Is this the greatest Reading basketball team of all-time? Might be
Before his Reading High teammates contested their first shot or hit the floor for the first time to scrap for a loose ball Ruben Rodriguez threw down the gauntlet.
“Are you ready to coach the greatest basketball team ever?” he asked his coach, Rick Perez.
Perez took that and ran with it. He knew he had a hungry, talented team full of gamers. He laid the challenge at their feet.
“You’re gonna have to do some crazy stuff in order to be the best ever,” Perez told them. “And they did.”
Perez, in his 12th season as Reading’s coach, and with a pair of PIAA championships already on his resume, worked this team harder than any he’s ever had. Not just with basketball drills but with every other kind of physical test, pushing them to their limit.
“The weight-lifting, the conditioning (we do) is unreal,” Perez said. “There’s not (another) person in the state that can handle the conditioning that we do. I’ve had Division I coaches say: ‘Rick, there’s no way, their bodies are going to fatigue.’
“Ruben ran so hard (once) I remember him crying. Those are the things that people don’t see. I (told them) if you want to be (Reading’s greatest team) then you’ve got to elevate yourself and do things (in training) that other Reading High basketball teams have never, ever done.”
It’s not just the physical but the mental, emotional and the spiritual. Perez’s coaching methods go far beyond the X’s and O’s. He coaches every part of the body and soul. He talks about “love” and “family” and backs that up by creating true personal, lasting bonds with his players.
That’s how Reading High has become the top public school basketball program in the state.
Perez literally leaves no stone unturned. Sports psychologists. Yoga instructors. Prayer. It’s all part of the playbook.
When he talks about “protecting the city,” what he’s talking about is keeping his players in the program and away from the hands of private school recruiters. Lonnie Walker IV, the fulcrum that launched this hoops dynasty, was wooed by outside forces when he was emerging as a star in the Reading program. Perez, along with Lonnie’s father, made sure the prodigy stayed home.
Walker set the tone for the program and it has continued to flower since he left six years. It’s been better the past few years than it ever has.
For a hundred years the Red Knights always ended the season with an upsetting loss. Now they’re looking at three PIAA Class 6A championships in the span of seven years and six tournaments (play was suspended in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns).
Reading’s players – Ruben Rodriguez, Myles Grey, Aris Rodriguez and the rest – were well-groomed in the city’s unequaled KTB youth program, which schools youngsters on the basics of the game and exposes them to top competition throughout the region and up and down the East coast.
Months after winning their first state championship Grey, Aris Rodriguez and Amier Burdine were part of a KTB squad that won a 16U national championship in Florida.
That’s why, when faced with a tight situation, as they were Saturday when Roman Catholic took the lead in overtime, the Red Knights handled it in stride; it’s why they were poised enough to make all the big plays down the stretch to pull out a 63-56 victory.
That championship didn’t just happen. It was years in the making.
What made this possible, said Grey was “everything off the court that people didn’t see. All the 4 a.m. workouts, the conditioning, weight room sessions, film sessions. Everything we put into it, that’s why we’re here right now.”
They ended the season with a 23-game winning streak and 32-1 record, tied for the best in Berks history. (Central Catholic lost the PIAA championship game in 1996 after a 32-0 start.)
Ruben, Myles, Aris and Amier, the four senior starters, left behind great memories after a staggering 84-7 three-year run. They also leave behind this question: Are they the greatest Red Knights team in history?
They’re certainly not the biggest.
Or the most talented. (Ruben Rodriguez, a Rider commit, is the only senior with a college basketball destination lined up.)
Or the deepest. (Though the bench effectiveness grew late in the season, with the emergence of Nick Chapman and the addition of Jedaya Ortega.)
They do, however, have the best resume.
There has been shortage of great Reading teams. MikeDragoSports.com identified the 10 best, based on total wins and winning percentage. You can make a case for several as the best ever.
| Season | Coach | Record | Winning margin | PIAA Tournament |
| 1964-65 | Pete Carill | 21-2 | 23.5 | DNQ* |
| 1965-66 | Pete Carill | 25-1 | 22.5 | Semifinalist |
| 1972-73 | Jim Gano | 28-2 | 20.6 | Finalist |
| 1980-81 | Jim Gano | 31-2 | 19.7 | Second round |
| 1982-83 | Rick Binder | 32-2 | 19.9 | Semifinalist |
| 1990-91 | Mike Miller | 31-2 | 25.0 | Quarterfinalist |
| 2007-08 | Richard Reyes | 30-1 | 24.7 | First round |
| 2016-17 | Rick Perez | 30-3 | 21.2 | Champion |
| 2020-21 | Rick Perez | 26-2 | 17.2 | Champion |
| 2022-23 | Rick Perez | 32-1 | 20.8 | Champion |
There’s Pete’s Carill’s 1965-66 team, led by Bill Jankans, which won Central Penn League and District 3 titles and went 25-0 before running into Chester in the state semifinals. That Clippers team, you should know, was beaten in the next round by Schenley.
Rick Binder’s 1983 squad, which included Rodney Hodge, Richie Williams and Pat Tulley, is certainly in the conversation. It set the program record with 32 wins. It beat Chester by a bucket in the second game of the season, then lost to the Clippers by 10 in the state semis. Chester went on to beat McKeesport for the championship.
Donyell Marshall’s senior squad, in 1991, was a formidable one. It averaged 77.6 points, highest among these 10 teams, and won its 31 games by an average of 25 points, also the highest on this list. But it lost in the district final to Harrisburg and in the state quarters to a powerhouse Glen Mills team which went on to win the Class 4A title.
Jim Gano’s 1973 team, of course, made it to the state final, where it lost in excruciating fashion to General Braddock. The only other loss for that Stu Jackson-led team came late in the season to York High.
There’s also the fabled 30-1-and-done team from 2008, a powerhouse that collapsed in a state playoff opener to the eighth-place finisher out of District 1. That team could’a been a contender on this list, but it’s not.
It’s hard to compare teams of different eras because so many things have changed. Carill’s and Gano’s teams played when there were just three classifications, making it tougher to win a championship. Then again, they weren’t competing against Philadelphia Public League or Catholic League teams.
No doubt it’s not as difficult to win now with six classifications, compared to three or four. Then again, we’re in an era where top players tend to gravitate to top programs, where Charter schools pop up and a year or two later are playing at Giant Center in late March. Plus, the addition of the Philly teams has made it a true state championship.
Only three Reading teams won their final game, and they’ve come in rapid succession. Comparing them isn’t as difficult.
Walker was certainly an X factor. It’s hard to imagine the Red Knights getting beaten with him on the court – though they did, three times, including once in a district semifinal.
That 2021 team, carried in the final game by Moro Osumanu’s inspirational performance, was the grittiest bunch you’ll ever see. They overcame obstacles (COVID and their own school board) we never saw coming.
The current group, though, has a resume that’s unmatched. Five championships (holiday, division, league, district and state). Unbeaten in against Pennsylvania competition. And a tournament run the likes of which Reading has never seen before: The Red Knights won their five PIAA games by an average of 22 points. No one’s come close to that achievement.
