When we were kings

All these years later and so much about them remains the same.

Jasper McElroy is still a dude. Back in his time in Ireland he broke all kinds of scoring records and quite a few hearts and though he’s now 51 with a few flecks of grey that make him sometimes seem a ringer for Sonny Liston, he still looks like he could drop 30 on any team in the league, breeze into any nightclub in Cork and assume his position as the beacon of female attention.

Terry Strickland is still his chilled, dignified self too. The hairline has receded a bit and the midriff is a fraction wider than that of the fabulous athlete this country came to know and love all those years ago, but along with his old friend and rival Jasper, he’s the sharpest-dressed man in Charlotte tonight as the pair of them reunite for a television documentary being made by Motive TV about a time in Irish basketball and Irish life when they were gods.