By Marc Raimondi
The senior on the Campus Magnet boys' basketball team broke his right, shooting wrist Feb. 1. Chavis still attended every Bulldogs game despite being out indefinitely. He saw Campus Magnet fall to Cardozo in the final game of the regular season; he saw his team get upset by Thomas Edison in the Queens Borough championship game; and he saw the Bulldogs fall by one point to John F. Kennedy in the second round of the PSAL Class AA playoffs.There was nothing he could do about any of it.”It hurt me a lot,” Chavis said. “I felt like crying.”During the postseason, the 6-foot-5 swingman even removed his hard cast, without a doctor's permission, so he could start taking jumpers sooner than prescribed. He tried desperately to get back before the end of the season to no avail. The cast had to go back on. The wait had to continue.Given all that, it's no surprise that Chavis is making up for lost time. He leads Queens AA in scoring (19.1 points per game), is averaging 5.1 rebounds per game and, most importantly, has led Campus Magnet to an 8-0 record, good for first place in the division.On Dec. 6, Chavis had 23 points in the Bulldogs' win at Cardozo. It was the Judges' first division loss at home since 2001.”My time is now,” he said.It's hard to argue with him given the evidence, yet Chavis is still flying well under the radar. He might be the best pure scorer in Queens and he, Nathaniel Wilson and Kyle O'Quinn are the undisputed leaders of the best team in the borough. But few additional scholarship offers are coming his way.”I'm averaging 20 points per game and nobody says anything,” Chavis said. “That p—– me off.”It doesn't matter: Chavis has already made a college decision. The Cambria Heights native will be going to a historical black college next year, either Hampton, Howard or Virginia Union. Campus Magnet coach Chuck Granby took him to Madison Square Garden last month to see the annual Big Apple Classic, in which four historical black college men's basketball teams play each other.Granby doesn't like to talk about happenstance. But it's no secret things could have been different if Chavis played down the stretch last year.”I have to live in the real world,” the coach said. “But not having him definitely hurt us.”Reach Associate Sports Editor Marc Raimondi by e-mail at mraimondi@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 130. More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail!
