Father's Day: Lynn Greer and Lynn Greer II

CONSIDERING THE success he has enjoyed, it's hard to believe Lynn Greer II once was quite the reluctant basketball player.

Oh, he enjoyed playing mess-around games with buddies, and dashing onto the court for a few quick shots during breaks in the action at rec-league games involving his father, Lynn, but he wanted no part of organized hoops.

"Then, one Saturday morning, my dad asked me if I wanted to go to his practice," Lynn II said. "I said sure. So, we're driving along, and I'm looking out the window, and I'm thinking, 'Man, this doesn't look like the way we usually go to his practice.'

"He takes me to a middle school in Chester. Says he's signing me up for the Chester Biddy League. No way! We walked in that place - all the kids were in layup lines - and I went right up to the top row of the bleachers and sat down. I was scared. I was so shy. I did not think I could play.

"He talked to the coach, pointed at me, and told me to come down. I said, 'No! I'm not goin' down there!' He actually had to come up, grip me by my arm and drag me down to that court."

Three years later, with Dad as his coach, Lynn II played for a national Biddy championship.

"I think we got cheated, but I won't get into all that," Lynn cooed.

Will Lynn II?

"It was 12-and-under, but some of those kids had beards," he said, laughing.

Anyway . . . Lynn II became a star at Engineering and Science (1,991 points, Daily News City Player of the Year in 1997) and then at Temple (2,099 points, Big 5 MVP in 2002), and he has excelled since then in assorted overseas outposts (save a 41-game stint with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2006-07). He currently plays in Turkey and will do so for two more seasons.

Dad was no slouch. In high school, he performed well enough as the crucial sixth man for Thomas Edison's 1969 Public League and City Title champs to earn a scholarship to Virginia State. In '73, he was the Phoenix Suns' 11th-round pick in the NBA draft. He later played briefly in the old Eastern League and then was a force in assorted adult leagues. (LaMarr Greer, a product of Middle Township High, in deep South Jersey, and Florida State, stars these days in Israel. He's the son of Lynn's late brother, Vernon, a Murrell Dobbins Tech grad.)

In his current hoops role, after assisting on several levels (even elsewhere in the Pub), Lynn is looking forward to his second season as the head coach at William Bodine. In his regular job, he's a county manager for PennDOT.

As you can imagine, it's not easy for a father and son, especially a pair so immersed in the same sport, to be so far apart during the season. Dad does take an annual trip overseas, though, and times it so he can catch three to four games, even five.

So, did Lynn force Junior into basketball kickin' and screamin'?

"I always left it up to him whether he wanted to come with me to games," Dad said. "He always did. At an early age, I could tell he could be good. Just the way he ran around the court. The way he shot the ball. He just had to get past that shyness."

Through the eighth grade, Lynn II attended The Christian Academy, in Brookhaven. In part because the tuition was becoming steeper, and also wanting his son to face better competition, Lynn yanked him out and enrolled him at E&S.

"It was definitely a different environment for him," Dad said. "He didn't want to be there, plus he was acting like he didn't know anything about basketball. That pissed me off. I had to get in his [world] a little. Finally he got used to everything and started playing well."

Said Lynn II: "I was crying. I still wanted to be in Brookhaven with my same friends. It took me a while [to become comfortable] at E&S."

Obviously, Dad knew best all along. And his expertise extended way beyond hoops.

"He has been everything to me," Lynn II said. "He has always led by example. Even just seeing the way he treated my mother [Alma], well, that helped me become the man I am today."