BASKETBALL GOSPEL ACCORDING TO DICKIE KELLY The Dunbar great, playground scoring machine, and Baltimore Bullets draft pick remembers the long road from Turner Station to the edge of the NBA (BALTIMORE – September 6, 2026) — Before there was Skip, there was Dickie. That is not meant to diminish the greatness of Skip Wise, one of the most celebrated basketball players ever produced by Baltimore. It is a reminder that this city’s basketball history did not begin with the names most people remember. Long before Skip electrified crowds at Dunbar High School, Dickie Kelly was already giving Baltimore basketball fans something to talk about. Kelly was a playground legend, a Dunbar Poet, a scoring machine and a guard who once stood toe-to-toe with Earl “The Pearl” Monroe. He played at Bay College of Maryland, earned national junior-college recognition, and was selected by the Baltimore Bullets in the 1973 NBA Draft. Yet when Kelly was asked what he wanted people to remember most, he did not begin with points, championships, or professional basketball. “That I was a hard-working, God-fearing man,” Kelly said. “That’s all you got to say.” Across the Bridge to Turner Station James “Dickie” Kelly was born on February 7, 1948. He grew up in Sparrows Point, near Turner Station in Baltimore County, and began playing organized basketball at about age 7. There was no youth basketball league in Sparrows Point, he recalled, so he crossed the bridge into Turner Station to play in a program run by a man known as Captain Smith. “He had everything,” Kelly said. “He had baseball, basketball. I think he had football, too.” Kelly’s mother gave him bus fare to reach the games. Instead, he often pocketed the money and walked across the bridge. “I was saving that money she was giving me to catch the bus,” he said. “I just walked over the bridge.” Sometimes he used a little of the savings to stop for a hot dog. That resourcefulness would remain with him. Kelly learned early how to make his own way, negotiate for himself, and survive without constantly asking his family for money. But the foundation of his game came from something simpler: hours of solitary practice. “I had a basketball court where you had to have the winners,” he explained. “Sometimes I used to go up there, and if there was nobody playing, I used to act like somebody was playing me. I’m out there by myself, putting moves on myself. I’m trying to duck myself—but you can’t duck yourself.” He would practice for hours after school, sometimes remaining on the court after dark and playing by the light of a nearby streetlamp. “What made me good?” Kelly asked. “Me practicing by myself.” Becoming a Dunbar Poet Kelly eventually made his way to Baltimore’s legendary Dunbar High School, where William “Sugar” Cain coached the Poets. Kelly believed he was ready to contribute before Cain was prepared to give him the opportunity. As a young player, he watched older players…