Adrian Autry starred with Brian Reese in NYC. 4 decades later, they meet again.
Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry and Monmouth assistant coach Brian Reese played together during high school. Now, they'll reunite in SU's battle with the Hawks Tuesday. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor, Courtesy of Monmouth Athletics
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One thing stood out as Adrian “Red” Autry looked at a 13-year-old Brian Reese on the basketball courts at Riverside Church. It wasn’t his height. It wasn’t his athleticism. It was that Reese had small feet.
Autry asked what size shoe he wore. After Reese said 10, he remembers Autry responding, “10?”
Despite having feet the size of an undersized point guard, Reese, a forward, became Autry’s first teammate who could dunk. And when the high-flying rim-runner paired with Autry, an elite distributor, the two instantly clicked.
It was the birth of one of New York City’s most dominant basketball duos.
“Wherever Red played, I played,” Reese told The Daily Orange. “He was from Harlem. I was from the Bronx. But I played wherever he played.”
From then until they played collegiately at Syracuse and North Carolina, respectively, Autry and Reese starred for the historic Riverside Church AAU team. A few years later, they attended St. Nicholas of Tolentine High School (Bronx) together, where they won the 1988 Catholic High School Athletic Association championship as sophomores.
Four decades after meeting, Reese is now an assistant coach at Monmouth, and Autry is in his third year as his alma mater’s head coach. They’ll meet again as the Orange (3-0, Atlantic Coast) host the Hawks (1-2, Coastal Athletic Association) Tuesday.
It’ll be the first time Reese shares the sidelines with Autry since he took over as SU’s head coach in 2023. However, it’s far from the first time they’ve shared a court.
While first playing at Riverside Church, Reese remembers Autry pleading for him to travel with Riverside to Phoenix for a tournament. Their careers became intertwined from there, as they played up for Riverside’s 15U and 16U teams.
But at the start of their friendship, Reese didn’t know Autry’s first name. He only knew him as Red.
“I didn’t even know his name was Adrian until we started getting ranked and being in magazines when we were 14, 15 years old,” Reese said.
Adrian Autry assesses the court during Syracuse’s game against Delaware State. Autry has led the Orange to a 3-0 start in his third year as their head coach this season. Avery Magee | Asst. Photo Editor
Reese can only recall three times the duo lost when playing together for Riverside, adding there’s a fourth he can’t pinpoint. The losses occurred against an Alonzo Mourning and Milton Bell-led Virginia squad, a Memphis team highlighted by Penny Hardaway and the rival New York Gauchos (where Reese played before joining Riverside), who had Kenny Anderson.
Around when they began gaining notoriety, Autry and Reese won back-to-back Entertainer’s Basketball Classics at Rucker Park, a basketball mecca in Harlem. The Classic was founded in 1982 and has featured players like Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant and Kyrie Irving.
“Red, he was just a showman,” Reese said. “He could handle the ball at 6-foot-4, finish around the rim, he had a nice turnaround in the paint. He would back you down like Mark Jackson used to do, he would shoot right over you.”
Among all of Autry’s skills, though, Reese said his distribution was the best. Because Reese excelled around the rim, he felt the two perfectly complemented each other.
It prompted them to look at high schools together, though that wasn’t initially the plan. Originally, Reese said he was thinking about going to St. Raymond High School for Boys (Bronx), while Autry was considering Rice High School (Manhattan).
Knowing that Malik Sealy — a future St. John’s star and No. 14 NBA Draft pick — was already at St. Nicholas of Tolentine, Reese pitched going there to Autry.
“I was like, ‘Yo, we can win this, we all go together,’” Reese said. “And then he was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go together.’”
Reese recalled that he and Autry were already being recruited by “big schools” and earned invitations to ABCD Camp — a former prestigious annual high school basketball camp — as freshmen. A year later, when Sealy was a senior, they won St. Nicholas of Tolentine’s third CHSAA championship three years before the school closed in 1991.
While Reese said he and Autry thought about attending college together, he didn’t see an opening for playing time at Syracuse after Autry committed. He ultimately chose North Carolina, where he became a 1993 NCAA Champion. Autry, meanwhile, became one of the best players in SU history, helping it to three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Wherever Red played, I played. He was from Harlem. I was from the Bronx. But I played wherever he played.Brian Reese, Monmouth assistant coach
Despite going their separate ways for college, Autry and Reese reunited over the summers playing pick-up. Reese recalls that former New York Knicks forward Anthony Mason’s agent used to set up “big time pick-ups in the summer.” They enabled Reese and Autry to play and work out alongside the likes of Patrick Ewing, Kenny Smith and Mark Jackson, among others.
Following their collegiate careers, Autry and Reese didn’t play in the NBA. But they both had prolonged professional careers, primarily overseas, before getting into coaching.
Reese began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant at High Point in 2010, while Autry started the same year as an assistant at Virginia Tech. Growing up, Reese explained that he and Autry strived to become head coaches one day, which Reese did when he helmed Georgian Court during the 2015-16 season.
Remembering Autry coaching him on the floor as his teammate, Reese always knew he’d be a coach. Now, 40 years later, he’ll watch Autry command the Orange from the opposing bench in the JMA Wireless Dome.
“I’m so proud of him, I love it. I can’t wait,” Reese said of facing Autry. “He’s doing a great job up there. Of course, I want us to win, but I wish him the best. I’ll feel good in any kind of way as long as he has success.”
