Column: Hopatcong Basketball Star Takes Humble Road to 2,000 Points

Don't ask Matt Tobin about 2,000 points. Ask him about nuclear proliferation. Or Cambodia. Or Justin Bieber. Anything but 2,000 points.

It's not that he won't answer. He'll tell you the truth—he's "glad to be even associated" with the milestone. But the humble star would rather not talk about himself.

Tobin scored career point No. 2,000 in Hopatcong's 63-36 win over Boonton before a mostly filled home gym Monday night. He did it before classmates wearing white shirts with "2,000" emblazoned in green on the chest. He did it before his father, Dennis Tobin, the school's all-time scoring leader with 2,091 points and his siblings, Matt and Meghan, who each scored more than 1,000 for the Chiefs.

And he did it quietly, hardly reacting after stripping Bombers guard Danny Carey in the backcourt and banking a layup for the memorable bucket. And he didn't really want to talk about it when it was all over; after dropping a game-high 23 points; after a mid-game, midcourt ceremony during which he did the family-picture thing and held a green-and-white painted ball that will soon live in a trophy case near the gym's entrance.

Click here for the game story and 38 photos.

How did he feel after getting point No. 2,000 after a backcourt steal? "I had to get it somehow," said Matt Tobin, who's also chasing Chris Jent's career Sussex County points record of 2,287.

Did he have a way he wanted to score it? "Not really any certain way," he said.

What will mean more, scoring 2,000 points or breaking his father's all-time points record? "A win," he said.

The get-it-over-with responses wouldn't have surprised those close to him. Dennis Tobin told me after the ceremony, while watching his son drain another three-pointer, that the teenager could do without the attention. "He just likes being a good friend, a good teammate," Dennis Tobin said. "He likes to just focus on helping his team win games."

Though he's the team's—and the area's—greatest scoring threat, with a smooth jumper, length and college-level ballhandling skills, Matt Tobin doesn't always try taking games over. In fact, he took the opposite approach Monday, passing on the team's first three possessions before settling for a corner three-pointer, which he missed.

Mike Tobin attributed No. 15's slow start to jitters.

"He was still able to get things done," said Mike Tobin, a senior forward at Division II East Stroudsburg. "But you could tell he was a little nervous about it. Everything worked out well for him, though. So I'm happy for him."

Those jitters were apparent when Matt Tobin, who entered the game with 1,993 points, missed three straight foul shots while he was two points from the mark late in the first quarter. Dennis Tobin said his son told him "he choked" at the line while the two stood alone at halfcourt during the ceremony, but that preferred to get the points elsewhere, anyway.

After all, that's how his father did it. Dennis Tobin said he scored his 2,000th point on a near-halfcourt heave at the end of the second quarter of a game against Lenape Valley in 1978. Jim Tobin said jokingly the small gym—now Hopatcong's backup basketball facility—had "people hanging off the rafters" and that those without seats crowded the doorways. (Patch hasn't confirmed rumors that the game was also played in black and white.)

"I've been here for everything," said Jim Tobin, Hopatcong's head coach and Matt Tobin's uncle. "But this is just special. When somebody puts a lot of hard work into something, you have to congratulate them when they achieve it."

I knew Matt Tobin better than most reporters at Monday's game. I grew up in Hopatcong, played for Jim and Dennis, stood in the Chiefs' backcourt with Mike and watched Matt Allen Iverson me for a layup last summer in an outdoor men's league game. But there's a Matt Tobin moment I'll remember better than any—even better than Monday night.

I was 17 or 18 years old, working as a youth basketball referee for $20 a game during the summer. Matt must have been around 11. As I watched from the right sideline, Matt went left, then right at the top of the key, making a helpless defender collapse to his knees as Matt dropped in an easy layup. All I could think: Good thing that kid was wearing kneepads.

"He's always been a prolific scorer," Dennis Tobin said. "He's always been able to put the ball in the basket since he was 5 years old. I knew if he stayed healthy, and his role on the floor was able stay healthy, he'd have a chance…"

Dennis Tobin didn't finish the sentence, probably because he was watching his son shake off the nerves and start hitting shots on Boonton's box-and-one defense. But he meant he knew Matt Tobin would have a chance at 2,000. And he knew Matt would most likely snap his career points record next week.

But did Dennis Tobin plan on discussing it with his son?

"Probably not," he said. "I don't think he wants to talk about nay of this until the year is over. He really doesn't want any attention and he doesn't like talking about it."