For Dalembert, Sixers, a moment of silence

AS A CHILD, Samuel Dalembert envisioned stuffing himself into a suitcase and getting loaded onto a plane to escape his poverty-stricken country of Haiti.

After Dalembert got word Tuesday night that his native country, particularly the capital of Port-Au-Prince, where he lived the first 14 years of his life, had been leveled by a magnitude-7 earthquake, Dalembert would have given anything to go back.

Yesterday morning at the team's morning shootaround, the Sixers' 6-foot-11 center wore on his face all the emotions the catastrophic event had brought out in him.

Dalembert had been in touch with his father, a government worker in Haiti.

"My dad kind of sent one e-mail before everything went down and said the house is kind of cracked, but he was OK, everybody was OK," Dalembert said. "I tried to contact other family members that I spent most of my life with, grew up with. I didn't get any answer so far. We won't know anything until everything is stabilized."

The Sixers observed a moment of silence before last night's game against the Knicks.

Dalembert said he had a brother, sister and extended family members in Haiti at the time of the earthquake.

Tuesday's devastation came in the wake of the country's attempts to recover from three hurricanes and a tropical storm that struck in 2008. Dalembert saw that devastation during a visit last August.

"To see things like this happen over and over, after the hurricanes just struck us, we didn't get time to bounce back from that," he said. "And now an earthquake coming right back, it feels like it's almost a curse.

"When I was young, I used to want to fit into a suitcase and get out," he said.

"But I was too big. Everyone would tease me about that."

Dalembert has come a long way since those days, making millions of dollars in the world's best basketball league. He has not forgotten where his sunny personality was rooted, and insists he never will.

"A huge part of me will always love the country, love the people in it," he said. "We're strong people, we deal with stuff. No matter what's going on, we always find a way to stay happy. We joke about situations when most people wouldn't make a joke. That's why people say, 'Why is Sam always smiling?' When you come from where I come from and where you are right now, every day is a blessing. You never know. I don't have to deal with finding food. I don't have to deal with looking in my freezer and not finding food."

Now Dalembert wants to lend a hand to the millions of people in his devastated country who will be doing just that.

"I'll do everything in my power, donate as much money as possible and try to help out there," he said. "I encourage everybody to go out and give to help feed all those mouths. It's frustrating that I can't do more. I feel like I'm in a cage." *