Ballard takes best shot
from Pioneer opponents

By Joe Mason
Times Sports Editor

There was a time when Malik Ballard could do anything he wanted on the basketball court.
Ballard could drive past his opponent and put up points with a beautiful kiss shot off the glass. He also was able to spot up from the outside and send a picture-perfect jump shot through the net.
Opponents found his inside-outside game to be almost unstoppable.
Those were the days when Ballard was playing in the schoolyard outside of the Henry R. Edmunds School, just down the street from Frankford High School. Now Ballard is playing for the Pioneers basketball team, and his moments of hoisting a long-range jumper or driving coast to coast for a lay-up are few and far between.
It’s not because the junior point guard isn’t capable of posting high offensive numbers. It’s because scoring isn’t his job.
His overall job is to do everything else. His primary job is to play shutdown defense.
But we’re not talking about guarding the other team’s point guard.
"I usually put him against the other team’s best player, regardless of who we’re playing," said Frankford coach Ben Dubin. "He’s not the best player on our team, but he might just be the most valuable.
"I had him when he was a freshman on the junior varsity team," said Dubin, now in his second year as the head coach of the Pioneers’ varsity squad. "He just proved to me that he could defend. He wills himself to shut down anyone he’s defending. He’s extremely good at shutting down an opponent."
Ballard isn’t your typical Manute Bol or Shawn Bradley type of defender. He’s not good because of his height or his tremendous wingspan, and he’s not the kind of player who’s going to alter a lot of shots.
The Oxford Circle resident stands just 5-feet-9, which is relatively small for a Public League basketball player.
But, still, he’s able to defend against the other team’s best player — even if the other team’s best player is a center and has more than six inches on him.
"I actually love sticking the bigger guys, it’s more fun, at least for me," Ballard said. "You just have to go in thinking you can shut them down. Now a lot of times, I know I’m not going to shut him down, especially when it’s one of the better players. My goal is to hold every player to single digits. But when I play a guy averaging twenty-five points or thirty points, I just try to hold them to half of their average.
"It doesn’t always happen, but that’s my goal," he said with a smile. "I just try to do as much as possible to throw him off his game. If he’s working hard for his points, then I’m doing my job."
So far, Ballard’s been doing a fine job.
With the junior guard leading the defense and an offense that got contributions from just about every player on the roster, the Pioneers won all 14 of their Public League B Division games, which made them the regular-season champs.
Their success didn’t end there.
Frankford advanced to the Public League quarterfinals before falling to Simon Gratz, 62-50, on Feb. 25.
In the loss to the Bulldogs, the Pioneers got 11 points from star forward Kenny Spotwood, nine from Rakeem Golden-White and eight from Khayree Brown.
Though the game served as a Public League quarterfinal, it was actually the championship game involving Public League schools in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Class AAAA division.
Because Frankford was the runner-up in the Public League in their class, the Pioneers clinched a spot in the PIAA state playoffs, which will begin later this week. Details of the Pioneers game were not available when the Times went to press.
For Ballard, who scored six points in the loss to Gratz, making the switch from an offensive sensation to a defensive wizard was actually a natural and gradual change.
"Honestly, I did it because I wanted to play," Ballard confessed. "Every time I’m on the floor, I want coach Dubin to keep me out there. I want him to think, ‘I can’t take him out of the game or we’ll miss him.’ That’s why I try to work so hard.
"I also do it because I know it helps the team," Ballard continued. "I think at first I did it for selfish reasons. Now I do it so we can win, so we have the chance to make history."
Both of Ballard’s missions have been completed.
"I don’t like taking him out . . . when he’s sitting next to me, I’m worried," Dubin said. "He needs a break, but I never feel comfortable when he’s out of the game. He’s that important, he’s that valuable to our team and what we want to do defensively."
And Ballard wants to keep it that way.
Next year, if the Pioneers need a go-to scorer, Ballard would likely step up, much like he did when he scored 22 points in the Pioneers’ four-point victory over second-place Communications Tech during the regular season.
But he’ll accept that role only if he’s able to continue to serve as the man on defense.
"That’s now my role, and I’m not going to change that," Ballard said. "I love defense. I think I can do more on offense, yeah, but if that means changing everything, I’d rather keep it the way it is.
"But I can’t worry about next year. I’ll think about that later," he added. "We still have a lot left we want to accomplish this year. When that’s over, we’ll start to look toward next year." ••
Sports editor Joe Mason can be reached at 215-354-3035 or jmason@phillynews.com