By By Ed Morrone
JAMAICA, N.Y.-Senior guard Gibran Washington has left the men’s basketball program due to a chronic injury, head coach Tom Pecora announced on Nov. 21.
Many factors contributed to Washington’s decision, with the main one that he felt he could not rehab his injury in time. Also, Washington will graduate early in December with a degree in management and has a job offer with the Winter Haven, Fla., based company Pengeo, Inc. He will begin working there in January.
“The loss of Gibran will be a blow to our basketball team,” Pecora said. “Not only was he a great basketball player for us, but he was also a great leader. We wish him the best of luck in his new position with Pengeo.”
Washington, a Jacksonville native, played in 83 career games for the Pride, including 28 starts. He amassed 333 points, 165 assists and 107 steals in his three seasons. He tallied 10 points and 12 assists in an 81-64 road win at St. John’s University during the 2003-04 season. The 12 assists is still the highest single-game total for a Pride basketball player in the last seven seasons.
Washington was unavailable for comment because he no longer travels with the team, but former teammate and current Pride junior guard Loren Stokes had plenty to say about Washington’s importance to the program.
“He was a leader and a high energy guy,” Stokes said. “He always kept us up talking in practice and he was always everywhere on defense. He was always there to motivate us, so for him to leave is going to be a tough, tough loss. He came to work hard everyday and helped all of us get better.”
Washington lettered in basketball at Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, where he helped his team win back-to-back district championships as a junior and senior. He averaged 23 points, six rebounds and five assists during his senior year.
Washington was never a big time scorer for the Pride, with his career high average in a season being 5.4 points per game in 2003-04 and he averaged just 4.0 PPG for his career. However, his leadership skills were invaluable and there will now be an experience void in the Pride’s backcourt with the top four guards being two juniors (Stokes and Carlos Rivera), a sophomore (Antoine Agudio) and a freshman (Greg Johnson).
“I have to become more vocal with the fellas, which is what I’m trying to do now,” Stokes said. “He told me the other day to come out and not worry about my nose that I broke two weeks ago [in practice]. He just told me not to worry about anything. He was always talking so it’s going to be a loss for us. He always kept everybody up.”