Adjusting a dream

Terrell Stokes saw the NBA as his future. The former high-school All-America point guard was one of the best basketball players in Simon Gratz High’s history. He went on to star at the University of Maryland.

But four stellar years at Maryland still weren’t a ticket to the NBA. Stokes, who left Maryland in 1999 to pursue his dream, didn’t even get drafted. The Toronto Raptors invited him to their summer league as a free agent. He didn’t make the team.

Disappointed? Certainly. But Stokes already had made it light years further than anyone could have expected — including himself.

"Life is really good right now and it’s going to get even better," he said.

Here’s why: This is a guy who was dealing cocaine at age 10, was left with a little brother to raise, and wound up incarcerated at age 14.

What’s he doing now? After returning to Maryland to finish his degree, he’s back on the sidelines as assistant for Division I Loyola College in Baltimore.

"I wanted to stay around and do something I love to do," said Stokes, 28, of 18th and Dickinson streets.

He was officially named to Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos’ staff on April 8. And he couldn’t be happier.

"If I wasn’t going to play, I figured I might as well coach," he said.

This wasn’t Stokes’ first foray into coaching. He was head assistant at Division II Elizabeth City (N.C.) State, enough to whet his appetite for the job.

Stokes and Patsos know each other quite well from their University of Maryland days. Patsos spent 13 years on Terrapins coach Gary Williams’ staff, while Stokes was setting a number of school records as the star point guard. In Stokes’ four years at Maryland, the Terps advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 three times. His records for assists in a game (15) and assists in a season (213) still stand.

The two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference pick said he looks up to Patsos. Now the coaching team hopes to inject new life into a program that went 1-17 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference last season.

"We both won at Maryland and have NCAA Tournament experience," said Stokes, who also is involved with recruiting and scouting. "We have to try and lift the program off the ground."

Stokes had every reason to believe he was headed for a career in the NBA — even before he got to Maryland. In 1995, as a senior at Gratz, he was the top-ranked high-school point guard in the country and played on what was widely regarded as the nation’s number-one high-school team.

But his early years would make for a modern-day Dickens novel. He was dealing drugs as a preteen. His father left when Stokes was 5, and his mom had her own drug problems.

Left pretty much on his own with a little brother, Stokes turned to dealing drugs simply to have money for food and clothes.

He eventually got caught. At age 14, he was sentenced to 16 months in a juvenile facility in Lima, PA.

Jail actually turned out to be his salvation because when Stokes was released at age 15, he decided to get his life in order.

"I could have easily come out of jail and sold drugs, but I figured basketball is my way off the streets and my ticket to success," he said.

Stokes had no trouble finding pickup games at such popular spots as 17th and Dickinson and 16th and Wharton. He also played in the Total Response League, now known as Positive Image.

But Stokes really made his mark at Gratz, playing for coach Bill Ellerbee. He was one of the greatest players ever to wear the Bulldogs uniform and remains the school’s all-time assist leader. In his senior year, he led Gratz to a 31-0 record, which included winning the Public League championship. The high-school All-America selection was rated the nation’s top prep point guard along with current New Jersey Nets star Stephon Marbury by USA Today and Street & Smith.

It paved the way to a Division I scholarship to Maryland, where the Terps compiled a crackling 87-40 record in his four seasons. But like every other college standout, Stokes wanted to make it to the NBA. He left Maryland early so he could showcase his skills in front of the pro coaches and scouts. The Raptors invited the guard to play on their summer league roster and he received an invitation to training camp.

When he got cut, he could have played overseas or in one of the minor pro leagues, but Stokes figured it was the NBA or bust.

"If I couldn’t play in the NBA, I wasn’t going to play overseas," he said.

Instead, Stokes returned to college so he could finish getting his degree in family studies.

Speaking of families, his own is quite a study in happy endings. His mom, Patricia, not only overcame her addictions, she went back to school and earned her own college degree. His dad, Phinezee "Bop" Stokes, is also back in his son’s life — the two are now close. He still looks out for younger brother Terrance, 21, and is a proud pop to two daughters ages 10 and 3.

One person who’s particularly happy to see how things worked out for Stokes is Bill Williams, who coached him in the Total Response League and at Gratz.

"He is a kid that everybody admires," Williams said. "He is a kid that did the right thing in his life."