 years to life. The third man, who Wells could have implicated, did not draw a sentence.
“I probably could have got out with three years but I was raised differently,” he said. The last 27 months of Wells’ 10-year sentence for aggravated robbery were spent in a super maximum security facility in El Dorado where he was confined to his cell 24 hours a day because of fights in other correctional facilities.
That’s when Wells’ story got a whole lot better.
“Honestly, the best thing that happened to me was being put in the El Dorado super max,” he said. “That’s when I changed within myself. I knew that I was ready to focus on life outside other peoples’ opinions and get rid of the tough guy image. I knew I had to get an education and loving the game of the basketball the way I did, basketball and education were my direction.”
Earning a GED, Wells was referred to the KCKCC coaching staff by a former Blue Devil player under coach Dan Pratt.
“He saw him in Lansing and was really turning things around and that we should take a look at him,” KCKCC assistant coach Bill Sloan said. “It took a while for him to get acclimated but by the end of the first season and the second season he was really something. He was so athletic and so strong and jumped so well, he could score from the power forward position.”
Despite never playing an organized game, Wells was in the starting lineup by mid-season of his freshman year, scoring in double figures in 8 of his last 10 games and averaging 12.0 points. For the season, he was fifth in team scoring (8.3), third in rebounding (4.4) and first in shooting percentage (.564).
By his sophomore campaign, he was dominating in the Jayhawk Conference.
Playing power forward at just 6-foot-2, Wells used his athleticism and quickness against much bigger opponents and double and triple teaming to run away with the conference scoring championship, averaging 22.2 points and shooting 57.1 percent. He also handed out 98 assists and led the Blue Devils in rebounding (8.1) and steals (59) to earn first team All-Region VI and All-Jayhawk East honors.
“Even though his situation was way different than the players we were getting out of high school, he brought great enthusiasm and leadership to his the program,” KCKCC coach Jon Oler said. “His sophomore year was great capped by two great plays that gave me my first win over Johnson County.”
In one of his finest performances, Wells scored five points in less than a second of elapsed time in an 85-82 overtime win at Johnson County.
With a second left on the shot clock and 8.2 seconds remaining in overtime, Wells tied the game 82-82 with a jump hook. Fouled on the play, Wells put KCKCC ahead with a free throw and then clinched the win with a leaping interception of the in-bounds pass and hitting a short jump shot with 7.4 seconds to go.
“I was ecstatic,” Oler said.
Not only did Wells excel on the basketball court, he also excelled in the classroom. By his sophomore year, he had four A’s and one B the fall semester and then carried 21 hours his final semester while maintaining a 3.4 grade point average.
“Coming from where he did he could not have represented the college better than he did,” Sloan said.
Wells’ play earned a scholarship to Rockhurst University but halfway through his first season, financial problems created by a newborn collided with opportunity and the latter won.
“I dropped out to play for pay. The owner of the Harlem Rockets offered me a contract and I actually signed in the parking lot before my final game at Kemper Arena,” he said.
For the next seven years, he would tour the globe with the Rockets, attaining popularity and stardom as “The Finisher” because of his ability to extend high above the rim for spectacular dunks.
“It was a grind. From September to June, we played 180 games in 180 different cities including some in China, Japan, Indonesia and Canada to name a few. I really had to stay in shape,” he said.
For six months he owned his own team – the New York SSS All-Stars – and then retired in 2012 after an auto accident.
“I was rear-ended and smashed into the steering wheel and needed double hernia surgery,” Wells said. “That’s what forced me to retire.”
While he’s always called KCK home, Wells now lives in Richmond, Va., where he develops promising basketball players (ages 14-24) to play in college and overseas – something of a carryover from his days at KCKCC.
“I have very great memories and great coaches who helped me to develop into a player and how much growing up I did at KCKCC and help in becoming a better father,” said Wells, who has three sons and two daughters.
Now about that “Greg Wells Story” for the movies or TV. Maybe it isn’t so far-fetched. Wells is in the process of writing his own biography, which he plans on having ready by next June.