Matthews proclaims Bridgeport is a gem that should wear a crown

By Scott Benjamin

NORWALK - - Beleaguered Bridgeport – which is Connecticut’s largest city and the fifth most populous in New England – once had high-powered factories making bullets, steel, brass and consumer goods.

“Everybody was here – General Electric, Remington Arms,” says native Wes Matthews, who made himself a name near Hollywood – where Magic threw the party, Kareem threw the sky hook and the Coach Riley wore Armani suits.

“I think we need that back,” Matthews said of the manufacturing in Bridgeport. “We need more businesses. The city of Bridgeport is a gem. You could bring in more information technology and hotels. We’ve got the colleges – Sacred Heart is just over the border, and then you have the University of Bridgeport and Housatonic Community College. We’ve got a waterway and transit. The parks and the beaches, Harbor Yards, and if they opened the airport at Sikorsky [in nearby Stratford] for commercial service that would open up more development.”

Matthews, 60, played for nearly a decade in the NBA and is now a coach at The Factory, a sports academy in Norwalk. He recently coached the girls’ basketball team at Greenwich Academy. His goal is to become a college coach or an NBA scout.

One recent news report stated, “Bridgeport, with its dilapidated factories and graffiti-scarred public housing projects, is a world away” from the affluent municipalities in Fairfield County’s Gold Coast.

Yet, its property tax rate, according to a 2017 study, was the second highest of an American city, after Detroit.

“Why are we overtaxing people?” Matthews says in his fast-paced voice. “Why are we overpricing things?”

State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury who has served under six governors has told Patch.com that the only tax that the General Assembly hasn’t reformed in the last 30 years is the property tax. When former state Comptroller Bill Curry was making his second run for governor in 2002 you thought if you asked him who was better – that Lakers or the Celtics -his answer would have been, “Property tax reform.”

Since then Curry has told Patch.com that the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and the labor unions – groups who seldom agree – have both endorsed the concept of property tax reform, but have expended little political capital to make it happen.

“There’s a reason why people are leaving Connecticut,” Matthews said. “Our taxes are higher than Beverly Hills. There are $10 million, $15 million, $20 million houses in Greenwich that are paying less taxes than people in Bridgeport. What’s wrong with this picture?”

“We’re a valuable piece of land – Connecticut,” he continued. ““You can get to Massachusetts in an hour and to New York City in 30 to 40 minutes. But people are leaving because of taxes.”

“But everybody has their hand out for something instead of doing what’s right for the people,” Matthews said in an interview. “There’s a disconnection between the politicians and the people.”

The Park City is where P.T. Barnum lived, where John Ratzenberger grew up before he occupied Cliff Clavin’s bar stool on “Cheers,” and where a local band called Steam had a number-one record in 1969 that became a game-ending anthem: Nah, nah, nah, nah . . . Nah, nah, nah, nah. . . Hey, hey, hey . . . Goodbye.”

The Park City once had the King of Nanny Goat Park.

Walter (Put It In The Bucket) Luckett of Kolbe-Cathedral set a New England scoring record of 2,691 points, which still is standing 48 years later – made the cover of the Sports Illustrated college basketball preview issue and was a second-round National Basketball Association draft choice.

Matthews, who was in middle school when Luckett was attracting Bobby Knight and Dean Smith to the Park City, noted that like a lot of the star Bridgeport hoopsters of that era, the King of Nanny Goat Park also played football and baseball.

“We were sports kids,” he exclaimed “We loved the outdoors.”

Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport went to three state finals, prevailing in one of them, while Matthews was becoming a fourth team Parade high school All-American. He was most valuable player at the prestigious Dapper Dan classic.

He has been named to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s All-Century basketball team – with the likes of Calvin Murphy and Scott Burrell - and should someday receive a Gold Key from the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance.

Matthews played at Warren Harding with John Bagley, who went on to Boston College and the NBA, and Mike McKay, who went to UConn. Shortly after they left came Charles Smith, who went to Pitt and played in the NBA finals with the Knicks.

CT Hearst has reported that Charles Bentley, who was an assistant coach at Harding during Matthews’ career and became the head coach the season after he graduated, coached the Presidents to nine state championships, the second highest number of any boys’ basketball coach in Connecticut history.

“We still have some heritage,” said Matthews.

For example Quincy McKnight, who grew up in Bridgeport and played at St. Joseph of Trumbull, just completed his career at Seton Hall.

But Matthews says times have changed.

“Once the school system started going down, we started losing kids to the streets and violence,” he said. “We want to get that heritage fully back.”

Matthews declared that pay for play fees have hurt Bridgeport athletics.

“The pay to play issues in Connecticut sports really brought on a sense of divide in my opinion,” he said. “The have and have nots. Inner city kids and families couldn't afford to pay, where suburban kids could. That made the playing field unfair, a lot of schools lost programs, lost good players to other schools or private schools, a total mess.”

“I never experienced it while I was in school,” Matthews remarked. “Schools and sports was my saving grace, once politics and funding got involved it changed everything in Connecticut sports. Yes things cost, but it's allocated in advance, which shouldn't cost a parent anything out of pocket. That's was the start of the demise.”

After graduating from Harding he went to the University of Wisconsin, which initially was “a culture shock.” However it is in the Big 10, which was then the best basketball conference in the country.

Michigan State won a national title with Magic Johnson. There was Mike Woodson at Indiana, Kevin McHale at Minnesota, Clark Kellogg at Ohio State, Ronnie Lester at Iowa and Joe Barry Carroll at Purdue.

“It was like an NBA schedule,” said Matthews.

This was about a decade before Jim Calhoun and the University of Connecticut ascendance, but did you consider going to Storrs?

He said Dee Rowe, who was in his last year as head coach at UConn, came to Harding to recruit him.

Matthews had played in the summer Pearl Street League in Waterbury with Tony Hanson, the former Holy Cross-Waterbury High School standout, who helped lead UConn to the NCAA tourney in 1976 and left in 1977 as the school’s all-time scorer, a record that Kolbe-Cathedral-Bridgeport’s Chris Smith would eclipse 15 years later.

“But I wanted to get away,” Matthews said.

Through the late 1970s, UConn attracted some top homegrown talent – Corny Thompson from Middletown High School, Bobby Dulin from Foran-Milford, Chuck Aleksinas from Morris-Wamogo and McKay from Warren Harding.

During that same era, Mike Gminski of Masuk-Monroe went to Duke and Sly Williams of Lee-New Haven played at the University of Rhode Island.

“If we had all stayed home, we would have been a powerhouse,” said Matthews with a smile.

After leaving Wisconsin following his junior year, he played for six NBA teams – Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Antonio and the Lakers.

Best-selling author Jeff Pearlman – who in 2014 wrote Showtime (496 pages, Avery Press), the authoritative book on the Lakers of 1979-1991 – has said Matthews, a reserve guard on the 1987 and 1988 championship teams, was probably his best interview subject.

“He was just this feisty, fast-talking, smart, endearing guy who still probably thinks he could drop 40 on the Knicks,” Pearlman stated to Z Smart’s Sports Blog.

Lebron said last year that the discussion of Greatest Of All Time was between him and Michael.

Matthews differs.

“No doubt the greatest was Kareem,” he declared.

“I respect Michael,” Matthews said. “I played with Michael during his rookie season, but it’s not even close.”

“Kareem never made a three-pointer and he’s still tops al-time in scoring,” he explained. “He was instant offense. He made his sky hook 60 percent of the time.”

Jabbar became the NBA’s all-time scorer in 1984 and has held that distinction ever since.

“He’s fourth in rebounds and third in blocked shots all-time,” Matthews added.

“He did martial arts and took care of his body,” he said. “He was a durable guy. He logged a lot of minutes.”

He said when he met Magic at a 1977 high school All-American game, he thought, “How can someone 6-8 handle the ball so well?”

Said Matthews, “He revolutionized the game.”

But today what might be most notable is Magic’s business portfolio, which has included movie theaters, Starbucks outlets and an interest in the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“He understands his market and value and what he attracts,” Matthews said. “You’re rubbing elbows with an icon.”

Matthews admires Pat Riley, who coached the Lakers to four championships and is the only person to be an NBA champion as a player, assistant coach, coach and executive.

“He is very good at understanding people,” he said of Riley, who lived in Greenwich in the early 1990s while he coached the Knicks.

Matthews still speaks with pride about riding the championship floats. He said he keeps his two NBA Championship rings in a safe.

His son, Wesley Matthews Jr. – a guard-forward - has played for six NBA teams, and is currently with the Milwaukee Bucks, who at 53-12 are atop the Eastern Conference standings and have the best record in the league as the suspended season is about to resume in late July.

Said Matthews, “He’s had some good coaches,” including the late NBA Hall of Famer Jerry Sloan during the start of his career in Utah.

The son is 33 years old – more than four years older than the father was when he won his second NBA crown with the Showtime Lakers.

The father said, “I hope he gets a ring.”