Stranger in a strange land

Wednesday, March 9, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

Odartey Blankson is a loner who dodges eye contact, is leery about doling out trust and is a devout Christian who might eventually follow his father's ministerial path.

The UNLV senior forward firmly believes in good and evil, heaven and hell, with no gray middle ground.

"If this is all there is," Blankson, with a glance around the Thomas & Mack Center, said after a recent practice, "that would be sad."

When the Rebels open the Mountain West Conference tournament Thursday against Wyoming in Denver, their most important player, who turns 23 on Saturday, will be the one who has publicly ripped coaches and teammates for shoddy effort.

Blankson is fiercely independent, quick to question and as serious as a surgeon. He is not quick with a smile.

Which is just how Emmanuel Blankson taught each of his three sons and daughter.

"I don't trust everybody and I don't expect my kids to trust everybody," said the patriarch of the Blankson family. "That's normal in my mind, OK? And I prefer that my kids be independent. That's how I raised them.

"The sooner they become independent, the better ... I don't want others to influence their thinking and their actions."

Out of Africa

In 1973, Emmanuel Blankson was 25 when he left Ghana to pursue his education in America.

His aggregate test scores at home did not satisfy rigid minimum requirements for advancement, so he left for the South Side of Chicago in a fortunate move.

For more than a year, the economic and political climate in Ghana, which was granted its independence from British colonial rule in 1957, had deteriorated under a new Supreme Military Council.

The elder Blankson, however, has fond memories of Ghana, where he kicked a soccer ball around his family's compound and neighborhood in his youth.

"I grew up around a father who was very strict," he said. "He believed in discipline. We weren't poor, by the standards of where we were raised. My father made sure my brothers and I had a great life.

"He believed in education. That's what most of our people do because, under an oppressive system, it's the only way you can achieve any success. Life there was geared toward that. You need a good education in order to have a chance at life."

Emmanuel earned accounting and economics degrees over a 10-year stretch at the University of Illinois, and he is currently an executive for Primerica Financial Services, a subsidiary of Citigroup.

He is also licensed as an ordained minister.

"The best thing to do was to get away, simply because I didn't mind failing somewhere else," Emmanuel Blankson said. "So I came here and took my lumps. Over there, I couldn't have done it."

He might not be too pleased to learn that his youngest son has majored in sociology at UNLV because that is one of the school's least-taxing routes to a diploma.

At the end of this semester, Odartey will need one more class and a lab unit to graduate.

The Rebel

Then again, Odartey Blankson didn't seek his father's counsel when he chose to leave Marquette, after two seasons, for UNLV.

Emmanuel Blankson had favored Odartey transferring to Notre Dame or Boston College, where he was supposedly told he could earn a master's degree in three years.

"He knew I would be against him leaving, that's why he didn't talk to me about it until he decided he was leaving," Emmanuel Blankson said. "By then, the decision had been made."

By then, Odartey had chosen to major in basketball. And his father wound up not faulting him as he watched Odartey improve on the court.

Emmanuel cites Odartey's refined free-throw technique as evidence of his determination and focus.

In his first two seasons at Marquette, Blankson made 55.6 and 59.8 percent of his shots, respectively, at the stripe. Last season, he connected on 79.1 percent of those attempts, and he honed his marksmanship to 83.2 percent as a senior.

"I've seen what he's been able to do with basketball, and I'm convinced it was a good decision for him," Emmanuel Blankson said of the transfer to UNLV. "That bodes well for his future. For that reason, it was OK he made that decision."

Odartey, though, still can't say why he left Marquette, which played in the NCAA tournament his sophomore season.

Before last season, he told the Sun, "God has me out here for a reason." Besides, he said, people have always said he's a strange kid.

Blankson, too, believes he's strange, that he thinks too deeply, too often, about too many subjects and that all this is one big dream, or a strange test or journey.

"Life is not normal to me," Blankson said. "For your 'real' life, that's heaven. That's eternity. I would hope some people, down here, would say I'm strange. Sometimes, I feel strange.

"The Bible uses a lot of adjectives; you're a stranger (on earth), a foreigner. For someone to say I'm strange, it would be a compliment."

A strong spirit

Candis Blankson, who played at DePaul and has been an assistant coach for the Blue Demons' women's team for four seasons, doesn't believe her brother is strange.

"It sounds like something he would say," said Candis, lightly laughing, "but he's not strange. He's a very spiritual person, the way he looks at everything."

She believes style, Marquette's rigid system as opposed to more freedom at UNLV, played a significant role in Odartey leaving for Las Vegas.

"But I didn't even ask him why," Candis said. "I just supported him. I could understand what he was going through. I went to DePaul, and I was happy here all the time. I was thinking, if he wasn't happy he should leave."

The siblings speak frequently by phone, usually in catch-up calls that center on one or two quick topics. Two weeks ago, Odartey brought up the NBA in one of those chats.

He told Candis he would work hard and do everything in his power to thrive in the world's most prestigious basketball league.

"He also understands that, if he doesn't make it, then that's probably not what God wants him to do," Candis said. "And he said if he does make it, it wouldn't be to just make money and buy a lot of things.

"Those things, material things, don't mean anything. He has taught me, and he's my younger brother. I look to him for spiritual guidance. He understands there's a bigger purpose to life than just basketball and money."

Blankson also understands death. He started seeking answers to serious religious questions in the fifth grade, after his 21-year-old brother Bryan was shot to death in a neighborhood alley.

Six years later, James McBride, Blankson's best friend, died.

Last fall, Ashley Greer, a former UNLV head basketball manager with whom Blankson had become close, died in Montana. Blankson had become accustomed to visiting Greer, his wife and the couple's infant on a daily basis.

Blankson said each death profoundly affected him.

"Everything happens for a reason," Blankson said. "I know tomorrow isn't promised. I try to live my life according to that, knowing I'm blessed to be able to play ball and be on the court, and have fans cheering for me.

"As good as that is, it could be gone tomorrow."

No regrets

In Vegas, Odartey has kept a tight circle.

He has never gotten along poorly with any UNLV teammate, but none are particularly close to him. He's always in and out of the locker room, rarely hanging out with the guys.

"He keeps a lot of things to himself," senior guard Romel Beck said. "He's a tough kid from Chicago who wants to win, and I'm happy I came here to play with him.

"I'll always remember him nailing that fade-away (jumper) at Wyoming. He told me he had never really hit a game-winning shot. And people have always gotten on him about fading away, and he faded away and hit the shot."

Older brother Ryan, who played at Loyola of Chicago, and a cousin moved here with him from the start. Older brother David, who might attend culinary school, arrived last summer.

Odartey salivates over the chicken, steak and mashed potatoes that he considers David's specialties, and David often cooks Sunday dinners for their apartment complex neighbors.

"I surround myself with the right people, positive people," Odartey said.

Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade is one of them. The two clicked at Marquette, and Wade advised Blankson to remain in the NBA draft last summer.

Blankson tested the system, gathering information from professional scouts and coaches. But he did not hire an agent, which enabled him to pull out of the draft and return to UNLV for his senior season.

First-year Rebels coach Lon Kruger -- who spent most of his career since 2000 in the NBA, coaching the Atlanta Hawks and assisting in New York -- confirmed that Blankson is much more serious than the average undergraduate.

Wade still tells Blankson he should have stayed in the draft, but Blankson is adamant that he made the correct decision because of what he has learned from Kruger.

"He has a plan," Kruger said. "Everything he does has that plan at the center, and you have to appreciate that. When you have a competitive attitude and mindset that he has, that's a great beginning.

"He has good skills. His challenge will be ... position. He won't be a power forward in the NBA. He needs to be a wing, even a big guard. He'll work at it. Hopefully, he'll get the opportunity and he'll take advantage of it."

Blankson now keeps most disagreements or pointed opinions of others behind closed doors. And during low points this season, Blankson has been amazed at how Kruger has remained positive.

In an apparently helpless situation four weeks ago at San Diego State, trailing the Aztecs by 10 points with 29 seconds remaining, the Rebels pulled out a victory for the ages in overtime.

That buoyed UNLV, which won six of its final seven games.

"I've never seen a coach have such a positive attitude," Blankson said. "He's always been upbeat and stayed positive. He's said all the right things to help the team bounce back and help me, personally, keep my head up and try to keep going hard."

Blankson will remember the 2004-05 season for many years, mo matter what unfolds over the next week or two.

"It'll help me down the road, in life," he said. "When basketball is said and done, whatever I do after basketball, I can say this one year has helped me out a lot ... I couldn't have imagined learning and growing so much.

"Right now, we're confident as a team. We won't give up on ourselves. We'll go into every game believing we can win."

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