Chichester’s Carlton Gordy III finds solace on the basketball court: ‘I have a lot of people to play for’

A storm always seemed to be swirling somewhere inside Carlton Gordy III. It was confusing, he said, how the violence he witnessed as a young child could manifest that way, how the smallest of things could send him into a brooding, quick-trigger rage.

He buried it for many years, and found solace on a basketball court. The cacophony of bouncing balls and squeaking sneakers had a way of easing that inner conflict he could not comprehend until recently.

The question “Why me?” used to plague the Chichester High guard, a 6-foot-3 senior who was an All-Del-Val League pick. He carries the talented bloodlines of his grandfather, Chester great Carlton “Silk” Gordy Sr. He never knew his father, Carlton Gordy Jr., another Chester hoops alum who played with Jameer Nelson.

He lost his father through an unforgivable act that Gordy has reached into his deep reservoir to forgive.

This year, Gordy finished his first varsity season as a starter with a team-high average of 15.4 points. He is getting recruiting looks from Cheyney and Neumann University.

He carries a 3.4 grade-point average and is an honor-roll student who is thinking about going to a junior college or a prep school for a year.

And in many ways, he also carries an amazing strength that goes beyond basketball.

Five years ago, Gordy, flanked by his two older sisters, Zanya and Zanirah, gathered around a kitchen table to hear a story no one would want to hear. It is a story that has haunted Gordy, even though he was 11 months old when it happened.

The narrator telling the tale for the first time was his mother, Shakea Hammond, who fatally stabbed Gordy’s father on Nov. 22, 2006, the day before Thanksgiving.

Carlton Jr. was sitting in a car with his twin brother, Chris, in Chester. As Carlton got out of the driver’s side, police said, he was confronted by Hammond and stabbed in the back of his left knee. He lost too much blood, police said, and died at the scene near the 330 block of Shedwick Street. Hammond was arrested the following day.

Gordy was raised by his paternal grandparents, Carlton Sr., and his grandmother, Chrisisy Swiggett.

Hammond was charged with third-degree murder and agreed to a plea bargain. She served a six-year sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy in Lycoming County and was released on June 13, 2013.

“I live with it every day, I killed the love of my life, Carlton was the love of my life and my intention was never to kill him,” Hammond said in a telephone interview. “We were fighting prior to me stabbing him. I just got off of work at UPS and we got into a fight. I always fought him with a knife, but I never stabbed him. He choked me and I passed out on the floor. When I woke up, I was upset. I called one of my friends, who got me. When I found him, we fought and I blacked out. I never knew I stabbed him, until he yelled I stabbed him.

“This never went to trial, because me being the type of person that I am, I never wanted my children to know what occurred. I took the plea deal. I was charged with third-degree murder openly because I never had any prior offenses. I’m currently on 10 years parole. I asked my children for forgiveness and I always ask them for their forgiveness.”

As Gordy grew older, his father’s absence left a blank space.

“I had an idea what happened to my father growing up, but I didn’t really find out everything until I was 13 when my mother told us,” Gordy said. “It was a lot to take in. Think about it: The person telling you they killed your father is your mother. She sat us down and she told us what happened. She made allegations about my father that I did not believe. My grandmother took us in at a young age. I was too young to know what happened.

“But the pieces would come to me here and there. My grandmother saved her. She testified on my mother’s behalf, because my grandmother knew my mother never really meant to do it. I feel really bad for my grandparents, because they lost their son. They lost a child. I was too young to know I lost my father. Some days I want to cry, still, because I never knew my father.

“I was robbed of my dad.”

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What compounded Gordy’s journey happened before this past season. His father’s twin, Chris, another former Chester star, was shot and killed on I-95 in Delaware on Oct. 7, 2023. The case is still under investigation.

Swiggett and Carlton Sr. hardly had time to grieve their sons. They had three children to raise.

They had great help from Chris, who moved back home with his parents to raise Carlton Jr.’s three children, who were ages 3, 2, and 11 months at the time. It was diapers, day care, potty training, learning-to-walk time.

When Gordy was age 6, he would ask his grandmother about his father. Swiggett would tell her grandson about the times his father would bounce him on his lap when he watched football and basketball games.

As Gordy got older, he simply had difficulty understanding why other children had their parents around in social settings and at school events, and he did not. His grandparents were omnipresent. Swiggett and Carlton Sr. did not miss any of Gordy’s basketball games over the last two years.

However, there was pressure brewing near the surface. Gordy could not understand why.

His grandparents knew.

“Carlton would just explode when he was young, like the Hulk, he would turn green and grow inches when he got angry,” Carlton Sr. recalled. “He was in middle school when he asked us why we were the ones always with him and not his parents. His peers had parents that knew the situation. It created a sort of stigma. He has recovered dramatically. My only concern with his blowups was that it did not lead to an incident that would ruin his life.

“We are proud of him. He is 18 and look at everything he has been through. His main goal is to one day play in the NBA, but as he gets older, he is starting to realize he is good enough to play in college. He has some growing up to do and [Chichester] coach [Clyde] Jones has been remarkable.

“Somewhere along the line, in junior high, the incidents cut down. His attitude changed. Everything changed.”

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Last October, when Swiggett and Carlton Sr. lost their second son, Gordy’s temper resurfaced.

“I know God has a plan and he can do no wrong, that’s what carried me,” said Swiggett, a 1977 Chester graduate. “I get asked all the time what keeps me standing. You are not supposed to outlive your children, and I have outlived two of my sons. I have raised my son’s three children.

“That keeps me going, how hard Chris’ recent death means to me, there is a purpose. That keeps me going. Carlton deserves a lot of credit, because when you think about it, his father and his mother were taken away just when he was learning how to walk. This year was tough at times. He pulled through it.”

Jones has an amazing track record. He turned around Harriton to win the District 1 Class 3A championship in 2003, then at Penn Wood, he led the team to District 1 Class 4A and PIAA state championships in 2009.

In 2022-23, Jones once again wove his magic in turning perennial doormat Chichester into the Del-Val League champion for the first time in 30 years. The Eagles finished with a school record in wins that season, going 21-5 overall and 7-1 in the Del-Val League. Chichester went 11-11 this year.

The team’s success required a healthy dose of diligence, patience, and exhaustive grinding. Then there are isolated, personal cases, cultivating and dealing with talented, in-need-of-direction players like Gordy.

“I didn’t know anything about his situation until last year,” Jones said. “He had a couple of blowups. I remember him one time just blurting it out, ‘My mom killed my dad.’ I was like, ‘What?’ I saw a lot of anger in there and his desire to be good would bring outbursts. We worked on emotion being great when it is controlled.”

Sometimes it was not controlled. Jones had to remove him from the gym a few times. Gordy is dealing with anger-control issues, which he has improved on.

“There are good things he can do with that energy,” Jones said. “There is plenty to work with. The kid is really bright. The good thing is our relationship grew where I was able to reach him.”

This past season, Hammond attended many of Gordy’s games. His basketball success, she said, was something she and Gordy’s father had envisioned for their son. She has two jobs, working as a home health aid and in a local barbershop.

“I want to be there for my daughters and my son again,” Hammond said. “My son will tell you, everything my children ask for, I try to be there for them as much as possible. I love my children with all my heart.”

Gordy is willing to forgive her.

“I lost my father, I lost my Uncle Chris, I do plan on playing [in college] nearby, because I have to protect my grandparents and my sisters,” Gordy said. “There is an anger there. I’ll admit it. I still need to control it. That starts with being able to forgive. I’ve forgiven my mom. She won’t live forever. Losing my dad and my uncle, I can’t change that.

“I keep thinking of that. It keeps me going. I have a lot of people to play for.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.