By Joseph Staszewski
Be the best you can be at whatever you’re called to be.
It is the challenge Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., posed to Benjamin Cardozo students at an assembly last Thursday afternoon.
He was there to meet Cardozo boys’ basketball coach Ron Naclerio because his dad, Emil Naclerio, a surgeon at Harlem Hospital, helped save Martin Luther Kings Jr.’s, life after he was stabbed in 1958. Emil Naclerio did so by performing a complicated surgery at a time where not just King, but the world needed him most. He extended King’s life and his involvement in the civil rights movement.
“Today I was thinking about if something went wrong how so many things today would be different,” Ron Naclerio said. “Those extra 10 years a lot of things got started that continued.”
The coach talked about learning how much hatred there is in the world from listening to his father tell stories about the flack he took at the time for saving King’s life because people’s views did not match King’s. Verbal barbs were also thrown at Ron Naclerio during his youth over it.
“There were a lot of doctors who may not have even operated,” Martin Luther King III said. “Others, particularly doctors in the South, ‘I’ll do it and make sure he doesn’t survive.’”
His family’s message of doing your part to make the world a better place can be taught to young people even if the situation isn’t as extreme as the one encountered by Emil Naclerio. In sports, every player has a role that helps the success of a team. The contributions of a star player and a bench player can be just as important to achieving the ultimate goal.
“If you are going to be a sixth man, be the best sixth man you can be,” Ron Naclerio said. “If you are just going to be role player, be the best role player. You’re the last player, be the best last player on any team in the city. I’m going to use that.”
King III’s importance and presence wasn’t lost on the Cardozo students. Many, including boys’ hoops star Rashond Salnave, flooded the stage in the auditorium to take a photo.
He said Naclerio tells his team the story of his father regularly and called it inspirational knowing Emil Naclerio saved someone who could motivate anyone. Martin Luther King III’s presence was just a reminder of that.
“He sounded just like his father, from all the recordings I’ve heard of this father,” Salnave said. “It felt like his father was really here.”
The person posing the challenge may have changed, but the message remains the same. Don’t waste your talents and play your part to the best of your abilities.
